Easiest Thanksgiving Turkey Recipe




Thanksgiving is fast approaching and its time to start getting ready to make a holiday meal. While a turkey is often the centerpiece of any Thanksgiving meal, cooking the perfect turkey can be difficult to do. With the long cooking times and the risk of overcooking it and having a dry turkey, cooking a turkey can be stressful. With this super easy turkey recipe even those who have never cooked before will be able to cook the perfect Thanksgiving turkey.
Ingredients

  • 1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter
  • 1 lemon, quartered
  • 1 onion, quartered
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • 1 bunch of fresh tyme, washed
  • 1 fresh turkey (10 -12 pounds)
  • 6 cloves minced garlic


Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
  • Remove the turkey from the packaging making sure none of the bird is frozen
  • Remove the giblets, neck of the turkey (usually found in the cavities of the bird)
  • Pat the turkey dry with some paper towel
  • Season the inside of the turkey with about a teaspoon of salt and pepper.
  • Stuff the turkey with the quartered onion and lemon
  • Stuff the turkey with 2/3 of the tyme
  • Place the turkey breast up on a roasting rack or on a layer of chopped uncooked potatoes and carrot. Make sure that the turkey is raised so that the heat in the oven will circulate better. If you don’t have a roasting pan and rack, use a disposable foil roasting pan and use a bed of chopped veggies as the rack. Carrots, onion, potato and celery work well, just place them at the bottom of the pan and set the turkey on top of them.
  • Mix the butter with some salt and pepper, the garlic and the remainder of the tyme
  • With your fingers, loosen the skin from the breast of the turkey. Under the skin place half of the butter mixture under the skin.
  • Melt the remaining butter and allow it to cool slightly.
  • Base the turkey all over with the ½ melted butter mixture
  • Tuck the wing tips of the turkey in and tent the turkey with foil
  • Roast the turkey for 2 hours (for a 10- to 12-pound turkey; add an extra 15 minutes per pound for larger birds).
  • Remove the foil and cook the turkey on 425 degrees F for another hour or until the meat at the thigh reaches 165 degrees F
  • Let the turkey rest for about 20-30 minutes before carving
  • Reserve the drippings left in the roasting pan to make the gravy.


Pro tip- don’t bast the bird which it is cooking, this is unnecessary and removing the turkey from the oven causes the oven to lose heat and the turkey will need to cook longer