Homestyle turkey recipe?

Question

I get to cook this year, and I am having trouble finding a SIMPLE recipe for the turkey. Every recipe I find has tons of ingredients that I'm not interested in using, like fruit, champagne, oysters, etc. I am making it for just me and my husband, and we don't like that fancy food network type cooking.
Can anyone recommend a simple way to prep the turkey for unsophisticated palates like mine?

Answer 1

Regular ole Turkey ( the best way mmmm)

(12 to 14 pound) turkey
1/2 cup melted butter
Salt
Freshly ground pepper
Ground sage
1 sheet aluminum foil, for tent



Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Remove the wrapping, drain the turkey, and blot the exterior dry with paper towels. Then remove the neck and giblets from the two cavities. Place the turkey breast-side-up in a shallow pan 2 1/2 or 3 inches deep. Brush or spritz the turkey with butter. Season with salt, pepper and sage. Insert an oven-safe meat thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh. Place the turkey in the 325 degrees F oven. Do not baste or open the oven door for 2 hours, 10 minutes of the cooking time. After 2 hours, 10 minutes of the cooking time has passed, the turkey will be a light golden brown. Baste turkey with remaining oil and place a tent of lightweight aluminum foil over the breast and continue cooking. Continue to roast until the thigh reaches a temperature of 180 degrees F. Once done, let the turkey rest for 20 minutes before carving.

Answer 2

the easiest way is to deep fry it, but you would need to have one of those cajun deep fryer setups to do that.

All you do is clean, dry and fry. 3 minutes per pound + 5 minutes. No batter, no spices required.

You could get a little fancy with this technique and use an injector to inject a marinade directly into the meat.

For simple oven recipe:

Thaw the turkey, if frozen in the fridge for a couple of days.

Basically all you do is clean the bird out, be sure you get the giblets and neck out which are stuffed inside the body. Rinse it out well, dry it.

Pre-heat oven to 350. Rub your bird with butter. Sprinkle with poultry seasoning if you want. Set the bird on a wire rack to elevate it so that heat can get to all sides equally. Bake until the little red deal pops up.

Don't stuff the bird, cook your stuffing in a casserole dish. If you stuff the bird it takes to long for the inside to reach temperature and you end up drying out the meat.

Let the bird rest for 20-30 minutes after you take it out of the oven before you cut into it. This is key to moisture.

Answer 3

cover the turkey in crisco, wrap the legs and wings in foil.
Baste it with the juice after an hour.
Add foil approx 45 minutes - 1 hour before complete so it does not burn.

If you want to make a stuffing for the turkey -- I suggest:

2-3 loafs of bread (enriched stuffing bread)
Leave it out to get hard starting tonight. Thursday morning, soak the bread in water and ring it out as best you can.
Blend 2 eggs, 1/2 - 1 onion, 2-3 celery stalks, sage, salt & pepper & the liver of the turkey (from the bag inside)
Pour this blended mixture over the pre-soaked/squeezed bread and mash together with your hands. Stuff the turkey and put remainder of stuffing in baking dish, cover in foil and baste with turkey juices so it doesn't dry out. (cooks about 20 minutes - make it HOT HOT HOT.)

Very old family recipe and YUM YUM YUM!

Answer 4

Make Stove Top stuffing, add chopped mushrooms, onions and celery, stuff the bird. Spray the entire outside of the bird with cooking spray. Put in in the oven at 275 for the first half of cooking time, loosely covered with foil. Turn it up to 400 for the last part and take off foil.

Answer 5

Easiest way to make a delicate, tastey, juicey turkey (and quick by the way) is use a Reynolds Baking Bag, all you do is add a couple of tbs. of flour to the bag, shake it all around- then put the turkey in (no prep needed, but you can salt it or season if you prefer) the bag, bake for 1/2 the time, and you will not beleive your taste buds! I swear by this!!

Answer 6

Cook the stuffing in a separate pot, NOT the cavity of the bird. Stuff the cavity of the bird with chopped celery and salt. Throw it out before serving the turkey.

Buy packaged or canned turkey gravy.

Answer 7

Brush will melted butter and herbs.