Roasting a Turkey

The traditional manner of cooking a turkey for the holidays is to shove it into the oven and slowly suck every last drop of moisture out of the breast while minimizing the amount of consumable meat available on the dinner table. Let’s not forget that the inner cavity has been shoved full of stuffing that makes certain that one of the family members will find the remaining salmonella for that not so fresh holiday feeling.

Well, I’m here to tell you that while you can still cook the turkey in the oven, there is a better way.

There are a couple of things that one needs to do in order to ensure a jolly good holiday turkey. The first is to brine said bird with my aforementioned turkey brine. The second involves the use of one of man’s greatest inventions, something that ranks right up there with duct tape, aluminum foil. This is a secret I learned from watching Alton Brown’s show Good Eats on the Food Network and has not failed me since I began using it. Follow the above link for a video to see exactly how the mighty foil is employed.

Roast Turkey

14 – 16 lbs turkey, brined
2 sprigs of sage
4 sprigs of rosemary
2 sprigs of thyme
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 lemon, quartered

olive oil
kitchen twine
aluminum foil

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Take a large piece of aluminum foil and fold it into a triangle like you were making a paper hat. This triangle needs to be large enough to fit over the breast of the turkey. Lightly oil one side of the aluminum foil and place the foil on the breast of the turkey, oil side down. Shape it to the turkey breast and remove. Save this foil shape for later.

Fold the sprigs of sage, rosemary and thyme into stuff into the cavity of the bird. Add the crushed garlic into there as well. Squeeze the lemon juice into the cavity and then shove the rinds into there as well. Truss the turkey with the kitchen twine to close up the cavity.

Place the turkey the roasting pan breast side up and slide into the oven for 30 minutes. This is to crisp up and brown the skin of the turkey. Reduce the heat in the oven to 350 degrees and place your foil cap over the breast of the turkey. Return the turkey to the oven for another 2 to 2½ hours. The only way to reliably tell when a turkey is cooked is to probe it with a thermometer. It should be 161 degrees in the breast.