Hey, I’m John Kanell. And today on “Preppy Kitchen,” I’m gonna give you all my tips and tricks to cook the perfect turkey. So let’s get started. First off, set that oven to 450. It needs to be nice and hot to seal the juices in that turkey in, and also give you that wonderful crisp skin. Your bird needs to thaw at least, like it’ll take a while to thaw.
So, start it maybe two to three days in advance. You do not winna cook your turkey ice cold. Even if you bought a fresh bird or if your bird is freshly thawed, it needs to warm up on the countertop for about an hour to get the chill off. It should be close to room temperature. Once your turkey is completely thawed and warmed up on the countertop, drain any juices that were in the roasting pan and pad it completely dry. You want your skin to crisp up nicely, and water is your enemy here.
So, I’m peeling and quartering one onion. That’s part of my aromatics. I went into the garden, and I got the last of my sage and rosemary. It’s going to be kind of freezing soon so it won’t last long. You’re going to want 10 to 12 sprigs of rosemary, sage, and thyme. Today I’m using my thyme for something else. Cut a garlic head down the middle, and that’s it for my chopping. Right now, we have to make a wonderful concoction of butter to rub inside and out and really infuse a ton of flavor into this turkey.
Grab one cup or 226 grams of softened butter.
If you’re using salted butter, that’s totally fine. Just reduce the added salt by a heaping 1/4 teaspoon. So, your butter has to be softened ’cause you’re basically making a compound butter.
This is what I love doing every Sunday for my roast chicken that I make.
I’ll add some tarragon and maybe some rosemary sometimes too.
And really, it works some wonders for getting flavor on top of the skin, but also underneath: that’s where all the flavor soaks in.
To my softened butter, I’m adding two teaspoons of salt. I like using sea salt in these recipes because it’s a nice, mellow salt, and 1 1/2 teaspoons of cracked pepper. So, it’s 1 1/2 teaspoons of cracked black pepper.
This is empty. This is a nice turkey. It’s going to have a great flavor. but I know a lot of you are really fond of a brine.
A brine is basically a long salty bath. Might be some sugar in there.
There could be some spices in there as well. It’s really what you winna add. And it gives you a juicier and sometimes more flavorful bird. If you’re brining your bird, just drain it and pat it dry before you’re starting this. You do not want a wet turkey. Today I’m just doing salt and pepper, but you can add any spice blend you want to your compound butter.
I love having some Cajun seasoning in here. You could have some Greek spice mix too. There’s a lot of delicious things.
And you can really make this your own because chances are you’re making this for a special day like Thanksgiving. Work all that salt and pepper in there so it’s evenly distributed. And now it’s time to rub it under and over our bird skin. We’re ready to start. One unfortunate thing that’s been happening a lot, I’m just going to fill my cavity up with my garlic and onions while we talk.
A lot of times they’re processed, and the skin is ripped. And this one is so crazy.
You can see the skin roped all the way across the top, and that flap should be over here. The skin helps hold the moisture of the turkey in. So, it’s really disappointing when it happens. But I’ll show you what to do to fix it. All right, that’s filled. Best to use your hands for this. And you’re going to start by going under the skin.
So carefully, without ripping the skin, work your hands underneath the turkey’s skin to create cavities where we can add stuff in.
And the one other thing is you want to go into the leg too, carefully, so you can also add some butter there. A lot of people get intimidated by roasting a turkey, and honestly, it’s the same as making chicken. Like if you ever make a roasted chicken, it’s not very different: it’s just larger. And because it’s larger, some things can happen like it can get too dry if it overbakes. Maybe it doesn’t have enough flavor because you’re not going under the skin, and little things like that. So, in this video, I really just winna show you how easy it is to prepare your turkey, even if you get a bum one like I did. Okay, this is great. So now I can add butter in here and everywhere else. Lots of flavor. So, I’m basically getting a big glob of butter under the skin like this and then working it in with my hands to mash it down.
Don’t try and mash it down under the skin. Go over the skin and get a nice even layer. So before I get to fixing these issues, I have my eight sprigs of rosemary and my eight sprigs of sage. And I’m just going to stuff that right in there along with your quartered onion and halved garlic head. Now you’re gonna add your compound butter mixture all over the turkey, top and bottom.
And you can see how well the butter is sticking because we dried the turkey skin off. I’m gonna tie the legs together with kitchen twine. A lot of turkeys come with this plastic hook thing to force the legs together, and I do not like baking anything with plastic inside. So I took the little pop-out thermometer out and I took that plastic situation off as well. So now I have this mess because of the processing of this turkey.
So, I’m going to grab some needles and just pin it together and get us into a place where the skin should cover the turkey for at least most of the bake. The skin is really there to seal things in.
And if your turkey is exposed, it’ll dry out really quick. The legs got tied together. Everything is covered with skin now, and the pins are doing their job. We’ll see how it goes, but it’s better than nothing. In my roasting pan, I’m adding the remaining two to four sprigs of rosemary and sage. If you’re using the juices that render out to make a delicious gravy, I like to add extra onions along the edge, as well as one whole lemon halved. It’ll give you a lot more flavor, and your gravy’s going to be that much better.
The turkey’s almost ready, but I’m adding in four cups of chicken stock just to keep things nice and really moist. If you’re using a pan with a rack in it, your turkey will be above the rack, and it’ll be kind of steamed. This turkey is right in the roasting pan, and it’s going to have all those juices making the dark meat on the bottom so much more amazing. I’m adding a final sprinkle of salt just on top ’cause I like the skin to be extra flavorful. A little bit of extra pepper.
This is ready to go into the oven at that screaming-hot 450 for about 15 minutes.
Then reduced to 325, and you’ll be cooking your turkey for 10 to 12 minutes per pound of bird. So, if you bought a 12-pound turkey, that’s 120 minutes to 144 minutes. The subtitles will check my math. But just work it out that way. Let’s get this in. Every 30 minutes or so, we’re going to baste our turkey. So just either grab your baster or a pastry brush, and really just soak the skin, all that rendered fat, all the juices, and moisten it up and let it retain some of that juiciness that we love so much.
Ooh, this was one of my favorite jobs as a kid. It’s my last baste. Just one final bit of juiciness for this delicious turkey. If your turkey’s a beautiful color but you’re worried it might get too brown at the tips, let’s just add some foil tenting, just like you’re making a pie. You’re going to slip this right on, and then they’re not going to burn and singe. They’re shielded from the oven, and the rest of it can get that nice juicy brown color and finish rising up to 165. You can eyeball it, but I love using a thermometer and just temping it out.
Go to the part of the thigh that’s going to retain the most coldness.
So, all the way on the inside but not touching the bone. And it should be reading about 165.
You could take it out a little bit earlier.
It might rise in temp., but I like to keep it at 165 just to be sure. My turkey’s out of the oven.
I will be taking my tenting off. It did its job. Do not cut in yet. You winna wait at least 15 minutes.
I like to give it 20. All these juices here are liquid gold. Strain them out, make a gravy. It’s really easy. If you want a video on that, just let me know. Oh my gosh, it’s going to be so good. But right now, we’re going to plate this up. Grab your turkey. Plop that onto your serving plate. I’m going to garnish this with some rosemary from my garden.
It has the same aromatics we used inside, and it looks gorgeous. And then finish it off with a smattering of fresh cranberries.
Like h ow nice that looks. It says, “Hi, I’m your turkey and I’m here for the holidays.” After your turkey’s rested, you’re ready to carve and enjoy. The cook always gets the first bite. Oh my God. Melt in your mouth tender. Oh my gosh, it melts so nicely. It’s perfectly flavored. And the smell, I wish you could smell this.
I hope you get a chance to make this recipe. And if you liked this video, check out my Thanksgiving playlist.
Video Title How to Cook a Turkey
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