How To Roast Turkey: a Tasty, Easy, Juicy Recipe

Roasting a Whole Turkey the Easy Way

I usually brine turkey drumsticks with a brining solution and then insert some celery sticks into the drumsticks for juicy, delicious results. But this year I was feeling under the weather before Thanksgiving and by the time I felt better, I was too busy to shop around for turkey drumsticks.

Instead, I bought an 11-pound whole turkey to roast, which happened to be pre-seasoned already with salt, sugar, and flavoring. Some of us need a low-sodium diet so I didn’t want to add a lot of salt or sugar to the dry brine since the turkey is already pre-seasoned.

But I also didn’t want to roast a plain turkey. I decided to dry brine it with lots of garlic, rosemary, black pepper, and a small amount of salt and sugar. Adding rosemary and garlic to roasted meats is good for us because they have antioxidants.

6 Days before Thanksgiving: Start Thawing the Turkey

Allow time to defrost your turkey in your refrigerator. The usual advice is to allow 1 day for every 5 pounds of turkey. Even though I bought an 11-pound turkey on Saturday and let it defrost in the refrigerator until Tuesday, the turkey was still partially frozen even after 3 full days of thawing in the refrigerator.

If the turkey is still frozen, then submerge the wrapped turkey in a large stock pot filled with room temperature water for 15-30 minutes. You can brine a partially frozen turkey but you need it to be thawed enough so you can remove the giblets out of the turkey cavity.

Check that you have the equipment that you will need. I had to improvise because I forgot that I had tossed my old turkey baster and rusty roasting pan with a V-shape rack but didn’t replace them because I thought I would be making turkey drumsticks for every Thanksgiving forever. 😂 Also check that your oven mitts and meat thermometer are ready to use.

2 Days Before Thanksgiving: Prep and Dry Brine the Turkey

I like to prepare and season my turkey 2 days before cooking. It’s an easy task to get out of the way.

To make the rosemary-garlic dry brine, I combined salt, sugar, chopped rosemary from my garden, freshly minced garlic, and freshly ground black pepper. I use an OXO pepper grinder and 20 turns is approximately 1 teaspoon. Then I add a big splash of olive oil to make a paste and set aside while I prepare the turkey.

Note that I use sea salt in this recipe and reduced the salt since the 11 pound turkey was pre-brined. It worked out well, the turkey was flavorful and not too salty. It might have been bland if I roasted the pre-brined turkey without any additional seasoning.

• For a natural or organic turkey that is not pre-seasoned, I would double the sea salt and sugar to 4 teaspoons.
• If using kosher salt instead of regular salt, then add an extra 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt for every teaspoon of salt in the recipe.
• In case you have a larger turkey, use 1/4 teaspoon of salt and sugar for every pound of turkey (multiply the weight of your turkey by .25 to calculate the total number of teaspoons).

Remember How Much Your Turkey Weighs

One important step to roasting a turkey is to know how much it weighs before putting it in the oven. Take a photo of the label or write the weight down somewhere before you throw away the turkey wrapper.

You need to know the weight to calculate the total cooking time, approximately 15 minutes per pound. Then you can estimate what time to start the roasting the turkey.

• Before you roast the turkey, you will need to take it out of the refrigerator for an hour to allow it to come to room temperature.
• If you have a 10-pound turkey, then it will take approximately 150 minutes to cook the turkey. Your turkey will likely be larger, multiple the weight with 15 to calculate the approximate amount of roasting time.
• And then after roasting the turkey, you need to let it rest for 20-30 minutes and allow about 20-30 minutes to carve the turkey.
• That’s adding up a minimum time of 4.5 hours from refrigerator to table for a 10-pound turkey. Allow more time since your turkey will most likely be larger.

Preparing the Turkey in a Food Safe Way

The USDA advises consumers not to wash turkeys and they share tips to prevent bacterial cross-contamination in our kitchens as well as food safety tips. But if people brine their turkey, then they will need to rinse their turkey to remove some of the excess salt before roasting. Be sure to clean your sink and prep area before and after handling your turkey and wash your hands.

If I see feathers, membranes, or anything that needs to be removed, I must clean the turkey. One way is to set aside a small bowl of salt (~1/4 cup) and rub the turkey skin and cavity with salt. And then you can either remove the excess salt with damp paper towels or carefully rinse the turkey and drain.

Additional turkey prep tips:

• Use kitchen scissors to remove the tail and set aside along with the neck, heart, and gizzard to make a turkey stock. I use kitchen scissors that come apart because they are easy to sanitize in a dishwasher.
• If there are hock locks on the legs, remove them. The turkey will cook more evenly if the turkey legs are not tied together.
• Discard the pop-up thermometer if there’s one in the turkey. The pop-up thermometers might not pop up reliably and results may vary. Plan on using a digital meat thermometer for precision.
• Loosen the skin from the turkey and rub the brine in between the skin and the breast, inside the cavity, and everywhere on the skin. Tuck the wing tip behind the turkey.
• Then place the turkey into a 9×13 casserole dish or larger container with walls to prevent spillage of the turkey juice and wrap with plastic to refrigerate. If you have a brining bag, you can use that instead.

Thanksgiving Day: Roast Turkey Tips

Before the turkey goes into the oven:

Take your turkey out of the refrigerator before it’s time to roast the turkey, allow it to come to room temperature for about an hour. Since this turkey is already pre-seasoned with salt, my dry brine is mostly garlic and rosemary with a little bit of salt and sugar. I do not rinse the turkey but I do pat dry. Transfer the turkey to a roasting pan and check that the wing tips are still tucked behind the turkey.

Prep tips for an evenly cooked turkey:

Whenever I roast a whole turkey, it’s always a challenge to cook it evenly. It seems that the breast takes longer to cook, and the drumstick will cook faster than the thigh. Not tying up the drumsticks and not filling the cavity with stuffing or aromatics will help the breast to cook faster

Wrap the turkey drumsticks and wings with pieces of parchment paper and foil for juicy drumsticks and wings. The parchment paper prevents the foil from sticking to turkey and acts as extra insulation. The foil holds the parchment paper in place. Remove them during the last hour of roasting for even browning and reuse the foil to cover the breast loosely to keep the breast from browning further.

Roasting safety tips

If your roasting pan needs support, place the pan on a rimmed baking sheet. I forgot that I had tossed my old roasting pan with a V-shaped rack because it was scratched and rusty, so I had to use an aluminum disposable pan which needed support.

Check that the oven rack is at the lowest position before you start preheating the oven.

Gather the equipment that you will need such as oven mitts, meat thermometer, turkey baster, etc. and give the thermometer and turkey baster a quick wash.

After the turkey goes into the oven:

I like to roast my turkey at a higher temperature, 425°F, for about 30 minutes and then without opening the oven, lower it to 325°F. This allows the turkey to brown a little bit and cook evenly over a shorter amount of time.

I forgot I had thrown out my old turkey baster with a rubber bulb and plastic cylinder. I had to improvise and used a fork as a handle to rub half a stick of butter over the hot turkey. The butter melts right onto the turkey to baste it. I keep a small prep bowl nearby as a landing spot for the butter. There is no need to melt the butter, and cleanup is easy. Worked great for me and whatever butter was left, I used it to make gravy.

Keep Track of Time!

Immediately after you put the turkey in the oven, write down the time you put the turkey in the oven immediately and set a timer for 30 minutes as a reminder to lower the temperature.

I plan a timeline for an 11 to 12-pound turkey that might look like the one below. Multiply 15 (minutes/pound) by the weight of your turkey (pounds) to estimate how long it will take to bake the turkey.

I do not like overcooked turkey so I also multiply 13 (minutes/pound) by the weight to have an estimate of minimum time to roast the turkey and that’s a good time to stick a thermometer into the turkey to check if it’s done.

Here’s an example of my cooking timeline for roasting an 11 pound turkey. Start earlier to allow more time if your turkey is larger, if you plan to open and close your oven to bake other foods at the same time, if you want to eat earlier than 6:30 pm, etc..

• 2:00 pm – Take the brined turkey out of the refrigerator, prepare pan, check oven rack position
• 2:30 pm – Start preheating the oven to 425°F
• 3:00 pm – Put the turkey in the oven at 425°F
• 3:30 pm – Lower oven temperature to 325°F
• 4:00 pm – Baste with butter on a fork
• 4:30 pm – Baste, unwrap the drumsticks, use the foil to cover the breast, and baste the drumsticks.
• 5:15 pm – Baste (if out of butter, use a turkey baster to baste with drippings) and approximately 30 minutes before your estimated time to finish cooking your turkey, check the turkey temperature to estimate when to check again.
• ~5:45 pm – Take turkey out, it’s done when the breast is between 160°F to 165°F. Tent with foil and let the turkey rest. Bake or reheat other dishes in the oven
• 6:10 pm – Make gravy, carve turkey (or carve at the table), finish cooking side dishes (delegate!)
• 6:30 pm – Serve dinner

Allergy Aware Roast Turkey

This recipe is free of peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, soy, fish, shellfish, wheat, and sesame as written.

The main allergen is milk in the butter. You can baste with olive oil, which would be allergen free. Other options to consider are dairy-free butter or mayonnaise that don’t contain other allergens you avoid.

Otherwise, try adding 2 cups of broth in the pan which helps to keep the turkey moist and you can use a turkey baster to baste the turkey with the drippings in the pan.

I recommend using a turkey baster with a stainless steel cylinder and a silicone bulb because of concerns about the risk of toxic contamination in kitchen utensils made with certain types of plastic.

I have also skipped basting altogether which works great. If you skip basting and do not open the oven door as the turkey roasts, check the temperature earlier an hour earlier than estimated.