The centerpiece of the holiday table-Roast Turkey. You have to get this right, so here’s Sweet Daddy D’s no-angst way to prepare Herb Roasted Turkey, starting with a dry brine to keep it moist and using fresh herbs and lots of butter for an unforgettable flavor.
Roast Turkey wit Herb Butter
Roast turkey can be pretty intimidating. The entrance of the roasted turkey, sitting proudly on the platter, always gets some Oohs and Aahs. It's placed on the table to everyone's awe...the chef is praying that it's not just pretty, but that it's cooked perfectly-not overcooked or under-cooked, but juicy and melt in your mouth. No pressure, right? Relax, you got this, follow these steps and your Roast Turkey will be the thing of holiday legends.
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Here’s What You Need
The Bird
- 12 to 14-pound fresh turkey, but for use whatever size suits your need, just adjust the ingredients and time proportionally.
- You can also use a frozen turkey and here is what Butterball says about proper thawing. Make sure you allow enough time to thaw the bird!
- Not sure what size to get? Here is a link to a calculator from Butterball about how to choose what size turkey you need. Spoiler alert, it’s around 2 pounds per person. It will also tell you to allow around 15-18 minutes per pound for a turkey cooked without stuffing.
A beautiful bird!
Dry Brine
- A Dry Brine is mostly salt-I use Kosher Salt because of the purity and the particle size.
- The other key ingredients:
- lemon zest
- garlic (through a press). Substitute granulated garlic if you want-use about ⅛ teaspoon per clove.
- Dry oregano leaves, dry basil leaves, dry thyme leaves and freshly ground black pepper.
Dry brine ingredients
Herb-Butter Paste
- Butter (you can use salted or unsalted)
- garlic, lemon juice, kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Fresh Herbs:
- Oregano, Basil, Tarragon, Marjoram, Rosemary, Thyme and Sage. Substitute or subtract what you like or what you can find that sounds good
- Stuff the cavity with:
- onions, celery, lemon, oranges, apple, and a bundle of fresh herbs.
Here's what you need for the herb-butter paste
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Here’s What You Do
First...you have a beer. This will all come together in about three parts. The dry brine, the naked rest and the roasting with an herb-butter paste. If you’re not very experienced at roasting turkeys, it may seem challenging, but let's keep it no-angst by being prepared. Do your mise en place, have a beer while you read through the recipe and gather up what you need. Check out the Hints and Tips below for some other angst-relieving ideas. If you have a frozen turkey, make sure to start defrosting early-check out this article from Butterball about defrosting turkeys.
Mix the Brine Ingredients
This is the simple part-mix all the dry brine ingredients together in a small bowl and set it aside while you prep the turkey. To make sure the lemon zest and the garlic gets distributed throughout, you’ll likely need to use your hands.
Mix the dry rub ingredients
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Prep and Brine Turkey
Remove the giblets from inside the turkey and set them aside to use for something else-they are perfect for oyster dressing or Homemade Turkey Stock. Rinse the turkey inside and out with cold water and dry it very well with paper towels. Liberally coat turkey inside and outside with the dry brine; place the bird on a rack over a baking pan and refrigerate uncovered for 12 - 14 hours (1 hour per pound).
Spread the dry brine inside and outside
Rinse and Dry the Turkey Skin
Take the bird out of the fridge and rinse off the dry brine thoroughly inside and out; make sure you’re getting all the brine out from the nooks and crannies; dry the bird with paper towels thoroughly-again, inside and out.
Now rinse off the dry-brine
Place the turkey back on the rack and store again in the refrigerator, uncovered, for 4 to 6 hours. The is the naked rest-this step serves to dry out the skin and make it crispy when roasted. You may be able to see that the skin is more translucent and tighter after the naked rest.
Dried skin-kind of translucent
Apply the Herb Butter Paste
About an hour before the bird finished the naked rest, take the butter out of the fridge to soften. The butter should be very soft, but not totally melted when you mix the Herb-Butter Paste ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.
Herb butter paste
Tie the fresh herb sprigs leftover from the Herb Butter Paste together butcher twine and set aside. Cut the apple, orange, yellow onion into quarters, slice the garlic in half and cut short pieces of celery.
This gets stuffed in the cavity
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Prepare the cavity first before moving to the outside by rubbing the cavity liberally with Herb-Butter Paste then stuffing the tied herbs deep inside and follow with as much of the apple, orange, yellow onion quarters and garlic halves as possible. Depending on the size of the bird and the cavity, this may not all fit. On the outside, the Herb Butter paste will go under and over the skin. Loosen the skin on the breast side turkey by sliding your fingers under the skin and moving them deeper under the skin while you hold the skin with the other hand. Spread the Herb Butter Paste underneath the loosened skin as much as possible, then rub it all over the outside (top and bottom) of the bird. Leave as thick of a coating as you can on top of the bird. The bird will be cold, so the butter may not want to cooperate. If it's thick on top, it will baste itself. It is acceptable to melt the Herb Butter Paste and liberally brush it all over the bird if you prefer.
Ready for the oven
Roast the Bird
Spray a roasting rack and roasting pan with nonstick spray. Place the buttered bird on the roasting rack set in the roasting pan. Place the roasting pan in the preheated 325-degree oven for about 3 to 3 ½ hours, until the breast temperature is 170 and the thigh 165 degrees when measured with an instant-read thermometer. Tip-start checking the temperature after about 2 ½ hours. Once the turkey has reached the desired temperature, the skin should be golden brown. Remove it from the oven and let the bird rest for about 20 minutes.
Here she is!
That's it, all there is to it.
Hints and Tips
- If you have a frozen turkey, make sure to start defrosting early. There are lots of tips on the Butterball website.
- Don't forget to set the butter out to get soft a few hours before you need it.
- Crunched for time? Special holidays deserve special treatment-but sometimes there just isn't time, so if you need to skip the dry brine step and/or the naked rest, this will still be a delicious Herb Roasted Turkey
- While it's roasting, if your bird is getting too brown before it's done, you can cover it loosely with foil while it roasts. Covering the points of the wings with foil will also assure that they don’t burn, which they have a tendency to do!
- Leftovers? You can wrap them and keep in the fridge for 3 or 4 days, or freeze them. You should remove any bones and place them in an airtight container, but they should be good for at least 3 months. To re-warm, slip them in a saucepan with a little water or (better yet) gravy and simmer until warm. In a 325 degree oven, wrap in aluminum foil and check back in 20 minutes-try to hit 165 degrees, internal temp.
- More questions? Check with the people at Butterball, they seem to know a lot about turkeys. Unfortunately, I have no affiliation with them, I just know an expert when I see one.
- It's important to make sure you are handling turkeys properly and cooking to appropriate temperatures. This is an interesting article from ThermoWorks® about all things temperature-related. The turkey is done when the temperature is right. Make sure to use a reliable instant-read thermometer to check the progress. I use the Thermopen® because it has been extremely reliable for many years. Here is the ultimate guide to turkey temperature: Turkey Thermometer Guide from ThermoWorks®. I am proud to be affiliated with ThermoWorks® and share their wonderful products with you, but I want you to know that I will receive a small fee from Thermoworks, at no additional cost to you, should you purchase any product through my links.
- Want to learn more about dry brining? Check out this informative article.
Here are some ideas of what to do with the leftover:
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Yeah You Right!
Sweet Daddy D's Herb Roasted Turkey
Here's What You Need
- 12-14 pound fresh turkey
Dry Brine
- ⅔ cup kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons dry oregano leaves
- 2 tablespoons dry basil leaves
- 1 tablespoon dry thyme leaves
- 2 tablespoons ground fresh black pepper
- 10 cloves garlic pressed
Herb Butter Paste
- 2 sticks Butter very soft but not melted
- 5-6 cloves garlic pressed
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- Juice of 1 Lemon
- 1 tablespoon each of these FRESH herbs chopped fine: use more or less of each according to your taste
- Oregano
- Basil
- Tarragon
- Rosemary
- Thyme
- Sage
To Stuff the Cavity
- 1 quartered Apple
- 1 quartered yellow onion
- 1 quartered orange
- 1 head garlic sliced in half
- Sprigs Fresh Herb tied together
Here's What You Do
Dry Brining
- Mix the Dry Brine ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.
- Remove giblets from inside turkey and reserve for another use. Rinse turkey inside and out and dry very well with paper towels.
- Liberally coat turkey inside and outside with dry brine; place the bird on a rack over a baking pan and refrigerate uncovered for 12 - 14 hours (1 hour per lbs)
- Rinse off the dry brine thoroughly inside and out; dry the bird with paper towels; place back on the rack over the baking pan and store again in refrigerator uncovered for 4 to 6 hours or longer if possible. (This helps to dry off the skin which will help make the skin crispy when roasted).
Prepping the BIrd
- While the bird is sitting in the fridge, mix all the Herb-Butter Paste ingredients together in a bowl and set aside. The butter should be very soft, but not totally melted. Tie the fresh herb sprigs left over from the Herb Butter Paste (fresh sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, tarragon and basil) together with butcher twine and set aside. Cut the apple, orange, yellow onion and garlic into the proper sizes.
- Remove the turkey from the refrigerator.
- Prepare the cavity first before moving to the outside: Rub inside the cavity liberally with Herb-Butter Paste, then stuff the cavity with herbs, fruit and veggies:
- Place the tied herbs deep in the cavity and follow with as much of the apple, orange, yellow onion quarters and garlic halves as possible. Depending on the size of the bird and the cavity, this may not all fit.
- To loosen the skin on the turkey, slide your fingers under the skin, moving your fingers deeper under the skin while you hold the skin with the other hand. Spread the Herb Butter Paste underneath the loosened skin as much as possible, then rub the Herb Butter Paste all over outside (top and bottom) of the bird. Leave as thick of a coating as you can on top of bird.
Roasting
- Preheat oven 325 degrees
- Spray a roasting rack and roasting pan with nonstick spray. Place the buttered bird on the roasting rack set in the roasting pan.
- Roast at 325 deg for about 3 to 3 ½ hours, until breast temp is 160-165; thigh 170-175 degrees. Cover with foil if browning too much or when it is golden brown.
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