That is actually the perfect roasted turkey I’ve made. Use our turkey recipe for turkey with wonderful taste, gentle and tender meat, and crispy pores and skin. We extremely advocate it to anybody getting ready a turkey, particularly for Thanksgiving!

We don’t roast turkey fairly often, however after we do, we go all in. My secret weapon is our home made turkey butter, full of butter, garlic, and herbs. We tuck it beneath the pores and skin for unimaginable taste, coloration, and moisture, then brush it all around the outdoors. It’s numerous butter, however belief me, it’s value it!
That is my favourite turkey recipe for Thanksgiving, however you possibly can get pleasure from it any time of 12 months. For smaller gatherings, use our recipe for garlic herb roasted turkey breast.
Thanksgiving Turkey Timeline
In case you are like us, you don’t roast many turkeys all year long. Most of us actually solely roast them across the vacation season. Right here’s our timeline for thawing, brining, and roasting a turkey. I’ll use Thursday as our purpose since that’s how Thanksgiving falls within the US, however you possibly can transfer the times round to suit your meant roasting day.
This timeline assumes a thawed turkey. I’ve shared our ideas for thawing turkey under.
- Monday: Brine the turkey (yep, we brine turkey and find it irresistible). Right here’s my favorite turkey brine, which I exploit to make the roasted turkey in our video.
- Wednesday evening: Take away turkey from brine, and air-dry within the fridge in a single day (for greatest crispy pores and skin)
- Thursday: Roast the turkey, permitting roughly 14 minutes per pound, in an oven preheated to 325°F (162° C). See under for the perfect roasted turkey we made in a very long time.
Methods to Make the Greatest Thanksgiving Turkey
The important thing to the perfect juicy complete roasted turkey is fats. Everybody desires juicy turkey, however the reality is that turkey is lean. That’s why we advocate utilizing a lot of our herb butter. A lot of the 12 months, you gained’t catch me stuffing this a lot butter into something, however I make an exception for turkey, particularly Thanksgiving turkey.

I additionally baste my turkey whereas it roasts and advocate that you simply do the identical. Basting fats over the pores and skin retains it moist and flavorful. Discover I mentioned basting fats. That’s the essential half. Spooning broth over the pores and skin doesn’t do a lot, you’ll want to spoon over the fats! A turkey baster is your good friend right here. Use it to assemble the layer of fats sitting on prime of the broth within the roasting pan. That fats will work wonders for the turkey pores and skin. I baste my turkey each half-hour or so.
I roast my turkey in an oven preheated to 325°F. The cooking time relies on the dimensions of your turkey and your oven. You need to roast complete turkey for roughly 14 minutes per pound. So, a 15-pound turkey will roast for 3 ½ hours.


One of the best ways to inform if a turkey is finished is to make use of a meals thermometer. Test the temperature in a number of spots, particularly within the thickest a part of the thigh, avoiding the bone. It’s clever to verify either side of the turkey.
I take away my turkey from the oven when its inside temperature reaches 160°F. The USDA recommends 165°F, however in my expertise, carry-over cooking raises the temperature additional. As a visible cue, you need to roast turkey till the juices run clear from the thigh after piercing it with a knife.
As soon as the turkey is out of the oven, let it relaxation for not less than half-hour and as much as an hour. Evenly protecting it with foil will preserve it sizzling when you carve it. If you’ll want to preserve it heat for over an hour, place it in an oven set to 200°F and canopy it with foil to forestall it from drying out.
My Ideas and Tips for the Greatest Roast Turkey
Methods to thaw a complete turkey: To securely thaw a turkey, do it within the fridge. Plan on 24 hours within the fridge for each 4 to 5 kilos of turkey. A 15-pound turkey will take three to 4 days to thaw, so you’d start thawing it the Thursday earlier than Thanksgiving. To hurry up thawing, you possibly can thaw it in chilly water (enable half-hour of thawing per pound of turkey). Change the chilly water each half-hour, and in case your turkey shouldn’t be fully coated, rotate it each half-hour to maintain it chilled. A well-insulated cooler is useful for this.
Trussing a turkey: We truss our turkey earlier than roasting—place twine across the hen, tucking it barely beneath the neck finish. Carry the twine up and across the wings, pushing them in the direction of the breast. Cross the twine on the cavity, forming an X, after which tie the ends of the drumsticks collectively.


Brining a turkey: We brine our turkey and extremely advocate it. Don’t consider brining as a option to preserve your turkey moist and juicy. As an alternative, brining is for FLAVOR and texture. Brined turkey is extra flavorful and tender. We wrote a useful article about brining a turkey with images and a video displaying how we do it.


Stuffing a turkey: We don’t stuff turkey or advocate it. It’s a superb option to overcook your turkey for the reason that stuffing will usually take longer to come back to temperature than the turkey itself. Hold stuffing on the facet.
One of the best turkey gravy: I exploit just one gravy recipe for Thanksgiving, and it’s the one shared in our video. To make the gravy in our video and images, use this turkey gravy recipe that makes use of all these scrumptious pan drippings!
In style Thanksgiving Facet Dishes


Greatest Roasted Turkey We have Ever Made
-
PREP
-
COOK
-
TOTAL
Use our oven roasted turkey recipe for turkey with wonderful taste, gentle and tender meat, and crispy pores and skin. We extremely advocate it to anybody getting ready a turkey for Thanksgiving!
We brine and air-dry our turkey; right here’s our turkey brine recipe to see how we do it. You may make an excellent gravy using the pan drippings (extremely really useful). Air-drying the turkey within the fridge the evening earlier than we roast it additionally helps with getting that crisp, golden brown pores and skin.
14 servings (assuming 15-pound turkey)
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Want
Roast Turkey
1 (12 to twenty pound) turkey, brined (really useful) and trussed
Turkey butter, recipe under
1 massive onion, minimize into eight wedges
2 carrots, roughly chopped
2 celery stalks, roughly chopped
5 cloves garlic, smashed
8 contemporary thyme sprigs
4 sage leaves
2 quarts (8 cups or 1.8L) chicken stock
Herb Turkey Butter
1 pound (460 grams) salted butter, softened
1 teaspoon fantastic sea salt
1 tablespoon (5 grams) coarse floor pepper
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce or Pickapepper sauce
3 cloves garlic, smashed
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1/2 cup (14 grams) parsley leaves
1/4 cup (7 grams) sage leaves
2 tablespoons (5 grams) contemporary thyme leaves
Instructions
- Put together Turkey
1Preheat the oven to 325° Fahrenheit (162° C) and alter the oven racks in order that the turkey will match.
2Place the onion, carrot, celery, garlic cloves, thyme sprigs, sage leaves, and hen inventory within the backside of the roasting pan. Set a roasting rack into the pan, suspended above the substances.
3Add 1 / 4 of the turkey butter to a small saucepan over low warmth. Soften the butter, after which take away from the warmth. Put aside.
4Place the turkey on the roasting rack. Use your arms to create a pocket between the pores and skin and breast meat. Use a knife or scissors to make a gap the place the drums meet the thighs.
5Rub the remaining turkey butter into the pockets beneath the pores and skin and the holes close to the thighs. Therapeutic massage the butter to create an excellent layer beneath the pores and skin — it is a messy job, however effectively value it for influence taste! I exploit virtually all the butter. Relying on how massive your turkey is, you could solely want a few of it. Alternatively, you probably have a disposable piping bag, pipe the butter beneath the pores and skin and into the holes within the legs, then therapeutic massage the butter round.
6Flip the turkey over in order that it’s breast-side-down on the roasting rack. Brush a few of the melted turkey butter all around the again of the turkey. Flip the turkey again in order that the breast facet faces up, after which brush the remaining melted butter all around the prime (all this butter will make the turkey unimaginable). Evenly season with salt and pepper.
- Cook dinner the Turkey
1Roast the turkey for roughly 14 minutes per pound, checking and basting with the fats on prime of the broth within the pan each half hour. If the liquid degree drops too low within the pan, add some water to switch it. I rotate the pan each hour for even browning. For a 15-pound turkey, it’s going to take 3 ½ hours.
2When the turkey is about two shades lighter than you need in coloration, tent it with foil and roast till an inside thermometer inserted into just a few areas (breast and thighs) reads 160° Fahrenheit (71° C). Test either side of the thickest a part of the thigh, away from the bone. As a visible cue, you need to roast turkey till the juices run clear from the thigh after piercing it with a knife.
3Take away the turkey from the oven and let it relaxation for half-hour to 1 hour earlier than carving. To maintain heat after resting, place into an oven set to 200°F (93°C). To stop it from drying out, loosely cowl it with foil.
Adam and Joanne’s Ideas
- Unsalted butter: When making the turkey butter, you probably have unsalted butter as an alternative of salted, add an extra teaspoon of fantastic sea salt to the butter combination.
- Useful tools: Brine bag or 5-gallon bucket (non-obligatory if brining), massive roasting pan with rack, disposable piping bag, food-grade nitrile gloves (for massaging the butter), basting/pastry brush, and turkey baster.
- Diet info: The vitamin info offered under are estimates. We have now used the USDA database to calculate approximate values. Energy and fats are probably a bit off as a result of a lot of the butter melts all the way down to baste the hen and ultimately leads to the underside of the pan.
Diet Per Serving
Serving Measurement
1/14 servings
/
Energy
539
/
Whole Fats
21.7g
/
Saturated Fats
11g
/
Ldl cholesterol
278.3mg
/
Sodium
709.8mg
/
Carbohydrate
2.9g
/
Dietary Fiber
0.6g
/
Whole Sugars
0.8g
/
Protein
81.3g