The juice and wine in the pan beneath the bird create a deliciously steamy environment for roasting, and the butter, when massaged under the bird’s skin, helps keep the breast meat moist. The result of the combination is an intriguing bird that crisps up nicely toward the end of cooking rather than at the beginning. The sweet-savory drippings make for excellent gravy.
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Hello, this sounds delicious. I was wondering how I could modify the recipe for a 17-20 lb bird? Thanks!.
Im wondering how to cook this bird if you are spatchcocking. Is it necessary to brown the skin of the bird in a skillet before placing it in the oven? Would it be detrimental to season the bird with salt or brine it a few days in advance of cooking? Would you still use the rack or lay the bird flat on the pan?
How come nobody is answering these people’s questions?? They would probably like an answer before Thanksgiving.
A version of this has been my go-to turkey prep for the last 2 years. Before cooking, I make a dry brine with salt, zest, and thyme for a day. I then use compound butter for cooking. Fabulous results!.
I brine all my turkeys regardless of what recipe I use. Never had a problem. Additionally, I cooked the bird at 450 for about 45 minutes last year, then turned it over and finished it at 350.
Hello Sam and Melissa! This meal looks amazing, but many of us are curious about the timings, temperatures, and weights of the turkeys. Thanksgiving is getting really close. Please help us all out and answer the questions in this stream. Thanks!.
This menu is fantastic, and I really like the dressing ideas. However, everything would taste better cooked at 350 degrees. To follow your plan, I actually start my turkeys at 425 degrees and then reduce the temperature to 350. You just need to begin an hour earlier or have another glass of wine and eat at five o’clock if you want to finish it that day. 400 pushes the fruits and vegetables to an uncomfortable level. Just look at the photos! Everything is too browned on the edges.
Cooking Times: 15 to 16-pound turkeys cook in 3 1/4 to 3 1/2 hours; 18 to 20-pound turkeys cook in 3 3/4 to 4 hours; 21 to 22-pound turkeys cook in 4 1/4 to 4 1/2 hours; and 24-pound turkeys cook in 4 1/2 to 4 3/4 hours at 400 F.
A small turkey @ 400 for 3 hours will be dry as dust. Beginning at 90 minutes, use your instant read to check the thigh. Yake the bird as soon as the dark meat close to the bone reaches 160 degrees. The breast will be done.
Stuffed bird takes longer to cook because the stuffing comes to temp last. While waiting for safely cooked stuffing in the bird the breast meat will over cook. No flavour gain in stuffing cooked in the bird, big loss with dry breast meat.
Would a bigger bird work at 400
Very interesting! The Diestel turkey folks (NORCAL) recommend a baste of buffer, salt and paprika. Additionally, they advise slowly pouring a glass of warm white wine over the turkey about 3/4 of the way through the baking process. During the high-temperature period, I keep liquid in the roasting pan – but not too much. In order to allow the bread, onions, and celery to caramelize at the high temperatures, sprinkle some of the stuffing into the pan’s bottom. Just dont let it burn! Leads to a dark, robust gravy!.
I used apple cider instead of orange juice, since thats what i had on hand. It was lovely and made for wonderful drippings for gravy.
My mother was the BEST cook (I know. EVERYBODYS mother was the best!). I agree with her that if I put liquid in the bottom of the turkey roasting pan, she would roll over in her grave and say, “I serve ROAST turkey, not STEAMED turkey!”
Before the big day, I would also like some important clarifications: 1) Are we placing the turkey on the rack above the pan, or below it among the wine, orange juice, and other ingredients? 2) Does this liquid cause the bird to steam? 3) With a larger bird, say 16 lbs. And 4) will this work well with a pre-brined organic never frozen bird? Isn’t it best to start high (400) and then go lower (350) once it starts to render the fat a bit?
I’ve always roasted turkey at a lower temperature because I was so pleased with how the 400 degree oven worked. I usually use the juices for gravy so the orange juice/wine changed that.
I’m made turkey meat, not the whole turkey and it turned out super delicious. The whole family enjoyed it. It was most and very flavorful. Highly recommend the recipe!.
Turkey was fine but the pan drippings were not great (too sweet for my taste) for gravy.
We made the best Thanksgiving turkey we’ve ever made by combining this with a brine with flavors similar to this one (the Easiest Turkey Brine on Simply Recipes website). Moist, flavorful meat with crispy skin. Plus it makes delicious gravy!.
Made this per the recipe in an electric countertop roaster set to 400. Was cooked (and acceptably browned) in under two hours. That meant it sat – tented – for more like an hour. No big whoop, really. The butter was difficult to spread, so next time I’ll soften it more as others have suggested. It turned out really nicely, though – moist and with good flavor and not noticeably “orangey. ” Gravy was delicious, too.
I created this bird nearly precisely as instructed, but I added some chopped (quarried) oranges, sweet onions, and fresh oregano and sage inside the cavity. I’ve always done this in the past and it makes the meat so moist. Thought it would play well with the compound sage and orange butter. I performed an 11-pounder and was correct when I reduced the weight to 350 after the first hour at 400. I did add more wine and OJ as I saw it was evaporating too much and needed more. Used Prosecco!.
Made pretty much as written. Might have been easier to spread butter if turkey got up to room temperature. And ultimately baked it for about 3. 5 hours, about half the time at 400 and half the time at 350. Turned out really well.
The flavors from the pan’s bottom sauce were really delicious, and it was a really different and intriguing way to prepare turkey. The compound butter rub was good but as someone suggested – make sure the butter is very soft. It was hard to work with the butter because it stuck to the fork more than the bird. Im thinking of trying this recipe with a chicken and maybe having the butter almost liquid.
Make sure the butter is really soft!!
All oranges squeezed fresh except we added about 1/4ish cup of dried orange to the gravy. There were three different types of oranges in total: blood oranges (four), sour oranges (one), and calamondins (one cup).
I cooked a 10-pound turkey and, after reading another comment’s advice, I lowered the temperature to 375 and cooked it for two hours. I followed the recipe exactly and it turned out perfectly! 5 hours . I took the thigh out of the oven when the temperature reached 160 after checking it at 90 minutes. Juiciest turkey I ever made!.
It is difficult to transfer the compound butter to the turkey skin, so spread it with a knife rather than your hands. Otherwise fantastic recipe.
This was delicious. Possibly the best turkey Ive roasted. Made the recipe with an 8-lb breast. No need to brine if you use a fresh turkey that comes in brine. There were still enough drippings to make some tasty gravy even though the wine and orange juice in the roasting pan’s bottom had burned and charred to a crisp. Next time Ill add some chicken stock to the bottom to try to prevent the burning.
I’m not usually a fan of garlic in roast turkey, but this one was excellent with the fresh orange zest and sage! Easily one of the best turkey recipes I’ve tried, and I’ve tried a few! The bird we roasted on the grill turned out to be juicy and flavorful, thanks to the convection roasting pan.
Within 20 minutes of placing the turkey in the oven, the butter mixture on top of the skin burned and turned into a puffy crust made of charcoal. The liquid in the pan turned to a black boiled syrup. I brushed off the charcoal into a dustpan. In the end we cut off the charred skin and the breast was moist and delicious underneath. Drippings were inedible. We used a sweet wine. Private notes are only visible to you.
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