Step 1 – Defrost your turkey! Do not skip this very important step or you’ll be ordering pizza! Butterball recommends 1 day per 4 lbs. I usually have mine in the refrigerator thawing 5 days ahead.
Step 2 – Figure out how long you will need to cook your turkey and plan ahead! A 20 lb turkey can take 5 hours to cook. Use this handy Butterball roasting times chart for reference to make sure you don’t accidentally end up with dinner at midnight!
Stuffing
Save yourself time on Thanksgiving morning and prepare the stuffing 1 or 2 days ahead. This recipe is enough for a medium turkey (~14-16 pounds). Scale it down as needed or add more bread for a larger turkey. Be sure add more vegetables if you add more than a few slices.
Ingredients
- 1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
- 1/2 pound carrots, peeled and diced
- 3 to 4 stalks celery, diced
- 4 oz mushrooms, sliced
- 1 apple, diced (Cosmic Crisp, Honeycrisp, or anything on the sweeter side)
- 1/2 loaf white bread
- 1 Tb butter
- 2 Tb olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1 to 2 cups chicken stock
- 2 Tb chopped fresh herbs – Pick your favorite. Rosemary, thyme, sage, and marjoram are all perfect for roasting poultry.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350˚F.
- Slice and Dice the Vegetables: The food processor is your friend here. Either roughly chopping everything or using the thick slicing function will cut your prep time significantly.
- Cook the Vegetables: Heat butter and oil in a large pot over medium heat until the butter is melted and starts bubbling. Sauté the onion until translucent (about 3 minutes). Stir in the garlic until fragrant (about 1 minute). Stir in the remaining vegetables and apple. Add salt and pepper and cook until everything is soft (about 8-10 minutes). Stir in herbs, cook for another minute, and turn off the heat.
- Toast and Cut the Bread: The goal is to dry it out, not make it brown. Lay slices on a sheet pan and toast in the oven 2-3 minutes per side. Cut into 1/2 inch cubes and place in a large bowl. All of the breadcrumbs left behind on the cutting board are good to use too.
- Mix it Up: Stir the bread into the cooked vegetables a little at a time until moisture is absorbed. Add chicken stock as needed if you need more moisture. You want everything to be moist and combined, not a sloppy wet mess.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Turkey
Ingredients
- 14-16 lb DEFROSTED turkey
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 Tb chopped fresh herbs – Pick your favorite. Rosemary, thyme, sage, and marjoram are all perfect for roasting poultry.
- 1 Tb olive oil
- 1.5 Tb salt
- 2 tsp pepper
- Chicken stock as needed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325˚F. NOTE: If your oven is at 350˚F from toasting bread for stuffing, just turn it down and move on. It’ll be just right by the time you have the bird stuffed and ready to go in.
- Season the Turkey: In a small bowl mix herbs, garlic, salt, pepper and oil into a paste. Place turkey breast side up in a large roasting pan and rub all over with the herb paste (season inside, outside, top and bottom, under the wings… all over!).
- Stuff the Turkey: Stuff the cavity with stuffing. Depending on the size of the bird, you may have extra stuffing (NOTE 1). Secure legs with plastic band or kitchen twine. Cover tightly with foil (3 or 4 sheets of foil may be needed to ensure it’s sealed up).
- Cook the Turkey:
- The larger the turkey, the longer it needs. Check this website for cooking times.
- Baste after the first 90 minutes, and then every 45 to 60 min after (NOTE 2). If there aren’t enough pan juices for basting in the beginning, use chicken stock instead.
- Cook uncovered for the last hour to brown the skin. If more time is needed after the “last” hour, keep uncovered, but check on it and baste every 30 minutes.
- The turkey is done with the internal temperature reaches 165˚F. Make sure to check it in a few areas (thigh, breast, leg) as some parts of the bird may get done faster than others.
- Rest and Carve the Turkey: Let it rest for 20 to 30 minutes before carving. This is a great time to make gravy!
NOTE 1: If there’s a lot of extra stuffing, cook it separately. Put it into a greased baking dish. Cook covered at 325ºF for 45 minutes, plus uncovered for 15 more minutes to get the top crispy.
NOTE 2: Every time you open the oven door, you lose heat and lengthen the cooking time, so you don’t want to check it too often. Once per hour is more than enough. If I’m making a smaller bird (with a shorter total cooking time), I usually check it more frequently so that it gets basted 3 or 4 times during the total roasting.
