Roast Turkey
With the Holidays approaching, you may be fretting over how to cook a traditional roast turkey. Don’t worry, Dinner’s Late has your back!
The a whole roast turkey can be a daunting dish to tackle. It is large and takes a long time to cook, but with planning and patience you have nothing to fear. Roasting a whole bird is a very passive cook and following this recipe will have you looking like a Holiday Hero while taking it easy.
White vs. Dark Meat
The biggest difference between light and dark meat is which part of the turkey the meat is coming from. Dark meat contains more myoglobin, which is a protein in the muscle tissue that helps carry oxygen. In poultry, the dark meat coms from the legs (drumstick) and thighs. White meat comes from the breasts, breast tenders, and wings.
Roast Turkey Timing
This will be the most time consuming and nerve wracking part of planning your holiday meal. There are two things to consider, defrosting and cook times. There is nothing worse than finding your bird still frozen or explaining to guests that dinner’s late because your bird is not up to temperature yet. Despite this websites title, some simple planning will have everything running on time.
Defrosting
When defrosting, it is important to do it safely. If you are working with a frozen bird, this may take a few days. Three days prior to cooking, I like to move a 12 lb frozen bird to the refrigerator and let it defrost without getting above 40 degree.
Roasting
When roasting, it is safe to plan a half hour for prep work and about 15 minutes of roasting time for each pound of bird. Once the bird is in the oven and roasting, I like to check the temperature every half hour just before basting the bird. Most turkeys come with a small red thermometer sunk into the breast of the bird. I usually leave mine in, but I do not trust it. I take all my temperature readings with a digital thermometer. It is important to get your bird to 165 degrees to avoid making people sick, so if you get a late start it is much better to just have dinner late.
Roast Turkey Pro Tips:
- Dark meat is much more forgiving when cooking. It is much easier to keep the dark meat tender and moist as you roast a bird and it does better in higher temperatures. Because of this, you should place your bird with the dark meat in the back of the oven, where your oven is hottest, to avoid applying too much heat to the white meat sections of the bird. The dark meat will reach a higher temperature before the white meat reaches 165 degrees this way, but the dark meat should not dry out.
- When planning your get together, plan on one pound of uncooked turkey per person. A 12 pound turkey served with sides should be enough meat for 12 people.
Roast Turkey
Equipment
- 1 Roasting pan with rack Large enough to hold Turkey
- 1 Baster
- Aluminum Foil
Ingredients
- 12 lb Whole Turkey Defrosted if Frozen
- 2 sticks Butter
- ½ tsp Parsley
- ½ tsp Sage
- ½ tsp Rosemary
- ½ tsp Thyme
- 2 Apples quartered
- 2 Carrots quartered
- 2 Onions quartered
Instructions
- Safely Defrost Turkey
- Preheat oven to 450 °F. Place turkey on a rack in the large roasting pan, breast side up. Remove giblets from neck and clear out body cavity
- Melt butter in a small bowl and incorporate spices. Using a pastry brush, apply the butter mixture to the entire bird (inside and out).
- Lightly stuff the body cavity with apples, carrots, and onions
- Fit a triangular piece of alluminum foil to the white meat section of the turkey. Remove the foil while retaining the shape of the tent and save.
- Place turkey in oven with the dark meat portions (legs) in the back of the oven. Angle the roasting pan if the turkey can not fit straight. Roast for 30 min at 450 °F
- After 30 minutes, reduce heat to 350 and baste the bird with drippings. place aluminum foil tent over white meat. If the roasting pan is angled in the oven while roasting, rotate the pan so the other leg is closest to the back of the oven.
- Baste bird with drippings from the pan every 30 min. Rotate if needed. )Don't forget to baste under the aluminum foil tent). Monitor Temperature with meat thermometer.Repeat this step until the thermometer reads 165 in the deepest part of the breast.
- Once the turkey has reached an internal temperature of 165 °F, remove the turkey from the oven and let rest for at least 20 minutes. Carve and serve.