Today is day #1 of 365 recipes in 365 days. My first recipe is a roasted brined turkey. I picked this recipe because making a turkey is a great way to stretch your budget. I will be posting two other recipes to use for turkey leftovers.
I used the Savory Turkey Brine recipe. The Turkey Brine gave it a really nice flavor and it was really super juicy. After the turkey sat overnight in the refrigerator, I followed these basic steps.
1. Remove turkey from the brine. Place turkey in shallow roasting pan atleast 2 inches deep. Heat the oven to 350. Brush turkey with vegetable oil or butter to prevent drying. If you have a meat thermometer, insert into thickest part of thigh.
3. Loosely cover turkey with a tent of foil. DO NOT wrap the turkey tightly. For the last half hour, remove foil. Roast at 325-350 degrees until the thermometer reads 180-185 degrees. I like to baste the turkey with its juices once an hour.
4. Let your turkey sit 20 minutes before you cut it.
Roasting Time Guidelines (remember every ovens temperature is different, so these are just guidelines – you will want to make sure you Turkey is cooked through)
8-12lbs 3 – 3.5 hours
12-14lbs 3.5-4 hours
14-18lbs 4.0 – 4.25 hours
18 -20lbs 4.25 – 4.75 hours
20-24lbs 4.75 – 5.25 hours
Kristin says
I meant the more the stock congeals when cold, the better it is for you :-) We don’t eat the fat…
Kristin says
Don’t throw away the bones & trimmings! It’s so easy to make stock with leftover turkey, which is so wonderful for soups and general cooking. After you’ve cleaned the bones of meat, throw everything (even reserved giblets if you don’t like to eat those) into a big stock pot and fill it with water (I usually use 1 1/2 gallons) and a tbsp or two of vinegar and let it sit for 1/2 hour. The vinegar helps to release nutrients from the bones. Then throw in some carrot and leafy celery stalks and maybe a quartered onion, cover and heat on high until it comes to a boil. Crack the lid but don’t uncover, turn the heat down to low and let it simmer all night long. The next morning, turn off the heat and fish out all the big pieces, then strain the rest. If you have refrigerator room or a cold garage, you can let the stock cool in its pot until the fat congeals and then pick it all off, or you can skim the fat off the warm stock. The more it congeals when cold, the better it is for you. We ladle ours into washed 32 oz yogurt containers and freeze them, and we don’t add any salt until they are being used. Sometimes we don’t add any salt at all! This stuff is so much healthier than store-bought stock and a turkey makes a ton for basically free!
We also save any chicken bones or giblets, etc. in a freezer bag as we have them and when the bag is full, it’s stock time.
Shannon says
Kristin,
Thanks for this. I am posting a turkey corn noodle soup to use the leftovers with and your stock is a beautiful usage of the leftovers.