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Friday, November 16, 2012

One of the best turkey recipes- EVER!

The best turkey... ever!


This has been my go to recipe for turkey for the past few years. Never fails, always so juicy and flavorful and everyone loves it! And I'm going to share my recipe with you today, aren't I nice?

This recipe is a twist on Sandra Lee's roasted butter herb turkey
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sandra-lee/roasted-butter-herb-turkey-recipe/index.html

Fair warning, I'm not a measuring kind of person when it comes to cooking. I am more of a dash, pinch, and throw in a tad of something person! I like to live on the edge like that. So here goes...

What you will need (based on a 20 lb turkey, which is what I usually get):

4 sticks of butter (yes, it's a lot, but you will not use it for only the turkey!)

1 package of Knorr garlic and herb sauce mix

3 oranges

3 lemons

1 Large onion

1 garlic bulb

poultry seasoning

Fresh rosemary

So the night before, let your butter soften up and put it in a mixing bowl with the zest of 2 lemons and 2 oranges, the juice of 1 lemon and 1 orange, the garlic and herb sauce mix, and a few dashes of the poultry seasoning. Now mix all of this together really good.
Take some plastic wrap and roll it out onto your counter. Pour the mixed butter mixture in and roll it into a log. It should look something like this...

Now let that sit over night in your fridge.

Thanksgiving day prep-
Cut an onion into 4 pieces
Cut the garlic bulb in half
Slice an orange
Slice a lemon
Get out a couple of springs of the fresh rosemary
Remove the butter log from the fridge

As for the turkey, to prepare... have someone else (lol) remove the innards (again this is how I do it, I will not touch the innards- it grosses me out!). Now rinse the turkey and gently pat dry.Gently use your fingers to loosen the skin from the entire bird.
Cut some of the pieces of the butter log (reserve a good amount and put aside to ensure there is no cross contamination) and start to place the butter pieces in between the skin and the bird. Then take some more of the butter pieces and massage the whole outside of the bird with it.
Now stuff the inside of the bird with some of the orange and lemon pieces, the onion, garlic and rosemary.

As for cooking the bird, I cook mine on 325 and baste it about every hour or so, cooking until the little thermometer pops up and I check it with my own meat thermometer to confirm that it's done. I take it out and let it sit for a little bit before moving it to the platter.

To garnish, I cut up some of the oranges and lemons and place around the bird and finish off with some rosemary.

Now for the reserved butter, we use that for our rolls!

I am telling you guys, this turkey is so juicy and good! You can't go wrong with this recipe!

Enjoy!~ Miranda

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