Cooking a turkey

 Natasha's Kitchen

12 lb turkey, (Anything from 11-15 lbs will work, but bake time will vary), thawed*
Salt & Pepper, for the inside and outside of the bird

For the Flavored Butter

1 cup unsalted butter, softened, (2 sticks)
2 Tbsp olive oil, not extra virgin, plus more to drizzle top
4 Tbsp fresh lemon juice, from 1 large lemon, plus 1/2 Tbsp lemon zest
6 large garlic cloves, pressed
1/4 cup freshly chopped parsley
1/2 Tbsp salt, I used sea salt

1/2 tsp black pepper, freshly ground

.75 ounce container fresh rosemary*

.75 ounce container fresh thyme

.75 ounce container fresh sage*

ADD Paprika

For the Stuffing

1 large onion, quartered (no peeling)
4 garlic cloves, halved (no peeling)
1/2 bunch parsley
1 lemon, quartered

Remove thawed turkey* from the fridge about 30 minutes before you start working with it. If the turkey is closer to room temperature, it will bake more evenly. Remove the neck and bag of giblets and pat dry turkey with paper towels. Let it sit in a roasting pan lined with paper towels to soak up any excess water. Fold the wings behind the turkey so they don't scorch in the oven.

Seasoning, Stuffing, and Tying up a Turkey

Amy likes to cook the turkey in a turkey roasting bag to  help keep the juices in.

• Season inside of turkey cavity generously with about 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper.
• Make Flavored Butter – In a medium bowl or in a food processor*, combine: 2 sticks softened butter, 2 Tbsp olive oil, 1/2 Tbsp lemon zest, 4 Tbsp lemon juice, 3 pressed garlic cloves, 1/4 cup chopped parsley, 1/2 Tbsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper. Mash /stir with a fork until well combined (the lemon juice doesn't easily stir into butter but keep mixing and it will happen after a few minutes).
• Separate the skin from the turkey breast by pushing your fingers under the skin. Do this from the front and the back of the turkey; being careful not to tear the skin.
• Stuff 2/3 of the butter mixture under skin then spread the butter around by massaging over the top of the skin. This butter keeps the turkey breast tender, juicy and provides rich flavor.
• Pat skin dry and rub remaining butter over the outside of the turkey (breast, legs, wings). Drizzle all over the top of the turkey with olive oil and generously season with salt and pepper; I just love a crisp, salty skin.
• • Stuff turkey cavity with quartered onion, 4 halved garlic cloves, 1/2 bunch parsley and quartered lemon. Use kitchen string to tie turkey base and legs together; crossing the legs to better close up the turkey cavity, plus it looks extra fancy on the table.

  How to Roast a Turkey

  • Prep – Pre-heat the oven to 430˚F on the bake mode. Place oven rack in the lower part of your oven (mine was on the second level from the very bottom).
  • Make Foil Shield – to protect the turkey breast and keep it juicy: Fold a large square sheet of foil into a triangle. Rub one side of your triangle with olive oil and shape the foil (oil-side-down) over the turkey breast, then remove foil; it will shield your turkey breast and keep it from getting dry. You'll apply this shield later in the roasting process.
  • Place an oven-safe meat thermometer into the bird; beneath the drum stick; deep into the dark meat. Start roasting uncovered at 430˚F for 20 min.
  • Baste – Remove from oven; quickly baste with butter from the bottom of the dish. You can use a baster or tilt one side of the pan and collect drippings with a large spoon. Now apply prepared foil triangle to turkey breast area.
  • Reduce oven to 350˚F and bake for another 2 hours 30 min for a 12 lb bird. (Once you have reduced the oven to 350˚F, you will bake about 13 min for every pound of turkey). The turkey thigh should register at 170˚F on the temperature probe and the breast at 160˚F to make sure it's fully cooked through then remove from the oven (keep in mind the turkey temp continues to rise slightly after it's out of the oven*).
  • Rest Turkey – Transfer turkey to serving platter and cover loosely but fully with foil. Let turkey rest for at least 1 hour. It will become more tender and easier to carve, the longer it sits. Keep the drippings from roasting pan for turkey gravy. Now you can decorate around your turkey and make it festive. I used kale for my greens, then added small apples, sliced oranges and quartered lemons.
• Cook at 430 for 20 min and then 350 for about 5 1/2 hours, basting occasionally.

Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner duties

Turkey                                (Mom)

Cranberries- Lily                (canned '23)

Mashed potatoes- Chloe    (Lily '23)

Gravy                                  (mom '23)  

Stuffing- Lily                       (Dad '23)

Veggies- cooked green beans or asparagus

Rolls                                    (KAtie '23)

Pies- key lime- Katie           (Chloe '23)

Cheesecake- Matt

Winter Fruit Salad

Sparkling Drink

Broccoli Salad                      (Jens friend)

Asian Salad (I have a friend who serves broccoli and Asian salad, she'd rather eat more salad than turkey)

11/23/23-

This year the inside of the turkey was still frozen when  it was time to cook it. So for 2 hours (10am-12pm) I cooked the turkey in an oven bag at 450 degrees and then the last hour turned it down to 350 and the turkey was cooked through and still turned out delicious.

We ate at 3pm, it was nice b/c Logan and I went and played frisbee and then had enough time to get dinner started at 10am. At 10 am katie started rolls, lily started potatoes, I started the turkey, dad started cutting onions and celery and chloe/luke helped set the table. I borrowed a table from jim lancaster and 5 chairs from Kathy Buswell.

Also I very much enjoyed after thanksgiving. We played this silly easy going game called Happy Salmon, then Spoons, then Dayna recommended the Prize Game Bingo. I found some random prizes- bath bomb, lotion, Meyers soap, glow in the dark toys, little sticky balls for luke and jen brought more fun prizes like oreos, the game operation, connect 4, Surprisingly everyone wanted to play b/c there were prizes involved. It actually turned out so much more fun than I expected.

Teriyaki sauce

Never buy Teriyaki sauce in a bottle again!

Author: Daily DIY Life

Ingredients

• 1 TBS corn starch
• 1 TBS water
• ½ Cup. sugar
• ½ Cup soy sauce
• ¼ Cup apple cider vinegar
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• ⅛ tsp. black pepper
• 3 whole chopped green onions

Instructions

1. Combine all the ingredients in a medium saucepan. Using a whisk, give it a stir. Be sure to scrape the bottom so all of the corn starch and sugar aren't sticking. mix it well with your whisk.
2. Bring to a low boil. Continue to boil until the sauce thickens. This happens kind of fast once it reaches a boil. So stir it constantly.
3. Remove from heat and let it cool.
4. If you wish to use this as a marinade, add the juice of a half a lemon. (acid helps break down the fats in your meat)

Serve with chopped green onions

Can double recipe and combine with chicken and freeze for future dinners

Turkey Brine

Pioneer Woman

1 10-15 lb turkey

2 chopped onions

2 chopped apples (or 1-2  cups Apple Juice Or Apple Cider)
4 cups of boiling water, 4 c cold water
2 T powdered Rosemary  (or 4 Tablespoons Fresh Rosemary Leaves)
5 cloves Garlic, Minced
1 cup Kosher Salt
1 cup white sugar  (or Brown Sugar), next time do a 1/2c
1/2-1T powdered pepper (or 3 Tablespoons Peppercorns)
5 whole Bay Leaves
Peel Of 2 Large Oranges

Combine all ingredients in a large pot. Stir until salt and sugar dissolve. Bring to a boil, then turn off heat and cover.

Allow to cool completely, then pour into a large brining bag or pot. (I didn't allow mixture to cool completely, I just put the bird in the hot water and put it in the fridge and went to bed.)

Place uncooked turkey in brine solution, then refrigerate for 16 to 24 hours.

When ready to roast turkey, remove turkey from brine. Submerge turkey in a pot or sink of fresh, cold water. Allow to sit in clean water for 15 minutes to remove excess salt from the outside. 

Discard brine. Remove turkey from clean water, pat dry, and cook according to your normal roasting method.

TO COOK TURKEY

11/13/18 next time use a turkey cooking bag. Otherwise it was good.
Preheat oven to 275.

If you brined your turkey, rinse it well under cold water. Fill the sink with fresh cold water and allow the turkey to soak for 15 to 20 minutes to remove any saltiness (i forgot to do this and it turned out good). Pat the turkey dry and place it on a roasting rack, breast side up. Cross the legs and tie them together with kitchen twine. Cover the whole pan with heavy aluminum foil, tucking it underneath the pan. Roast for the first stage for about 10 minutes per pound (so, for a 20 pound turkey, about 3 1/2 hours.
After the first stage of cooking, remove the turkey from the oven and remove the foil (turkey will still be pale.) Smear the butter mixture all over the skin, in crevices, etc so that it's totally covered. Insert a meat thermometer into the thigh, increase the oven temperature to 350, and return the turkey to the oven, basting every 30 minutes. Continue roasting the turkey until the thermometer reads 165 to 168, then remove the turkey from the oven. Possibly cooking 1 and 1/2 hours more depending on size of turkey. Cover loosely with clean aluminum foil until you're ready to carve!

Cooking a turkey

1 turkey
1 turkey cooking bag
1 cookie sheet or roasting pan

There are so many opinions about how to cook a turkey. Some say start at 425 others say start at 275 and some say baste and other say that dries out the turkey, whatever, either way it will turnout cooked. The thighs take the longest to cook so make sure their temperature is 170°-175°

1/2/19 I decided not to brine this time.
1 onion
5 celery leaves chopped
sage, thyme, oregano, onion powder, 5 garlic cloves (1 t powder), salt and pepper
5 bay leaves
oil
I put the turkey in a turkey bag, then separated the skin from the meat on the breast top and sprinkled salt and oil. Then added all the above additions around the outside of the turkey, then added more salt and oil to the outside of the turkey.

275 for 3 hours
Then take out the turkey and Smear the butter mixture all over the skin, in crevices, etc so that it's totally covered. Insert a meat thermometer into the thigh, increase the oven temperature to 350, and return the turkey to the oven, basting every 30 minutes for an hour to 1 and 1/2 hours.

Brine-
1c salt
2 oranges
1/2c any type of vinegar (red wine, white or apple cider)
3 bay leaves
1 chopped onion
1/2c chopped garlic

Fill a large pot with water, dissolve the salt in boiling water.  Add all ingredients to pot and boil 5 min.
Put turkey and the brine in a bucket, let sit at least 3 hours, preferably overnite.  I put the bucket with the turkey inside, outside in the backyard and covered with a tower of snow and left overnite. (I think next time put turkey in fridge or bucket ice, just not outside)

In the morning- drain the liquid and reserve the onion, garlic, bay leaves to roast in the oven with the turkey. Put turkey in the turkey bag, then sprinkle the onion, garlic, bay leaves around the turkey.

To roast the turkey, put chunks of butter on turkey. Sprinkle with sage, rosemary, salt and pepper.

Roasted on 200 degrees for 4 hours, then 350 for 1/2hr -1 hour.  Open the turkey bag the last 1/2 hour to crisp the skin.

At about hour 4 of cooking the turkey, I wanted to make the gravy b4 the turkey was finished cooking.  So I opened the turkey bag and used a measuring cup to get the drippings (turkey juice).  But, some of the turkey drippings, dripped on to the bottom of the oven and started a fire in the oven.  I had to turn off the oven, pull out the turkey, take off the bottom oven shelf, and put new aluminum foil under the heating element, where the fire started.  Then resumed cooking the turkey. Phew.....

I put the drippings in a pan to cook. The drippings were surprisingly bland, so I added garlic powder, rosemary, sage, oregano, salt and pepper. Then to a separate bowl whisked cold water and flour and slowly added to the pan to thicken the  gravy.

the Brine seems to really moisten the turkey, not add much flavor.  Everyone loved the turkey especially my nephew- Porter, who is a picky eater, So at least he had something desirable to eat.

Goes well with- Cranberry Sauce, Mashed potatoes

Chicken & Veggie Chowder

1 lb chicken/turkey from leftovers
4 c frozen chicken/turkey broth from carcass
3 diagonally sliced carrots
1 chopped onion
1 can corn with liquid
2t garlic powder
2 c of bite sized chunks of  zucchini
1/2t thyme
cream of soup recipe or can of cream o soup
can add broccoli or mushrooms
1/2c Half and half

Combine everything put in crockpot.  Cover cook on low 5-6 hours. The last 15min stir in half and half

For the cream of soup part all I did- melt butter on skillet, add garlic and onion powder to get browned, add in flour for 2 min, then add milk and broth and whisk together and cook for 10 min, stirring occasionally.

Breakfast Burritos and Enchiladas

Make additional burritos or enchiladas and put in freezer

Breakfast burritos

Saute onion
Add 4 eggs
Add leftover rice
Add chopped peppers
Add black beans

Add everything to a corn or flour tortilla then roll up and freeze half.  Then the burritos you are going to be eating- lightly saute the outside of tortilla. Love to have guacamole or avocados on top



Enchiladas

1 Can of enchilada sauce (or green chilies pureed)
Refried beans
Leftover rice
Add chopped peppers
Leftover turkey meat
cheese
Flour or corn tortilla

Lightly brown the tortilla in oil to give a crunch to them.  Then add everything to the toritilla and cook on stove top or in oven 350 20 minutes.  Love to have guacamole or avocados on top

Butternut Squash and Turkey Chili

for the original recipe go to Butternut and Turkey Chili

olive oil

1 onion

4 cloves of garlic

1 lb ground turkey (or omit)

1 lb butternut squash

1-2c chicken broth

1 can of diced tomatoes

1 can small red beans

1 can garbonzo beans (chickpeas)

1T oregano

3 bay leaves

1 T chili powder

1 can of corn (put in the last 10 min of cooking)

When you serve- Add 1 chopped tomato, avocados would be really yummy, cheese, plain yogurt (as sour cream), either tortilla chips or corn bread.

Can freeze some for another dinner- for nachoes, navajo tacos, serve on top of potatoes, or just traditional chili