Roasted Turkey Recipe for Thanksgiving

By Jimmy Downs

On the Thanksgiving day, roasted turkey should be the most welcome entree on your thanksgiving dinner menu. Here i am offering you a roasted turkey recipe to give you some idea about how to cook a turkey just in case you need some help.

Remember turkey recipes are everywhere but they are fairly similar. Once you learn to cook one turkey recipe, you will be able to make some turkey recipes by yourselves.

Basically you need a few things to prepare a roasted turkey. They are a turkey, frozen or fresh, a turkey brine solution, and aromatics or flavor booster.

INGREDIENTS

Turkey:

One handsome frozen turkey (about 15 pounds). It can be fresh. If frozen, your turkey needs to be thawed at cool temperature so that bacteria will not compete for the turkey with you.

Brine:

(This is just one turkey brine recipe you can use for your roasted turkey. You make adjust it.)

1 cup salt

half cup brown sugar

1 gallon vegetable stock

1 tablespoon black peppercorns

1.5 teaspoons allspice berries

1.5 teaspoons chopped ginger

1 gallon iced water

Flavor booster or aromatics:

1 apple, sliced

half onion, sliced

1 cinnamon stick

1 cup cold water

5 spings rosemary

6 leaves of sage

canola oil

Instruction on how to cook a turkey

1) A frozen turkey needs to be thawed in a refrigerator or in cool water in a couple of days. (Never thaw your turkey at room temperature, which allows bacteria to grow and multiply rapidly.)

2) Any time today on Wednesday Nov 25, 2009, it is time for you to prepare a turkey brine solution based on the turkey brine recipe shown above. Simply mix all the ingredients in a large stockpot and use medium to high heat to bring the temperature to about 212 oF (boiling point of water). Stir as often as you want. Once the brine reaches its boiling point, remove it from the heat and cool it to room temperature and refrigerate. (You may use other ingredients. But sugar is definitely necessary to promote browning and get your turkey some brown and roast flavor note which is important for a roasted turkey. You may use other types of sugars though.)

3) Sometime today or tonight, you need to apply the turkey brine solution to the bird. First, simply combine the brine, water, and ice in a 5-gallon bucket. And second, place the thawed turkey with all innards removed breast side down in the brine solution. Make sure the bird is completely covered and everything in the bucket is moved to the regifer4ator or a cool area and let it sit for overnight. (Give it enough time at least 12 hours, so the bringing of your turkey can be complete.)

4) A few hours before you want to eat, prepare to roast your turkey. First, pre-heat your oven to 500 oF. Second, take your turkey out of the brine. Use cheesecloth and pat dry the turkey inside and out.

Combine the sliced apple, onion, and cinnamon stick and a cup of water for the flavor booster in a dish and microwave it on high for five minutes. And add steeped booster to the turkey's cavity along with saga and rosemary. Tuck the wings underneath the turkey and coat the skin with canola oil. (The coating of the oil is important as it prevents loss of moisture and keep the bird juicy after the roasting is completed).

Place the turkey on lowest level of the oven and roast it for 30 minutes. And then lower the oven temperature to 350 oF. Monitor using a probe thermometer the temperature of the thickest part of the breast and make sure that the inner temperature will not exceed 161 oF. For a 15-pound turkey, it may take 2 to 2.5 hours or a bit longer to get the roasting done. (Over roasting could dry the turkey and the turkey will not be as juicy).

After roasting, cover the turkey with foil and let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes before carving. (This will make your carving a bit easier).

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