Thanksgiving Turkey

Hey Y'all!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Mine was very nice. We had a small group of family and friends over and spent the day watching the parade, football and eating until we were as stuffed as the turkey.

This is the third year that I have made the turkey. The first year my mom held my hand and helped the whole time, the second year she still helped quite a bit, but this year it was all mine! The recipe I used was a mix of several recipes and tips my mom has shown me.

Thanksgiving Roasted Turkey:

Ingredients:

Turkey (I used a 19 pounder, which was way more than we needed, normally do about 1 pound per person)

1 stick of butter

Half a cup of Basil infused Olive Oil (You could also just used Olive Oil with Fresh Basil)

*Fresh Thyme

*Fresh Basil

*Fresh Sage

*Fresh Rosemary

1 Orange

1 Lemon

1 Large Onion

1 Celery Stick

Handful of Baby Carrots

Garlic Clove

1 Chicken Bouillon Cube
Water

*If you are unable to find fresh spices, you can use the jar ones.

1. Defrost the turkey according to package -  I took mine out on Sunday.

2. Preheat oven to 450 degrees

3. Rinse off turkey and take out the neck, heart, liver, etc. (Normally they are in a bag inside of the turkey)

4. Set turkey in roasting pan, use a small rack under turkey so that it will cook all the way around

5. Melt Butter

6. Add Oil Olive to Butter

7. Rinse off vegetables

8. Cut Onion into 4ths and place 1/4 in turkey

9. Cut Orange in half, peel Rhine off of one half and place Rhine in turkey

-Squeeze juice from half of the peeled Orange into Butter/Oil Mixture

10. Cut Lemon in half and squeeze the juice from 1/2 of the Lemon into Butter/Oil Mixture
11. Cut 1 Celery Stick into about 4 or 5 pieces, place in turkey
12. Place handful of Baby Carrots in turkey
13. Take 4 pieces of garlic from the clove and peel them, then place inside turkey
14. Pour the Butter/Oil/Citrus Mixture over turkey. This part might get messy! Rub the mixture all over the turkey - breast, wings, legs and sides
15. Rinse off fresh spices and place a stick of each inside turkey, also place a few around the turkey(Or sprinkle healthy amount of powder spices over turkey)
16. Pour about 1 - 3 cups of water around the turkey (just have about a inch of water around turkey)
17. Place 1 Chicken Bouillon Cube in the water
18. Reduce over Temperature to 350 degrees
19. Place turkey in oven with lid/foil over it (Turkeys need to cook about 13 minutes per pound, So my turkey took 4.25 hours)
20. Baste Turkey ever 45 minutes with juices in the pan

When Turkey is done, take out and let it rest! It is super hot and will continue to cook a little.

I used to watch a lot of cooking channel shows, so that is how I learned to carve a turkey - here is a video I found that demonstrates how I cut it.

I know tradition is that the man of the house carves the turkey, but I am a little picky over how it is done, so I typically just do it. But the choice is up to you!

Once you have all the meat of the platter (or if you leave the bird whole and carve it at the table) place the extra half of the orange, lemon, onion pieces, a few sprigs of fresh spices and a few carrots on the platter for some decoration around the meat.

And that's it!

I have tons of left over turkey and I will be putting up some other recipes of how to use the leftovers soon!

xo
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