Thanksgiving Turkey Tutorial

[Jinjeet Phoenix]

Gosh!!!!  It's getting close now.  I've preordered my turkey and am supposed to pick it up tomorrow.  I've heard of this method of making turkey but was kinda....like....pu t my hand in where?  Okay, I did try it once on a chicken but I guess it's me that's the chicken but it did turn out fantastic and worth always putting the herbs under the skin.  Thanks for these pictures.  Sweets, you do do stuffin' also right?  One doesn't detract from the other? (It's the first time I'm doing Thanksgiving in a very long time....long story...so I'm slightly stressed, that's all.lol)

[sweets4ever]

Yes and no about the stuffing.  I have made it with this method and it was nummy, but it was just for visitors.  Hubby and I prefer to just stuff ourselves with more bird and less stuffing.   The stuffing made with this method has a distinct wine-infused flavor, though!  It's nummy.  We're just not really stuffing people, haha.

No stuffing this year!

[sweets4ever]

Happy Thanksgiving!!

[SugarySweet]

That looks really good. The pictures are great.

I'm going to try this when I cook the turkey I bought. I usually make in Jan. or Feb. 

[Jinjeet Phoenix]

Thank you Sweets.  By the time I saw your post my turkey was already in the oven.  I was too afraid in the end to use wine cause that turkey was just about the size of my oven.  (I'd ordered a much smaller one but this is what I got)  I was afraid that when I basted that the wine would catch fire. lol..I did put the spices under the skin.  Yucky doing it but sure did add to the turkey.  I love the stuffing part.  I guess that once a year I can splurge.lol.  Thank you again and Happy Thanksgiving.

[sweets4ever]

That looks really good. The pictures are great.

I'm going to try this when I cook the turkey I bought. I usually make in Jan. or Feb. 

Thanks!!

Thank you Sweets.  By the time I saw your post my turkey was already in the oven.  I was too afraid in the end to use wine cause that turkey was just about the size of my oven.  (I'd ordered a much smaller one but this is what I got)  I was afraid that when I basted that the wine would catch fire. lol..I did put the spices under the skin.  Yucky doing it but sure did add to the turkey.  I love the stuffing part.  I guess that once a year I can splurge.lol.  Thank you again and Happy Thanksgiving.

That's so funny about the size of the turkey and alcohol/fire/oven!   How many pounds was yours?  The one I made today was 17, but mr.sweets will have it eaten in a few days no doubt.

[Jinjeet Phoenix]

lol.  I preordered a between 11-13lb female turkey.  When I called them (He was supposed to call me) on Wed. to confirm that it arrived the butcher told me that it was a 19lb turkey.  I told him that that was huge and that I didn't know if I could even get that in my oven (small ovens here).  I've had to "squish" turkeys into my oven before.  Imagine a very very wide flat turkey.lol.  Anyhow, when I went to get it that night they had my turkey nicely "groomed" and a whopping 20.0 lbs.  Yep I squished and reformed that turkey.lol.  It was less than an inch on all sides from touching the sides of my oven from back to front also.  SO you can imagine that that is the last thing I'd want.  As is when I basted the thing it went all over the place.  I'm positive that the oil and spices under the skin saved that from being too "crispy".lol.  I did make a foil tent or it.  I must say though that this was the first time that I've put a turkey in the oven sideways.  Oh well, I thought that was funny and kept laughing every time I basted.  It's over for this year and now I'm getting ready to make a big meal for Friday night.  Isn't this fun?  Thanks so much for your recipe.  I've saved it for next year too. (Sorry, I do tend to ramble on line.)

[McJulie-O]

Followed your instructions on my 14 pounder, except for the wine, which I didn't have on hand, and THERE WERE NO LEFTOVERS! I had to make soup with a stripped carcass...

AND bake another turkey the next day (still had sleepover company), but this one was a tasty pre-smoked turkey from HEB, so even though it was a bit smaller, my guests had gotten their turkey "fix" the day before, and this one lasted at least a couple meals.... and then more turkey soup!

I love turkey.... and I love turkey soup, too!

[sweets4ever]

lol.  I preordered a between 11-13lb female turkey.  When I called them (He was supposed to call me) on Wed. to confirm that it arrived the butcher told me that it was a 19lb turkey.  I told him that that was huge and that I didn't know if I could even get that in my oven (small ovens here).  I've had to "squish" turkeys into my oven before.  Imagine a very very wide flat turkey.lol.  Anyhow, when I went to get it that night they had my turkey nicely "groomed" and a whopping 20.0 lbs.  Yep I squished and reformed that turkey.lol.  It was less than an inch on all sides from touching the sides of my oven from back to front also.  SO you can imagine that that is the last thing I'd want.  As is when I basted the thing it went all over the place.  I'm positive that the oil and spices under the skin saved that from being too "crispy".lol.  I did make a foil tent or it.  I must say though that this was the first time that I've put a turkey in the oven sideways.  Oh well, I thought that was funny and kept laughing every time I basted.  It's over for this year and now I'm getting ready to make a big meal for Friday night.  Isn't this fun?  Thanks so much for your recipe.  I've saved it for next year too. (Sorry, I do tend to ramble on line.)

!!  Your story is hilarious and I totally pictured your poor oven stuffed with a turkey.

Followed your instructions on my 14 pounder, except for the wine, which I didn't have on hand, and THERE WERE NO LEFTOVERS! I had to make soup with a stripped carcass...

AND bake another turkey the next day (still had sleepover company), but this one was a tasty pre-smoked turkey from HEB, so even though it was a bit smaller, my guests had gotten their turkey "fix" the day before, and this one lasted at least a couple meals.... and then more turkey soup!

I love turkey.... and I love turkey soup, too!

Woww... no leftovers!  That is awesome!

Hmm.  Do you have a recipe for the soup or do you just wing it?  Could you give me some hints, ingredients...anyth ing?  I've never made turkey soup, but I'd love to.

[McJulie-O]

Hmm.  Do you have a recipe for the soup or do you just wing it?  Could you give me some hints, ingredients...anyth ing?  I've never made turkey soup, but I'd love to.

Well, I make soup a lot so I pretty much wing it....but it almost always starts with some kind of broth made from simmering something with bones in it in water with chunks of onion and celery- the stronger tasting celery leaves are just fine in your stock in a BIG pot. (The turkey carcass after most everything has been carved off of it is perfect and can be cut into smaller pieces to fit into the pot, but we can get smoked turkey legs by themselves at the grocery store here, and they will work fantastically well, too- and have even more meat...a ham bone works and so does the carcass of a rotisserie chicken, and so do beef shank bones....I think you get the picture) Mmmm! Smoked turkey soup!

Once you have let what's left of the turkey and the onion and celery simmer for 45 minutes or so, you can let the whole thing cool down and you can fish out the bones so you can separate the meat from the bones; discard the bones and dump the meat back into your stockpot. If you stick the whole shebang in your fridge overnight you can skim off any fat that has risen to the surface the next day.

From this point you're ready to add other vegetables (carrots, tomatoes, you name it) or rice or another starch (adding shredded corn tortillas makes a good tortilla soup, if you add some RoTel tomatoes, and garnish w/ cilantro, avocado slivers, corn chips and shredded cheese on top- Yum!).

If you want MORE vegetables, you might want to add some V-8 juice to your stock and add the vegetables of a minestrone or pasta fagioli type soup (zucchini chunks or cooked red beans)

If you want to turn your lovely turkey broth into a cream soup, all you need is some milk or cream with some flour to thicken it, kind of how you would add the same to sauteed mushrooms for mushroom soup. You have to be careful when adding milk to hot liquids though... the standard procedure is to add some of your hot broth to your milk, and then return the mixture to your big pot to just barely simmer (High temps and vigorous boiling will curdle the milk)

Goodness, I hope this isn't too much info.
Basically,
Step 1: Big Pot + bones + onion + celery + water => simmer for at least 30 minutes, and sometimes a lot more if I get distracted
Step 2: Get rid of just the bones, saving the meat that mysteriously appeared
Step 3: Add flavorful embellishments and cook until done (i.e. throw in all your other leftovers).
Step 4: Impress friends and family with your domesticity.
You might need to add salt, ....or not.....