Turkey for a Crowd
By America's Test KitchenPublished on May 30, 2013
Time
3½ hours, plus 35 minutes resting
Yield
Serves 20 to 24
Ingredients
Before You Begin
You can use any roasting pan to roast the turkey, even a disposable one, but make sure to use a V-rack to keep the bird elevated. Be careful to dry the skin thoroughly before brushing the bird with butter; otherwise it will have spotty brown skin. Rotating the bird helps produce moist, evenly cooked meat, but for the sake of ease, you may opt not to rotate it. In that case, skip the step of lining the V-rack with foil and roast the bird breast-side up for the entire cooking time. Because we do not brine the bird, we had the best results with a self-basting (injected with salt and water) or a kosher bird (soaked in saltwater during processing). See below for tips on defrosting a frozen turkey.
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to lowest position; remove remaining racks. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Following illustration below, line large V-rack with heavy-duty foil and poke holes in foil; set V-rack in 15- by 12-inch roasting pan.
- Toss onions, carrots, celery, lemon, and thyme in medium bowl; set aside. Brush turkey breast with 2 tablespoons butter, then sprinkle with half of salt and half of black pepper. Set turkey breast-side down on V-rack. Brush with remaining 2 tablespoons butter and sprinkle with remaining salt and black pepper. Fill cavity with half of onion mixture; scatter rest in roasting pan and pour 1 cup water into pan.
- Roast turkey 1 hour; remove roasting pan with turkey from oven. Lower oven temperature to 325 degrees. Using clean dishtowel or 2 potholders, turn turkey breast-side up; return roasting pan with turkey to oven and continue to roast until legs move freely and instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part of thigh registers 170 to 180 degrees, about 2 hours longer. Transfer turkey to carving board and let rest, uncovered, 35 to 40 minutes. Carve and serve.
Time
3½ hours, plus 35 minutes restingYield
Serves 20 to 24Ingredients
Test Kitchen Techniques
Ingredients
Test Kitchen Techniques
Ingredients
Test Kitchen Techniques
Why This Recipe Works
For our big turkey recipe, we wanted a Norman Rockwell picture of perfection: crisp, mahogany skin wrapped around tender, moist meat. It was difficult to find a container large enough for brining such a big bird. So we chose either a self-basting or a kosher turkey. Both have been, in essence, brined— a self-basting bird is injected with a saltwater solution and the kosher bird packed in salt during koshering. Initial high heat gave our turkey a crisp skin, while lowering the heat for the remaining cooking time finished it off without drying it out. For such a showpiece, we wouldn’t think of serving store-bought gravy. We had plenty of time while the turkey cooked to prepare our tried-and-true giblet gravy recipe.
Before You Begin
You can use any roasting pan to roast the turkey, even a disposable one, but make sure to use a V-rack to keep the bird elevated. Be careful to dry the skin thoroughly before brushing the bird with butter; otherwise it will have spotty brown skin. Rotating the bird helps produce moist, evenly cooked meat, but for the sake of ease, you may opt not to rotate it. In that case, skip the step of lining the V-rack with foil and roast the bird breast-side up for the entire cooking time. Because we do not brine the bird, we had the best results with a self-basting (injected with salt and water) or a kosher bird (soaked in saltwater during processing). See below for tips on defrosting a frozen turkey.
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to lowest position; remove remaining racks. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Following illustration below, line large V-rack with heavy-duty foil and poke holes in foil; set V-rack in 15- by 12-inch roasting pan.
- Toss onions, carrots, celery, lemon, and thyme in medium bowl; set aside. Brush turkey breast with 2 tablespoons butter, then sprinkle with half of salt and half of black pepper. Set turkey breast-side down on V-rack. Brush with remaining 2 tablespoons butter and sprinkle with remaining salt and black pepper. Fill cavity with half of onion mixture; scatter rest in roasting pan and pour 1 cup water into pan.
- Roast turkey 1 hour; remove roasting pan with turkey from oven. Lower oven temperature to 325 degrees. Using clean dishtowel or 2 potholders, turn turkey breast-side up; return roasting pan with turkey to oven and continue to roast until legs move freely and instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part of thigh registers 170 to 180 degrees, about 2 hours longer. Transfer turkey to carving board and let rest, uncovered, 35 to 40 minutes. Carve and serve.
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