Roasted Thanksgiving Turkey

(from castro15’s recipe box)

Categories: Turkey

Ingredients

  • 20 lb. turkey
  • 1 orange
  • 1 stick salted butter, softened
  • 2 rosemary sprigs, leaves stripped and minced
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 tsp black pepper

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 275. Pat the turkey dry and place it breast-side up on a rack set in a roasting pan. Cross the legs and tie them together with kitchen twine. Cover the whole pan with foil, tucking it underneath the pan. Let sit at room temp for 20 minutes. Roast for the first stage for about 10 minutes per pound (so for a 20lb. turkey, about 3 1/2 hours).

  2. Using a vegetable peeler, remove the orange peel in strips and thinly slice. Mix with the butter, rosemary, salt and pepper in a bowl.

  3. After the first stage of cooking, remove the turkey from the oven and remove the foil. Smear the butter mixture all over the skin and in the crevices so that it’s totally covered. Insert a meat thermometer into the thigh, increase the oven temp to 350 and return the turkey to the oven. Continue roasting, basting every 30 minutes, until thermometer reads 165 to 168, about 2 1/2 more hours. Remove the turkey from the oven and cover loosely with clean foil until you’re ready to carve.

Email to a friend | Print this recipe | Back