Herb roasted turkey

Turkeys are scary, man. I'm all good with chickens, done them a million times. So muss, no fuss, always amazing. For some reason, turkeys give me anxiety. You never know if they're done, or how long they're going to take (done too early they're dry by serving time, done too late and you're having a turkeyless turkey day) and they can be reaaaaally good or reaaaaaally bad. We've gotten in the tradition of making two turkeys for Thanksgiving so we have two choices of flavor...we fried one and smoked one last year and this year we fried one and roasted one. Thank goodness we had two...because our roasted one (of course the one I was in charge of) wasn't done in time....WHOOPSIES! We had just enough turkey to feed our brood and then had a whole 'nother one done an hour and half after we ate!  Lots of turkey pot pies, turkey casserole, and turkey noodle soup in our future :)

 

Anyway...even though it wasn't done in time, it did turn out well. So I figured I would share what I did with you, in case you are the type of family who does a turkey for Christmas as well? I know some people do that but I enjoy a good ham for Christmas...mmmmm, love me some spiral cut ham! OK, first thing is first...I put in a call to my friend Chrissy who is the turkey guru in my world. He recommended using a bag, which cuts down on the baking time significantly. You can do a 20 lb turkey in 3 hours! My issue with estimating cook time was that I used a roaster and when everyone and their brother comes by and opens it to check on the bird, it lets out alllllll the heat. If we had done this in the oven, the outcome would've been different, me thinks. Oh, well...

 

The secret to a not-dry bird (avoiding that m-word is hard...not many synonyms sound appetizing...damp and wet don't seem to work) is to stuff that sucker! I used onion, apple, and celery since those tend to work the best (or so I'm told).

 

Fill your cavity with as much as you can fit!

 

Throw your bird in your bag (in the plastic baggie aisle at your grocery store) and season it with your rub a dub before securing the bag shut. I then slit a couple holes in the bag to allow steam to escape.

I got this concoction from a McCormich spice ad I saw in a magazine, and then added some smoky applewood rub I received as a gift for a little extra taste.

rubbed sage
paprika
lawry's seasoned salt
garlic powder
ground black pepper
ground nutmeg

I didn't measure, rather just sprinkled the bird generously with that list. The skin turned out perfect with the dry rub, and the bird was perfect once it was done. Too bad we didn't have the option of eating it for the big dinner, but the fried bird that Main Man does each year is always a crowd pleaser. I also melted some butter with garlic powder in it and injected the turkey with as much as it would hold before roasting. You won't get a dry turkey if you inject it enough and don't overcook it!

Now that we're back in the swing of things and my deathly disease (I think I had the flu last week after talking to a few people about the symptoms), get ready for some awesome recipes this week that I've got stockpiled for you. I am ready to be a good blogger and give you the regular posts you deserve up until my next hiatus when Christmas hits! Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season as much as I am...we got a dusting of snow this weekend but nothing that stuck. As long as we get a white Christmas, I'll be a happy girl and Mother Nature can keep the white stuff to herself. Happy Monday, all!