Best 4 One Hour Whole Turkey Recipes

OVERNIGHT HIGH-HEAT TURKEY

Steps:

• About an hour before you go to bed, preheat oven to 500 degrees.
• Wash turkey thoroughly and empty the neck and carcass cavities.
• Do NOT stuff the bird (that's not negotiable).
• Rub outside of turkey with olive oil.
• Place bird in roaster and pour water over.
• Cover with a tight-fitting lid and bake at 500 for one hour.
• DO NOT TAKE LID OFF AT ANY TIME!
• After one hour, turn down oven to its lowest setting (without actually turning it off).
• Leave bird in oven, lid on and go to bed.
• Wake up to a bird that is tender, juicy, brown and ready.

NO-BASTE, NO-BOTHER ROASTED TURKEY

Steps:

• Adjust the oven racks so the covered roasting pan fit easily inside. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.
• Rub the butter on the outside and in the cavity of the turkey. Sprinkle the salt and pepper on the inside and the outside of the turkey. Put the celery, onion and carrot in the cavity. Place the turkey, breast-side up, in a large roasting pan. Pour the boiling water into the pan. Cover with a tight-fitting lid and put the pan in the oven.
• Start a timer when the oven temperature returns to 500 degrees F. Bake for exactly 1 hour and turn off the oven. Do not open the oven door! Leave the turkey in the oven until the oven completely cools; this may take 4 to 6 hours. Reserve the pan juices and refrigerate the turkey if it will not be served soon after roasting.

SIMPLE ROAST TURKEY

Steps:

• Remove any giblets from the cavity and reserve for stock or gravy. Pat turkey and turkey neck dry with paper towel; rub turkey all over with 1/2 teaspoon salt per pound of turkey, the pepper and the lemon zest, including the neck. Transfer to a 2-gallon (or larger) resealable plastic bag. Tuck herbs and 6 garlic cloves inside bag. Seal and refrigerate on a small rimmed baking sheet (or wrapped in another bag) for at least 1 day and up to 3 days, turning the bird over every day (or after 12 hours if brining for only 1 day).
• Remove turkey from bag and pat dry with paper towels. Place turkey, uncovered, back on the baking sheet. Return to the refrigerator for at least 4 hours and up to 12 hours to dry out the skin (this helps crisp it).
• When you are ready to cook the turkey, remove it from the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature for one hour.
• Heat oven to 450 degrees. In the bottom of a large roasting pan, add the cider and enough wine to fill the pan to a 1/4-inch depth. Add half the onions, the remaining 6 garlic cloves and the bay leaves. Stuff the remaining onion quarters and the lemon quarters into the turkey cavity. Brush the turkey skin generously with oil or melted butter.
• Place turkey, breast side up, on a roasting rack set inside the roasting pan. Transfer pan to the oven and roast 30 minutes. Cover breast with aluminum foil. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue roasting until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of a thigh reaches a temperature of 165 degrees, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours more. Transfer turkey to a cutting board to rest for 30 minutes before carving.

PERFECT TURKEY EVERY SINGLE TIME

Steps:

• 1. To Brine or Not To Brine - If you prefer to brine your turkey, do this the day before you plan to cook it. Brining helps season and draw moisture into the meat to keep it flavorful and juicy. A good rule of thumb is to use 1 cup of table salt and 1/2 cup sugar for every gallon of water. I allow at least 8-12 hours but no more that 24 hours. Add onions or herbs to the water and put into a container or brining bag so that the turkey is completely submerged. It must be kept cold, either in the refrigerator, or an ice chest with lots of ice around the brining bag or container. When finished discard the brine. If you don't want to brine the turkey then skip this step.
• 2. Remove giblets from inside of turkey and set aside. Thoroughly wash the turkey, removing any feathers or quills and clean out the inside of the cavity. Pat the inside and outside completely dry and set aside to continue air drying.
• 3. Peel onions and cut them into wedges or thick rings, do not separate the layers. Clean the carrots and celery and cut into 3-4 inch chunks. Cut the apple into wedges.
• 4. In a large roasting pan place most of the onions, carrots, celery, garlic and apple into the bottom of the pan. Add the stock or water and put the roasting rack into the pan. (Note) If you are not going to use the giblets and neck for anything else, put those pieces into the bottom of the roaster.
• 5. Put the dry turkey onto a large platter and liberally spread the butter all over the surface of the turkey, around the wings and legs, and inside the cavity. This works best when the butter is room temperature and soft, but if you prefer to work with melted butter that's fine. It will start to get solid on the cold turkey. Put butter inside the cavity and under the skin of the breast and thighs, being careful not to tear the skin. Secure large flaps of excess skin and fat with toothpicks to close up the neck cavity. Also leave on the big the tail piece. Put any remaining butter into the roasting pan. You need a lot of butter to create the fat for making turkey gravy later. If you like to inject your turkey, now is the time to do it. I don't.
• 6. Liberally sprinkle salt and pepper into the cavity and all over the outside of the turkey. Take the remaining onions, celery, carrot, garlic and apple and put that inside the cavity. If you like the flavor of rosemary, thyme, or sage then add a little fresh pieces to the cavity. These are strong herbs so a little goes a long way.
• 7. Set the turkey on the roasting rack BREAST SIDE DOWN. This allows the butter and fat from the skin and cavity work its way into the breast meat to keep it super moist. If you MUST, you can put the breast side up. Tie the legs together with string to hold all of the vegetables on the inside.
• 8. Put the oven rack on the lowest position inside your oven and put the turkey into a COLD oven. Close the door and set the temperature to 500 degrees. Once the oven has reached 500 degrees set your timer for 1 hour. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR! After 1 hour of baking turn the oven off and leave the door CLOSED. NO PEEKING! I do this right before going to be and in the morning the whole house will smell like roasted turkey and it will be completely cooked and juicy.
• 9. *THIS IS THE TRICK TO A BEAUTIFUL BIRD: Use heavy duty aluminum foil and double it. Use a piece long enough to tent the turkey over the top leaving an opening on both ends for the air to flow through. I just tuck the foil between the pan and rack to hold it in place and fix it so that the foil isn't actually touching the bird.
• 10. This is optional, but in the morning if you want to, carefully drain the liquid from the cavity into the baking pan and turn the turkey over. Put it back in the oven on 500 degrees and cook for about 15 minutes to brown the breast. The turkey will remain somewhat warm in the oven but it can be reheated briefly without getting dried out.
• 11. Use the fat and drippings in the pan to make your turkey gravy.