Garlic & Herb Turkey
I am writing this to you during the Covid-19 crisis of 2020 where only option for meat/poultry at the store is currently expensive steak or a whole turkey. As you can tell, I chose the latter. This 13lb. turkey was $23 and it is about to last me several weeks. My worst fear, never wanting to eat turkey again. The best outcome, I come up with really great ways to use Thanksgiving leftovers.
Serves between 5-10 people
Ingredients
13lb. turkey
1 lemon
4 T (half-stick) butter
T c fresh thyme
1/4 c fresh chopped parsley
3 cloves garlic, minced
Directions
Remove the neck, gizzard or any other insides from the turkey. Make sure to rinse the turkey down and pat it as dry as you can with some paper towel. Place the turkey in a baking pan. Since my pan just fit the turkey, I also placed a sheet pan underneath to ensure nothing spilled over into the oven.
Preheat the oven to 325F.
Cut the lemon in half. Squeeze the lemon juice over the whole turkey. Stuff the lemon rind into the turkey.
Melt the butter and mix in the herbs and garlic. Then rub the mixture all over the turkey, even under the skin where you can. I suggest putting the butter in the fridge to bring to a softened state if you have time. If not you can still rub or brush on the melted butter.
Put the turkey into the oven to cook according to the rule 20 minutes per pound, so 4.5 hours for mine. You’ll want to check on it every hour. Once the skin get as golden as you want, you’ll cover it with foil and once the juices appear in the pan you’ll want to baste the turkey every 30 minutes or so.
Notes
Gluten-free: This recipe is gluten-free.
Dairy-free: This recipe is dairy-free.
Herbs: You can use any herbs you’d like. I also suggest sage, rosemary and dill as options.
Serving: I kept the amount of garlic herb butter to a minimum to keep it a little healthy, however if you aren’t concerned with that I suggest doubling the recipe.
If cooking with stuffing: You will not need to stuff the lemon in the turkey if you are cooking stuffing inside the turkey.
