Thanksgiving is around the corner so I thought I would share my tips on making a flavourful turkey. I will be sharing a family recipe with a secret ingredient that my mom came up with many years ago.
Being Italian, we don’t exactly cook turkey quite the same. There’s a bit of our own twist to it. We don’t normally use the traditional stuffing. Our stuffing consisted of raw vegetables being tucked into the cavity of the bird for flavour, that was it!
Today, we still add these vegetables into the cavity of the bird in addition to a bread stuffing (just for extra flavour goodness)!
Our typical side dishes to turkey do not consist of turnips or cranberry sauce. Instead, we use rapini and peas along with, of course, mashed potatoes which we all love and goes perfect with a juicy turkey. Our gravy consists of the juices of the turkey combined with other ingredients listed below.
For many, many years we have only used a “fresh turkey”, never frozen. I do have to say that, it was good but it was so much more time consuming to clean it. (Took about 1 hour to clean). It was only until the last 5 years that my family and I started using frozen grain fed turkeys and we found it very flavourful just as the fresh!
Ingredients:
20 lb. Turkey (preferably antibiotic free & organic frozen)
3 lb. bag of carrots, peeled (2 carrots cut into chunks to be placed inside the turkey, the rest of the carrots, keep whole (peeled) and place outside and around the turkey)
3 celery rib stalks (cut into thirds)
1 large white onion (peeled & cut into quarter chunks)
1 whole apple (peeled)
Seasonings: sea salt, black pepper, garlic powder and paprika (1 tsp. of each)
3 Coors Light Beers (mom’s secret ingredient)
Cleaning a frozen turkey:
Remove all the turkey parts including the neck & liver which is placed into the cavity, I prefer not to use this. Then place the turkey into a deep large bowl placed into the sink, soak with water and salt for about 10 minutes. Clean thoroughly inside and out and around the wings. Rinse well with cool fresh water. Then place on a clean dish towel and wipe it dry.
Directions:
Place the turkey in a well greased roasting pan which has been oiled at the bottom and all along the sides very well. Put salt inside the cavity and all around the outside of the turkey, adding a little oil on top to massage the seasoning on very well. You can now add your black pepper, garlic powder and paprika, again on the inside and outside, massaging the spices into the meat very well.
Place the 1 apple (whole & peeled), onion, chopped carrots & celery into the cavity of the turkey. Add a bunch of carrots all around the outside of the turkey as well. Poke a few holes along the outside of the turkey.
Cover with roasting lid or foil paper and place into oven at 375 degrees F. For example, a 20 pound turkey should take about 4 to 5 hours to cook. Remember to slow cook it, don’t rush the cooking time. Always check thermometer to make sure the meat is well done. The inside of the turkey should reach 180 degrees F. Always poke thermometer in the meat part only without hitting a bone to get the most accurate reading.
*Important to baste the turkey every hour! Tip: Add 1 beer after every hour of basting. After that baste with its juices all around the turkey carefully without letting any juices fall outside the pan which will cause the oven to smoke up.
Once the turkey reaches 170 degrees F. (basically for the last 20 to 30 minutes of cooking time, you can take the lid off the roasting pan to get the golden brown crust. Be careful not to overcook it. If you find at this point that the juices are boiling too heavily, you can reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. (You be the judge).
For the Gravy:
With the juice accumulated at the bottom of the pan, once you remove the turkey to rest before slicing, place all the juice into a strainer with a bowl underneath, now add the strained gravy juice into a saucepan on low to medium heat, adding 3 tablespoons of flour, 1/2 cup of water, adding salt to taste (is optional) and cooking it on the stove whisking constantly until the gravy thickens (if you still find the gravy too thin, add a bit more flour).
The Stuffing:
To save you some time, you can use a stuffing mix consisting of herbs & spices and all you have to do is slightly cook it on the stove top by just adding water (just double check instructions on the actual package you are using). Make sure your stuffing has cooled down completely before stuffing it into the cavity of the turkey. Keep in mind that stuffed turkeys take a little longer to cook. For example, a 20 lb. turkey stuffed can take 4.5 to 5 hours depending also on your oven.
Tips: For a 20 lb. turkey, I would use 3 to 4 packages of stuffing mix!
*Wash & season your turkey the day before for best results on the lowest rack of your refrigerator in a large deep platter covered with plastic wrap and also “never stuff your turkey until the last minute!”* for safety!
Always check that the turkey meat is no longer pink and cooked thoroughly, using a meat thermometer.
Allow to cool at least 15 minutes before carving.
Enjoy!
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