Thanksgiving Turkey



I learned this ingenious way to bake a turkey from my friend, Jana.  It is so incredibly easy and always turns out moist and delicious.  I am posting this early so that you can use this technique if you wish for your Thanksgiving turkey this year.

Late summer or early fall is the time to order your turkey if you are getting a local turkey.  I have been ordering my turkeys from Natural Grocer and placed my order last week.  You cannot buy a turkey from Natural Grocer without pre-ordering.  The order deadline is several weeks prior to Thanksgiving and they do run out of some sizes and types of turkeys for pre-orders.  They are expensive but in addition to the turkey meat, I also get loads of excellent turkey broth.

 

I always order two turkeys, one for Thanksgiving and one for Easter, which I put in my freezer.  Better quality turkeys are only available right before Thanksgiving.  Whole Foods also carries better quality turkeys.   

I no longer cook my stuffing in my turkey because I always make broth with the carcass.  Turkeys are more wild than chickens and thus naturally free-range better if given access to the outdoors.  I have never raised my own turkeys but hope to in the future since they would eat the same feed as my chickens and would be the optimum quality since I could let them truly free-range on lots of green pasture. 

I would not recommend baking a Butterball or other conventional turkey (even if you are given it free at the grocery store), they are loaded with additives.  Per their website the ingredients are:  Whole Young Turkey. Contains up to 8% of a solution of Water, Salt, Spices, and Natural Flavor.

Ingredients:

1 free range turkey

1 - 2 yellow onions

1 - 2 organic lemons

1 organic orange

several rosemary sprigs

2 - 3 Tbl. olive oil

1 - 1.5 tsp good quality sea salt

1/2 tsp paprika

cheap sea salt (for cleaning)



I (or Fred in this case since it was too heavy for me) clean and prepare the turkey the same way I clean a chicken that I plan to bake - read through the baked chicken post if you are not familiar with it.  Be sure to take out the neck and organs that are placed inside the turkey.  Also take out the plastic piece that holds the legs (it is ok to leave in a metal holder).  After cleaning (cleaning with cheap sea salt and rinsing), I dry off the turkey. 

 

I then stuff it in a similar manner to my baked chicken, though I add organic orange chunks in addition to the lemon chunks, onion chunks, and rosemary sprigs.  The ingredient amounts shown above vary based on the size of your turkey. 

 

  

A turkey will not fit into my glass pot, so the ingenious trick is to bake it in a brown paper grocery bag.  USE A PLAIN bag with minimal ink that is only on the topside (Market Street bags are usually acceptable).  The best are bags with no writing at all.  These can be hard to find.  I save them when I happen to find them throughout the year.  For a large turkey - I use two bags.



Be sure you also use a heavy roasting pan big enough to hold the entire grocery bag so you do not leak drippings into your oven and start a fire.

Place the stuffed turkey into the grocery bag, and the rub it with your olive oil mixture (olive oil, good quality sea salt and paprika - quantities dependent upon turkey size).  If your turkey is small, you can fold over the end of the bag and staple it closed.  If your turkey is large, place another bag over the open end as shown in the photo above.



Place in 300 °F oven and bake until cooked.  This technique is very forgiving - it is hard to over bake your turkey.  I bake it until it smells done!  I have found that a 10 pound turkey takes about 4 1/2 hours and a 16 pound turkey about 6 hours, if thoroughly thawed and stuffed only with what is described above.

 

Remove from oven and let rest for about 30 minutes before serving (don't open the bag up until ready to slice).



Save all the bones, skin and extra drippings to make your broth.  I place them all in my large enamel pot or split the bones between two glass pots and make it the same way as I make chicken broth.  Be sure to include the lemon and oranges - you need something acidic to pull the minerals and nutrients from the bones.