Best 4 Moms Holiday Turkey Recipes

EASY ROASTED THANKSGIVING TURKEY

Steps:

• Pat the turkey dry with paper towels. Rub 3 tablespoons of the butter all over the bird, legs, thighs, breasts, everywhere. Rub the salt over the bird evenly. Place the turkey into a large plastic bag, preferably a sealable one, press out the air, and seal it tight. Place the turkey in a roasting pan, breast side up in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days. Turn the turkey at least once a day, and rub the salt into the bird through the plastic bag
• After 2 to 3 days, and 1 day before Thanksgiving, remove the bird from the fridge and take it out of the plastic bag. Do not rinse the bird, but pat it dry with paper towels. Place the turkey in a rack in the roasting pan, and refrigerate uncovered, for another 24 hours.
• Remove the turkey from the fridge 1 hour before cooking to allow it to come to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Place a rack in the lower third of the oven, and make sure you raise or remove the upper racks so the turkey can fit with room to spare on top.
• Place the orange sections, onions halves, and rosemary and thyme sprigs into the cavity of the bird. Tuck the wings behind the back of the bird and place it in a rack in a roasting pan breast side up. Tie the legs closed (some birds have a little plastic gadget that holds the legs together, thus closing up the cavity).
• Rub the remaining three tablespoons softened butter all over the turkey, covering all of the skin. Season generously with the pepper. Make sure the turkey is breast side up in the rack in the roasting pan, and place the pan into the oven.
• Pour the wine and chicken broth into the pan around the turkey. Place the pan in the oven. After one hour, baste the bird with the juices from the bottom of the pan. Start checking after 2 hours with an internal thermometer, sticking it into the deepest part of the thigh, and making sure that it does not touch bone. The temperature should be 160°F. If, as the turkey is cooking the top starts to get too browned, just tent a large piece of tin foil over the top of the bird.
• When the turkey is finished cooking, remove it to a cutting board with a moat, tipping any juices that have accumulated in the turkey back into the roasting pan. Let the turkey sit, tented with foil, for at least 20 minutes.
• While the turkey is resting, pour all of the liquid from the roasting pan into a large measuring cup. Put it into the fridge and when the fat has risen to the top, use a spoon to scrape off the fat and discard. You also can use a fat separator for this purpose. Click here for how to make gravy, or just drizzle the pan juices over the turkey meat.
• Carve the turkey and serve.

MOM'S HOLIDAY TURKEY

Steps:

• To make the marinade for the turkey: Place the onion, garlic, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce in a food processor and puree until completely blended. Put the turkey in a roasting pan fitted with a rack. Rub the outside of the turkey all over with the mustard mixture. Cover the turkey with plastic wrap to keep in the moisture. Refrigerate the turkey overnight or up to 24 hours.
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• Remove the turkey from the refrigerator and discard the plastic wrap and place in a roasting pan. Tuck the turkey wings beneath the breast and tie the base of the legs together with butcher's twine. Using a pastry brush or bulb baster, baste the turkey with some of the malt. Transfer the turkey to the oven and roast, uncovered, for 3 hours, basting every 30 minutes with the malt. If the turkey breast starts to look like it's getting too dark, cover it with aluminum foil.
• Cook until the juices run clear and the turkey's internal temperature is 160 degrees F in the breast and the leg registers 175 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer.
• Remove the turkey from the oven and cover it loosely with foil. Let the turkey rest for 30 minutes before carving and serving with the stuffing and cranberry passion fruit sauce on the side.

MOM'S PERFECT ROAST TURKEY

Steps:

• Defrost turkey, if necessary.
• Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.
• Open turkey package, (try this in a clean sink) removing turkey giblets and other interior cavity elements along with thermometer. Unless you want to make gravy or cook these elements, throw them away, noting the exact poundage of the bird (cut off the label with this on it if necessary and reserve for time calculations later). Leave the skin on the turkey for roasting.
• Wash (rinse) turkey inside and out, making sure that any stray feathers are removed.
• Place turkey breast-side down in a foil-lined rectangular cake pan (depending upon size of bird, use a 9x13 pan) or foil-lined roasting pan. Also take into consideration that some juices and fat will melt during roasting time and may fill up the pan a bit around the turkey unless put on a roasting rack in the pan. (No one likes to clean up turkey mess, but if you're out of foil, spray pan with cooking spray to have easier cleanup later. I prefer to use a disposable foil pan so that I can discard entire mess after Thanksgiving is over.).
• Place turkey with pan into oven, about in the middle (enough space needed for bird to fit), and not so close to heating element that anything burns.
• Do not change oven temperature. Cook for fifteen minutes per pound. (Example: 20.2 pound bird would be: 20.2x15=303 minutes. 303/60=5.05, so you would need to cook the bird for five hours, and one to three minutes.).
• Take out of oven, and let rest for at least 15-30 minutes. The juices will need to settle back into the bird. If you cut it immediately, you will have a dry bird. Basting is only required when you overcook the meat (aka meat thermometer), or if you want a particular flavor to the turkey (basting with stock, juice of some sort, butter mixture, BBQ sauce, etc.) Turkey, when done well, may be nice with seasonings, but has a great flavor on its own. If you left in the meat thermometer, you should not see it pop out. The bird is still safe to eat and YUMMY!

MOM’S ROAST TURKEY RECIPEMOM’S ROAST TURKEY RECIPE

Steps:

• 1 To start, if the turkey has been refrigerated, bring it to room temperature before cooking. Keep it in its plastic wrapping until you are ready to cook it. While in the refrigerator, and or while you are bringing it to room temp, have the bird resting in a pan, so that if the plastic covering leaks for any reason, you are confining the juices to the pan. If you get a frozen turkey, you will need to defrost it. Remove the neck and giblets (heart, gizzard, liver). Use the heart and gizzard for making stock for the stuffing. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Wash out the turkey with water. Pull out any remaining feather stubs in the turkey skin. Pat the turkey dry with paper towels. Lather the inside of the cavity with the juice of half a lemon. Take a small handful of salt and rub all over the inside of the turkey. For flavor, put in inside the turkey a half a yellow onion, peeled and quartered, a bunch of parsley, a couple of carrots, and some tops and bottoms of celery. You may need to cap the body cavity with some aluminum foil so that the stuffing doesn't easily fall out. Close up the turkey cavity The neck cavity can be stuffed with parsley and tied closed with thin skewers and string. Rub either melted butter or olive oil all over the outside of the turkey. Sprinkle salt generously all over the outside of the turkey Place turkey BREAST DOWN on the bottom of a rack over a sturdy roasting pan big enough to catch all the drippings. This is the main difference between the way mom makes turkey and everyone else. Add several sprigs of fresh (if possible) thyme and rosemary to the outside of the turkey. 8 Put the turkey in the oven. With the turkeys mom gets, she recommends cooking time of about 15 minutes for every pound. start the cooking at 400 F for the first 1/2 hour. Then reduce the heat to 350 F for the next 2 hours. Then reduce the heat further to 225 F for the next hour to hour and a half. out at thigh is 170°F, breast 160°F, stand 15 min.