Turkey day 2018 is behind us, and I’ve finally had a chance to recover.
Just kidding, I really didn’t do any of the hard work, even though we hosted my mom’s side of the family in our home. And also, the house is still in disarray, so I can’t say I’ve really done much to move on from the chaos that any gathering creates.
I had the enormous help of many people, including my mother who made most of the side dishes, everyone who brought something with them, Monique who made one million desserts, and Torrie — who made.my.turkey. Yep, I’m a lucky gal. (You might remember that Monique and Torrie are here to help my grandma, but they often times help me in ways that are way beyond their job responsibilities). Even my daughter Claire chipped in, making place cards for all of our guests.
When I offered to host Thanksgiving – to give my mom and her family the opportunity to celebrate with my 95 year old grandmom, who we live with – I intended on doing the turkey and the trimmings myself. I mean, you can’t offer to host something and expect everyone else to do the work. Right?
Wrong!
Like I mentioned in my pre-holiday post, I’m not an idiot. When everyone started listing off what they were going to do, I did not argue. I could have insisted on doing it all myself, but that would have caused turmoil, and then in the end, I’d still be making a turkey. And, I have never made a turkey before, so why start now HAHAHA.
So I rolled with it, and I am glad that I did.
As with the eclairs that Monique made for a family gathering, the turkey making seemed pretty straightforward. But also as with the eclairs, I didn’t really have to do much. Torrie did all of the work. To be fair though, she did keep telling me how simple it was.
So even though Thanksgiving is behind us, I hear that some people eat turkey at Christmas. Perhaps you are one of those people, and you have been searching for a way to keep the process simple. Perhaps you don’t have a Torrie to do it for you. Well, you are in luck.
Here is a straightforward and rather simple guide for creating a beautiful Turkey for your holiday feast.
Of note – we were not stuffing this turkey, and the preparation was as simple as it gets with vegetable oil and salt.
I’m sure you could add any spices or flavorings you deemed fit. I would suggest also checking cooking times if you are stuffing your turkey, as those suckers need to bake longer.
Prepare yo’self:
- Clean out your sink and move everything out of the splash zone.
- Have some kitchen shears and a sharp knife nearby.
- Place a roasting pan with rack near to the sink (see the picture above).
- Have your seasonings ready, which will vary depending on your tastes. This turkey was simple, with just vegetable oil and salt.
- We used a Reynolds Oven Bag – you’ll want one of those, or a similar oven bag.
- You’ll need regular all-purpose flour to cover the inside of the oven bag.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Prepare the oven bag by dusting the inside with all-purpose flour. Situate it on the rack, in the roasting pan, ready for the turkey to be placed inside.
Wash and trim the turkey, cleaning out the inside. As I’ve noted before, this is not a recipe blog. I can’t give you much more instruction on cleaning out the turkey or ‘washing it’ appropriately, but I can direct you to this helpful video.
Once the turkey has been appropriately cleaned and trimmed, transfer it to the oven bag and center it on the rack.
After the turkey is situated inside the bag, sprinkle the vegetable oil on, and rub it in. If you’re the skeevy type, you could always throw on a pair of gloves.
Generously salt the turkey, inside and out.
Tie the bag, and cut slits to vent.
Put the turkey in the oven -and voila. The hard work is done.
There is no basting when using an oven bag – yay!
With the use of the oven bag, and the absence of stuffing, the cooking time was under three hours. Use a meat thermometer to assure that your turkey has reached a safe internal temperature – at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
I must admit that we made our turkey the day before thanksgiving, to make things a bit less crazy day of. While it was cooking, the house smelled amazing. Don’t worry, heating up the gravy and side dishes will provide the same ambiance, if you are concerned your guest will miss that.
The turkey came out smelling and looking amazing.
Torrie showed me that making a turkey was manageable. Next time I host, I think I can handle it on my own! Thanks, Torrie!
Although there is something to be said for presenting a beautiful turkey as a centerpiece to the holiday table, there is also something to be said for making it a day early, cutting it, and cleaning up the mess so as not to have to do it on YOUR holiday.
Life is all about choices, and I tend toward logic, ease, and simplicity.
Are you a turkey virgin? Do you have a story to tell about your attempts or successes with preparing a holiday meal? Share!
Turkey Looks great! Any time you are cooking a whole bird or roast it can easily get stressful because of the fear of messing it up. I tend to overcook my meat for that reason, im scared it will be raw. Your bird looks awesome and im going to attempt this recipe on a whole chicken with the olive oil and salt. Simplicity sometimes creates the best product. We fried our turkey this year which was great as it only took an hour, but i was having anxiety all day seeing the naked raw bird sitting out waiting to be cooked. Im a 7am put the turkey in kind of girl haha! We do a rib roast for Christmas and that is delicious! Also only takes about 1.5 hours but its an expensive piece of meat so im always nervous the whole time cooking it! Happy Holidays in the kitchen!