Roasted Turkey (Holiday Meal Collection)

Roast turkey is my favorite meat. I usually cut the legs off the turkey before roasting and use the legs for a turkey stock that I use to make my stuffing. You can find my recipes for turkey stock and stuffing on the blog site. See link below.

Let’s roast a turkey (unstuffed) for a holiday meal.

The goal in any turkey roast is to cook the turkey until the temperature reaches 180F in the deepest part of the meat. I use my meat thermometer to keep an upper hand on the meat preparedness.

12-15 pound turkey (thawed , giblet bag removed from inside bird, rinsed and patted dry with paper towl)

salt

Ground black pepper

4 stalks of celery (cut in 1″  long pieces)

1 large onion (cut into about 1″pieces)

sprigs fresh thyme

sprigs fresh rosemary

1 apple (any type , cut into pieces)

1 potato (peeled Russet cut into pieces)

1 tbsp all purpose flour

1 large roasting bag with tie

Salt and pepper the turkey well

Place apple , thyme and rosemary inside the turkey

sprinkle flour over inside floor of bag

Place turkey into the bag

Add onion and celery over top of turkey

tie bag with provided zip tie

Place turkey in the bag into the roasting pan

Make  a few slits with paring knife in bag on top

Place pan inside pre heated 350F oven

Roast for 2.5 hours and check meat temperature with your thermometer

Continue roasting until the meat temperature reaches 180F

Remove from turkey from oven and cut bag open

For a browned breast top set oven to 450F

Place turkey in the oven with open bag and allow top to receive a brown color

Remove and use drippings to make a nice gravy (see my recipe) http://www.chefgosselin.com/archives/1210

Carve turkey and plate

Serve with your fresh gravy

What a great meal….so easy and so good