Thanksgiving Turkey

Originally posted on November 25, 2004.

Since this Thanksgiving I was recently single (the cute woman I was dating dumped me several months back), and since I didn’t feel like going back to Phoenix to do the holidays with the family, and I didn’t feel like making merry with the crew at the old drop zone for their annual “homeless skydivers” Thanksgiving dinner.. I decided at the last minute to make my own turkey while I slacked in front of the Television..

Ingredients:

• 7lb Turkey
• Seasonings (Lemon Pepper seasoning, salt, pepper and garlic salt)

Other stuff you’ll need:

• Disposable aluminum baking pan
• Aluminum foil (to make the “tent” over the pan and cover the bird)
• Turkey baster (to marinate it a few times while baking so it’s moist)
• Meat thermometer (so you can make sure the cooked bird is 180°+ inside)

Basic Instructions:

1. Thaw the turkey. (several hours in the sink, or a couple days in the fridge)
2. Preheat the Oven to 350°.
3. Season with spices if you want.
4. Place in pan and make a foil “tent” over the turkey to cover it.
5. Place turkey pan in oven.
6. Remove to marinate with turkey baster every once in a while (optional).
7. Let cook for 2½ to 3 hours (About 20 minutes per pound is good).

Now on to photos for the rest!

First I laid out the pan and other stuff I might need. You’ll notice I got lazy with the stuffing and decided to go with “Stove Top” instant stuff, woo. I also bought a gravy packet you see on the right too that I mixed with the resulting broth to make gravy (covered later).

Here’s the frozen bird in it’s wrapper. (Keep it in the wrapper until it’s thawed)

I bought my turkey too late to let it thaw a couple or few days in the fridge. So I thawed it in a sink full of cold water for about 4 to 5 hours. Since it wanted to float, I turned it every 30 minutes or so. I also added ice cubes to the water to help keep it at a safe temperature while it thawed.

When you unwrap your turkey check the inside of it, especially down by the tail end. They usually put a packet of stuff in there containing the heart, gizzard and liver from the bird.. Pictured here is the liver. Some people like to fry it up (medium temp) and eat it, it’s actually not too bad and rich in iron. Good stuff.

Here is the heart from said package found in the bird. This little item kept the bird alive until it’s time to become a Thanksgiving turkey came. Some also cook this and eat it as well. I don’t, but to each there own.. Seems to me heart muscle might be kinda tough..

Preheat the oven to 350° so it will get up to cooking temperature beforehand.

Note: My gas oven’s temp is usually pretty off from what the dial reads.. So I would highly suggest using an Oven Thermometer to make sure the oven temperature is what you really want..

Here I placed the thawed bird in the pan, added some spices, and added the half of a chopped onion (does good things for poultry in my opinion) inside and on it, and readied it for the oven.

At this point it’s all done but the cooking, so you’ll want to cover the turkey with aluminum foil. You want to make a foil “tent” over the bird, so leave some space over the bird when you do it with a couple sheets of foil. This should keep the moisture in and all that, woo.

Then place the foil covered bird in the preheated oven..

After the cooking for 2½ to 3 hours insert your meat thermometer and make sure the turkey is at least 180° to the core, and in my case it was over 190°, very safe (and a little more done than needed, d’oh).

Note: Poultry can be quite dangerous if under-cooked. Make absolutely sure that all of the meat is fully cooked to at least 180° in the thickest part, like the thigh!

Here I used the baster to suck up all the resulting turkey broth and juices off and place into a measuring cup so I could make gravy from the broth. Here is where I used a sauce pan, the broth, and the gravy packet mentioned before to make gravy over low heat. Good stuff.

And here is the cooked turkey, ready to serve with the gravy and other stuff you might have made like stuffing, potatoes, etc.. Woo? (You can see where I’ve already ate a chunk out of the left side breast to see how it is)

The leftovers make some rad turkey sandwiches too, part of the reason I did it.