This will be the Best Roast Turkey Recipe you will ever eat! Crisp and golden on the outside, infused with citrus butter and herbs, perfectly juicy and moist on the inside. Here I'm sharing my 3 secrets to perfect roast turkey every time.
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I used to be completely intimidated by preparing a whole turkey. It seemed like so much pressure! No matter where we were on Thanksgiving, there was talk of how the turkey turned out.
Aunt so and so's turkey was too dry, someone else's turkey didn't cook long enough. My mom's secret was always to cook it upside down, but that one doesn't have a great presentation. And trying to time it all so it's all finished at the same time... stressful!
Just let me bring some side dishes, like cranberry sauce, or green bean casserole (my from-scratch version can't be beat!), or my personal favorite this squash apple cranberry bake.
But then my turn came and I was determined to learn how to do this. I practiced with cooking a whole chicken. And soon I learned, it wasn't really that hard! I found 3 secrets that guaranteed a perfectly roasted turkey every single time.
I've now been making this same recipe for years. There's just one warning:
you may win the honor of making the turkey every year with this recipe.
Secrets for the Best Roast Turkey
So what's the secret? Well, there are a few proven ways to a perfect turkey. If you use all three, it's the ultimate recipe. But if that's too much work for you, then use Secret #3. It's THE most important one.
Secret #1 Buy a fresh turkey
Fresh is best. I recommend finding a local turkey farm. You'll need to check with your farm on their practices but here's what we love about buying fresh particularly from Otto's:
- naturally grown
- open-air, free-range barns
- Non-GMO feed is grown, mixed and milled at the farm
- anti-biotic free
- hormone-free
This all makes for high-quality meat.
Secret #2 Brine
It's all about the brine! To brine or not to brine? How do you know? What's the best recipe? I've got you covered.
- only brine fresh turkeys
- never brine a frozen turkey.
Here's why: Frozen turkeys are injected with a salt solution to help preserve it. This is pretty much brining, except there may be other ingredients in there that you may not be fond of. If you brine that frozen turkey, it will result in a too salty turkey.
Why brine?
Well, think of brining as your insurance. If you're concerned your turkey might be dry, brining will keep it juicy and moist, even if you overcook it a bit. BUT-- you won't overcook it due to Secret #3.
During brining, the turkey absorbs extra moisture that keeps it moist during and after cooking. And, since it also absorbs the salt, it gets seasoned from the inside out.
It may seem like a big extra step, but I promise you, it's worth it! And once you get the hang of it, it's no big deal. Trust me on this. Last year, I cooked 3, yes, count them, THREE turkeys in preparation for my live cooking show on Facebook.
You can watch it here!
It's an hour long show, so grab a cup of tea or coffee and hang out. Or, just skip through for the highlights.
Secret #3 Use an Oven Thermometer
If you're going to skip #1 and #2, this is your guarantee. Secrets #1 and #2 give you the best flavored turkey, #3 gives you a perfectly cooked turkey.
To use an Oven Thermometer, stick it in the breast, kind of at an angle, on the side. The ideal temperature should be 165°.
The #1 mistake people make when it comes to turkey is overcooking it. Trust the thermometer, it is fail-proof!
How to make Perfectly Roasted Turkey
Step One: Brine Turkey
Only brine if you are using a fresh, never frozen, turkey. Start this process the day before you're cooking it. It needs to brine 16-18 hours. If you're not brining, skip to the next step
- Combine ingredients for the brine in a large pot. We're using Apple cider, water, salt honey, rosemary leaves, orange peels, garlic, peppercorns, and bay leaves.
- Bring it to a boil, and then let it cool.
- Immerse the turkey into it and let it brine for 16-18 hours.
The biggest challenge is finding space in your fridge to store it for the 16-18 hours. This is one of the times I can be thankful for our cooler climate this time of year. Our garage was at about 39 degrees. So we plop our turkey in a brining bag in a bucket and let it do its thang.
If you're in a warmer climate, use a cooler to store things from your fridge that you won't necessarily need access to for the day or two.
Then, still using a brining bag, place the turkey with the brine in the bag, and then in an extra-large bowl in your fridge. It should be fully immersed, so if it's not, make sure you are rotating it during the brine time.
Step two: Roasting
Roasting will happen in two stages at two different temperatures.
- Heat the oven to 275°.
- Remove the turkey from the brine and rinse it well and place it breast side up in a roasting pan on a rack.
- Cover it completely with heavy duty aluminum foil. Roast the turkey for 10 minutes per pound.
- While the turkey is roasting, make the flavored butter to baste it with. Combine the butter, orange zest, and rosemary leaves and mix well so all is combined.
- After the first stage of roasting, remove the turkey from the oven, remove the foil and rub the butter mixture all over the skin.
- Raise the temperature of the oven to 350°.
- Insert an ovenproof meat thermometer into the side of the breast of the turkey. Return the turkey to the oven, uncovered.
- Baste with the juices every 30 minutes until the internal temperature has reached 165° and the skin is golden brown.
- Tent it with foil, let it rest for 15 minutes before carving and serving.
Notes
- You may have heard a thermometer has to go into the thigh. Our oven came with a built-in thermometer, and it's instructions say to stick the probe into the breast. It's worked every time.
- There are 2 stages of cooking. The first will be 10 minutes per pound, the second stage will be with your trusty thermometer. In my experience, the timing has turned out to be another 3-5 minutes per pound.
- Let the turkey rest, loosely covered when it's finished, for about 15 minutes before you carve it. Roasting brings all the juices to the surface, letting it rest allows the juices to soak back into the turkey resulting in an ultimately juicy turkey.
How long do you roast a turkey?
How long it takes depends on the size of your turkey, and the temperature. For this recipe, in stage one, it's ten minutes per pound at 275° In stage two, it's 3-5 minutes per pound at 350°.
If you had an 18-pound bird, stage one would be 180 minutes, or three hours. Stage two would be from an additional 54 - 90 minutes.
How to keep the turkey warm if it's done early
Or, maybe the guests are late. Let it rest, loosely covered, 20-30 minutes. Then cover tightly with foil. You can also add some heavy towels on top to maintain the heat.
How to reheat a turkey
If you want to roast your turkey a day ahead, there are two options for reheating it without drying it out.
Option 1: Reheat a whole turkey
- Preheat the oven to 350.
- Make sure there are juices in the pan, if there aren't, add a can of chicken broth. You should still have the turkey on a rack in a roasting pan.
- place an oven thermometer in the breast. Cover the turkey tightly with foil. Heat until the thermometer reads 130°.
Option 2: Reheat a sliced turkey
- Preheat the oven to 350°.
- Place the sliced meat and legs and wings in a baking dish.
- Pour some broth over the top (about a cup, don't drown it) and add some pats of butter.
- Cover tightly with foil and heat for 30-35 minutes.
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This recipe was adapted from The Pioneer Woman.
📋 Recipe
Perfect Roasted Turkey
Equipment
- Roasting pan with Rack
- Brining bag
- Oven thermometer
Ingredients
Turkey Brine
- 3 cups apple cider
- 2 gallons of water
- 1 ½ cups fine sea salt
- 2 cups honey or brown sugar
- 4 fresh rosemary sprigs
- 3 oranges
- 5 garlic cloves pressed or minced
- 3 tablespoons tri color peppercorns
- 5 bay leaves
- 1 18 lb turkey
Roasted Turkey
- 1 18 lb brined turkey
- zest of 1 orange
- 1 stick butter softened
- 2 fresh rosemary springs leaves removed and finely minced
- 3 leaves fresh sage finely chopped
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme leaves removed, finely chopped
Instructions
For the brine
- Remove the rosemary leaves off the sprigs. Peel the oranges being careful not to get the pith. A vegetable peeler works great.
- Combine apple cider, water, salt, honey, rosemary leaves, orange peels, garlic, peppercorns and bay leaves in a large pot. Bring to a boil. Allow it to cool and immerse the turkey into it. Store it in the fridge. Brine for 16-18 hours.
- After the brining process, rinse the turkey very well under cold water.
For the turkey
- Heat the oven to 275.
- Place the turkey breast side up on a rack in a roasting pan.
- Cover completely with heavy duty aluminum foil. Roast the turkey for 10 minutes per pound.
- While the turkey is roasting, combine the butter, orange zest, and rosemary leaves and mix well so all is combined.
- After the first stage of roasting, remove the turkey from the oven, remove the foil and rub the butter mixture all over the skin.
- Raise the temperature of the oven to 350.
- Insert an oven proof meat thermometer into the side of the breast of the turkey.
- Return the turkey to the oven, uncovered.
- Baste with the juices every 30 minutes until the internal temperature has reached 165 degrees and the skin is golden brown.
- Remove from the oven, tent with foil and let rest 15 minutes before serving.
Notes
- If you don’t have a pot big enough for all the liquid in the brine, start with just 1 gallon of water. Once you’ve boiled and cooled it, and you have your bird in the brining bag and container, you can add the rest of the water.
- The long prep time includes the brining time, which is 16-18 hours. The cook time will vary depending upon the weight of your turkey.
- An oven thermometer is KEY.
- You may have heard a thermometer has to go into the thigh. Our oven came with a built-in thermometer, and it's instructions say to stick the probe into the breast. It's worked every time.
- There are 2 stages of cooking. The first will be 10 minutes per pound, the second stage will be with your trusty thermometer. In my experience, the timing has turned out to be another 3-5 minutes per pound.
- Let the turkey rest, loosely covered when it's finished, for about 15 minutes before you carve it. Roasting brings all the juices to the surface, letting it rest allows the juices to soak back into the turkey resulting in an ultimately juicy turkey.
Chellie Schmitz
You’ve got this! It’s very easy to dry a Turkey out, you are not alone there. I can’t wait to hear how this goes for you! Enjoy and happy Thanksgiving!!
Augustus Gattshall
I'm determined to cook a delicious turkey this year for Thanksgiving. The last couple I made turned out real dry and tough. I don't know why I've had such a difficult time of it. I've got a good feeling about this one.
Thomas
Christmas is just around the corner, probably I try to cook it. Usually, 16-18 hours of cooking causes me to refuse a recipe ))), but in this case, turkey looks amazing! It might worth it! ))