Thanksgiving Day Turkey

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  I trust you all had a blessed time with family and friends and had an abundance of great food.  For the first time ever, I hosted Thanksgiving at my house!  My family and I weren't able to travel to Ohio to be with our families this year, so we had some friends over and ate...and ate...and ate...and are still eating.  Here is a recipe for a FABULOUS turkey.  There are many secrets all rolled into one BIG secret for this turkey to come out *perfectly*.  And it's NOT hard.  Enjoy!

What you will need:

1 turkey roaster oven (Not a traditional oven...a roaster oven.  It's kind of like a huge crock pot.)

1 18lb.-22lb. turkey

4-6 medium onions, peeled and quartered

1/2 stick real butter, softened

kosher salt

dried sage

dried rosemary

dried thyme

 

Let's get started!  Make sure your kitchen sink is nice and clean.  Remove the thawed turkey from it's packaging and place it in the sink.  Reach inside the turkey and remove all of the giblets.  If you plan on using the giblets, place them in a bowl and set aside until you're ready to cook them or make gravy from them.  

Next, rinse the turkey inside and out.  Pat dry with paper towels.

Now, the fun part!

I like to have 2 people for this process.  One person to hold the turkey and get their hands all gunky and another person to hand things to me without gunky hands.  Have someone get a bowl of kosher salt for you and place a handful size amount in the palm of your hand (about a quarter of a cup).  Take the handful of salt and rub it all over the INSIDE of the turkey.  Make sure no spot is left unsalted.  Use more than 1/4 cup if needed.  

Next, have someone give you the 1/2 stick of butter and smear the butter all over the OUTSIDE of the turkey.  Massage it into the skin nice and evenly.

After the turkey has been buttered, take the onions that have been quartered and stuff them all inside the turkey.  Remember how I said there are lots of little secrets?  This is one of them.  Onions are packed full of moisture, aromatics, and flavor.  By stuffing the inside cavity FULL of quartered onions, you are creating incredible flavor that will permeate the meat while it cooks all while moisturizing it from the inside out.  Your turkey will be SO moist and juicy by adding the onions!  Once that's done, it's time for the herbs.  Generously sprinkle the sage, rosemary, and thyme all over the outside of the turkey.  You don't need a ton of it...just enough to get a nice flavor.

Once your turkey has been rinsed, salted, buttered, stuffed with onions, and sprinkled with herbs, transfer it from the sink to the roaster oven insert that has been lined with a rack.  (If your roaster oven didn't come with a rack, a cooling rack should work just fine.)  Set the insert into the roaster oven and set the temperature to 325 degrees.  Allow it to roast for 4 1/2 - 5 hours or until a meat thermometer reads 165 degrees when inserted into the thickest part of the turkey.  (The roaster oven is another secret!  Just make sure there's NO PEEKING until at least the 4 1/2 hour mark.)  When you've reached 165 degrees, turn the roaster oven off and allow the turkey to sit for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes, remove the turkey from the roaster oven and transfer to a large cutting board.  Carve the turkey to your liking and serve the meat slices on a platter.  Reserve the cooking liquid for gravy.