Roasting Turkey Notes

I volunteered to make the turkeys this year, one bird was 16 pounds, one 19 pounds. I hoped to smoke them, but I was not able to procure a smoker in time (or learn how to use one). Instead, we roasted them in our brand new oven (literally the second thing we made in it). The results were outstanding. Everyone raved about how juicy it was, but the truth is I overcooked it some but saved it using a hack I learned in this scenario. Here is what happened –

• Trussed both birds with garden twine, stuffed with quartered whole apples
• Roasted for 3.5 hours in Reynolds oven bag, coated in olive/vegetable oil and kosher salt
• Temped at 180, should not be higher than 165
• Cut down center breast bone to let steam escape
• Immediately began trimming turkey off bone, getting it too cool off as quickly as possible
• Boned out turkey, put in silver serving tray, and let it soak in the fat drippings from the bag for thirty minutes while it cooled off
• Boiled neck/giblets for stock to use to heat up turkey and seasoned it well
• Drained back out fat drippings to make turkey gravy and set aside
• Covered tray and put into refrigerator over night
• Before serving next day, set stock to boil, and ladled that over the cut pieces

Everyone went on and on about how good and juicy it was, even though I warned them it would not be. People don’t pull punches in my family, if it sucks they’ll make fun of you for it (or not say anything at all, that’s when you know you really screwed up). What saved it was the warm stock I poured over the meat to heat it up. I’ll do this again in the future, although one day I do hope to smoke a bird for our next get together.