Recipe for a roast turkey with fresh herbs
Making a juicy, delicious turkey for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, or any other time of year may be simpler than you think!
The biggest trick is to thoroughly cook the turkey meat, but, at the same time, making sure you’re not drying it out. As you can see in this video, there are a few ways to help with that, including stuffing the turkey with raw onion (which imparts flavor and moisture), and adding plenty of chicken stock to the pan before and during its time in the oven.
MORE: Should you rinse or wash your turkey?
Roasted turkey with fresh herbs
Yield 8-10
Ingredients
- One 10 to 12 pound turkey
- 1 large onion, cut into quarters
- 10 medium to large garlic cloves, left whole
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, melted
- 2 tablespoons fresh thyme
- 2 tablespoons parsley
- 3 sprigs rosemary, stems removed
- Salt and pepper
- 1-2 cups chicken broth
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove the bag from inside of the turkey. Place the neck, gizzard and heart in bottom of a large roasting pan. Reserve the liver for another use (such as the dressing).
- Add giblets and 5 cloves of garlic to the bottom of the roasting pan.
- Pat the turkey dry with paper towels, and place on a rack inside of the large roasting pan.
- Tuck the wings underneath the bottom of the turkey. Tuck or tie the drumstick ends under the band of skin across the tail of the turkey.
- Using a basting brush, baste turkey all over the top and sides with the melted butter.
- Finely-dice thyme, parsley and rosemary and sprinkle over the turkey.
- Salt and pepper the turkey.
- Pour 1 cup of chicken broth into the bottom of the roasting pan.
- Place the turkey in the oven. Cook for 1 hour, then lower the temperature to 350 degrees. The bird may be basted throughout the cooking process with the juices from the bottom of the pan.
- About halfway through cooking (approximately 1 and 1/2 hours of roasting), or when you notice that the juices are nearly gone, add the second cup of chicken stock to the bottom of the roasting pan.
- When the turkey is almost 2/3 done (approximately-2 1/2 hours of roasting, depending on the size of your turkey), loosely cover the top of the turkey with a large piece of foil to prevent from overcooking.
- Using a cooking thermometer, check the turkey occasionally throughout the last quarter of the cooking process. When the thighs are 180 degrees, and the breast is 168-170 degrees, the turkey is done. The top of the skin should be browned and the juices from the turkey will be clear.
- Remove turkey from oven, and allow to stand for at least 30 minutes.
- Remove turkey to a cutting board, and carve.
- The accumulated juices may be strained, removing extra fat and turkey giblets, then used to make gravy.
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