Roast Turkey

So today is New Year's Eve and I'm in the kitchen cooking up a storm.  I woke up early this morning and first thing I did was make my famous White Chocolate Apricot Rugelach cookies and I followed the recipe exactly.  They turned out beautiful and delicious.  Then I made my Beef Salad because without it, it just isn't  a holiday.  This took a while to make but my husband helped me out a bit.  But this post is about roast turkey, I don't make it that often, so I can't say I'm a pro, but it did turn out great.  For this you can use a turkey of any weight really, it all depends on how big your family is, I'm using one around 15 lbs.  Here's what you'll need:

• Raw turkey
• one onion cut in 4
• one garlic bulb
• 1 carrot carrots cubed
• parsley
• 2 celery tops
• salt and pepper to taste
• oil
• rosemary
• thyme
• 1 cup of chicken stock

Wash the bird really well on the inside and outside, and make sure you take out the gizzard bag and neck. Pour some oil over the turkey and massage it well all around the turkey.  In a bowl mix the onion, garlic cloves, parsley, celery tops, salt and pepper and oil, rosemary and thyme, you may add lemons too if you wish.  Salt the turkey really well on all sides and add pepper as well.  You can put some butter pieces as well all over the bird.  Put the bird in your turkey pan and pour the chicken stock in the pan.

Preheat oven to no less than 325 degrees.  Cover the bird with aluminum foil and bake it for 1.5 hours with aluminum foil.  After this time, remove the aluminum foil and baste it with the juices from the pan. Then back in the oven for 2 hours (depends on size of bird) until nicely roasted.  The turkey will be done when the temperature in the thigh reaches 165 degrees. Take it out when it reaches this temperature, take the bird out of the pan and cover it with aluminum foil and let it sit for about 20 minutes.  This is important, do not cut the bird right away, because if you do all the juices will come out of it, and you'll end up with a dry turkey.

I will be serving this with a side of mashed potatoes but you can serve it with any side dish you prefer. Enjoy.

Masterbuilt 20010109 Butterball Professional Series Indoor Electric Turkey Fryer