Cooking Wine for a Delicious Turkey: A Culinary Guide

A straightforward recipe for a traditional roasted turkey that makes a gravy your family will love with the help of vegetables and a white wine baste. Includes cooking tips and the number one way to keep your turkey moist.

Like many of you, we like to surround a flavorful turkey with our favorite side dishes for our holiday meal traditions, and this recipe for white wine roasted turkey with a delectable white wine baste has been a favorite for years.

It’s simple and easy, the wine adds great flavor, and it makes the best gravy ever.

Purchasing two or more turkeys during a sale is an excellent method to save money. Roast your holiday turkey and freeze the other one to cook later in the winter.

During the months of January or February, I usually roast an extra turkey for dinner or a weekend meal prep day. We consume the fresh portion while chopping up the remaining meat for freezing.

Stocking up on cubed, cooked turkey in the freezer is a great convenience food since it can be used in any recipe calling for chicken or turkey, such as these beloved rotisserie chicken recipes.

White Wine Roasted Turkey

Roast Turkey: Have you ever been anxious about preparing a turkey? I used to practically quake at the mere thought of it; it seemed so unsettling, especially when I considered the guests who would be waiting for the centerpiece of the meal.

Since then, I’ve made a Thanksgiving Day turkey countdown that includes all the instructions and times you need to put the bird on the table. You can find it in The Holiday Season Planner’s Thanksgiving Week Countdown. Its free for subscribers to our weekly newsletter – sign up here!.

Here are some things Ive learned from years of turkey roasting:

• Unless it’s an enormous bird, it doesn’t take as long as you might think.
• Less complicated is preferable (I’ll let others handle the day-long brining, turning while hot, and other methods).
• Using a thermometer is key to moist white meat.
• Everything tastes better with gravy, even the dreaded dry breast.

This recipe covers it all:

• 15 minutes to prepare.
• Cooked in less than three hours (partially covered with foil to allow for self-baste)
• Tested for doneness with an instant read thermometer.
• And since this recipe makes a truly wonderful gravy, point #4 is a total win, so you can roast your turkey with confidence!.

Make Broth: You can make a simple turkey broth by placing the neck and some vegetable scraps in a sauce pan, adding water, and cooking for a few hours while the turkey roasts.

If necessary, use this broth for the gravy and other side dishes, such as our family’s infamous sausage-cranberry dressing that makes everyone lick their plates clean.

To tell the truth, I’ve always been more nervous about making the gravy than about roasting the bird. The process of creating a delicious, lump-free gravy seemed to take a lot longer.

I’ve experimented with various thickeners, such as beginning with a white sauce, shaking in a jar with cold water, and more, but this simple technique—whisking the flour into a small amount of the bubbling broth and then gradually adding the remaining broth—keeps working the best for me.

Although our family prefers the texture of gravy made with flour, you shouldn’t let that deter you from trying this recipe because it’s simple to modify this wine-based gravy to use potato or cornstarch if you’re gluten-free.

Every time I serve this recipe for roasted turkey, I always get tons of compliments on the gravy. Everyone loves it as much as I do.

Dont just take my word for it, though – check out these readers who feel the same way:

There is zero anxiety involved with cooking this turkey – yay!

Roast Turkey FAQ’s & Tips

How long does it take to roast a turkey?

This is a complex question that depends on the size of the turkey, the temperature of the oven, whether the turkey is stuffed, and whether it is cooked under cover.

For instance, the 10–12 pound turkey in this recipe would take three hours to cook according to the basic recommendation of 20 minutes per pound. 5-4 hours, which is much longer than the 2 hours 40 minute cooking time in the recipe.

This is because the recipe that follows begins by roasting at a higher temperature, then reduces it to 350 degrees and bakes for an hour while covered with foil.

Using a thermometer inserted into the thigh and cooking the bird until its internal temperature reaches 160 to 165 degrees is the REAL way to determine how long to roast a turkey. (The turkey temperature will rise 5-10 degrees as it sits after removing from the oven. ).

How do I keep my turkey moist?

This is probably the #1 issue that people deal with, but it really refers to the breast meat, since the dark meat has more fat and so is usually very moist.

Here are the things you can do to keep your turkey breast meat juicy:

• #1 is use the thermometer and check the temperature 30 minutes to an hour before you think it should be done. The insert pop-ups should not be relied upon, as they frequently appear when the breast has already overcooked.
• For the first forty to sixty minutes, cook the turkey with the breast side down. I don’t bother because it’s not the easiest thing to do, but if you’d like to, give it a shot.
• A few days before cooking, salt the turkey using a “dry brine” method: coat a 12- to 15-pound turkey with 2-3 tablespoons of sea salt or 3–4 tablespoons of kosher salt, then refrigerate it, uncovered, for up to 72 hours. You won’t need to add any of the salt called for in the recipe, so don’t rinse and roast as you normally would. It doesn’t make it too salty. Note: only natural turkeys without the addition of saline solution (“self-basting”) will work with this.
• Let the turkey rest for 20 minutes, uncovered, before carving. It will continue to cook if you tent it with foil after taking it out of the oven. As the turkey sits, the juices will redistribute evenly.

Roasted Turkey Cooked with Wine & Herbs Recipe