Thanksgiving Turkey

This recipe is a combination Martha Stewart - Alton Brown. It has Martha's seasoning method with Alton's cooking method. I've made a turkey like this for the past 5 years, and it's always gone well for me!

Ingredients:

13 to 16 lb. turkey

1/4 to 1/2 cup Canola oil

1/2 cube butter - softened

1 tsp. salt

2 cloves chopped garlic - optional

2 tsp. dry sage or 2 Tb. fresh chopped sage

1 onion

2 celery stalks- optional

Fresh sage leaves - 2 sprigs

tin foil

Place frozen turkey in fridge 3 to 4 days in advance of Thanksgiving. You should allow 5 hours per pound for your turkey to thaw in the fridge.

On Thanksgiving morning, unwrap your turkey. Remove the giblets and rinse your bird. Pat dry with paper towels. Place your bird in a shallow roasting pan. Tuck the wings under the front of the bird. This keeps them from getting burnt.

Create a tinfoil tent for the turkey breast. To do this, take a strip of tinfoil and fold it in half. Shape it to exactly match the contours of the turkey breast. Press it down on the bird and fold in the edges to get the exact shape. Remove the tinfoil tent and set aside.

Cut onion in half. Cut celery into 3 inch sections, and rinse and dry sage leaves. Place all three into the cavity of the turkey.

In a bowl, combine the butter, sage and salt. This year I added garlic and it turned out well, so go ahead and add that too if you want.

Rub this mixture between the skin and the breast of the bird. You'll probably have to reach in there with a hand first and separate the skin from the breast. Once you've done that, you can go ahead and fill it up with buttery goodness. This will really flavor your meat.

Once you've filled it with as much butter as possible, take the remaining butter on your hands and wipe it on the outside of the bird. Once all your butter is gone, take some oil and continue to lightly rub the bird until all of the skin is lightly coated in oil. It may take 1/4 cup, it may not. You decide.

This is what it will look like as you place it on the bottom rack of the oven.

Bake the turkey in a 500 degree oven for 30 minutes. This will give it a golden brown texture on the top - thanks to all that butter and oil.

Then reduce the temperature to 350 degrees. Place the tinfoil tent over the breast of the bird and continue to bake for 2 to 2 1/2 hours for a 14 lb. bird.

Remove the bird from the oven when the thickest part of the breast is 161 degrees. I did a 23 pound bird this year, and it took about 3 hours and 45 minutes to bake.

The tinfoil tent keeps the breast from drying out. It did slide mine up a bit for the last hour of baking just so the bottom of the breast could get more golden.

Once your turkey is done, remove it from the oven and allow it to sit for 15 to 30 minutes.

Place it on a platter for all to see.

Then, pull out that carving knife and go at it!

Everyone is waiting to eat that turkey, and believe me they won't be disappointed!