What you need:
Turkey (obviously)
Citrus fruits (limes, lemons, oranges, grapefruit…couple of each, just 1 grapefruit)
4 cups chicken broth (or stock)
2 sticks of butter
1 tablespoon salt (I like pink Himalayan)
1 tablespoon fresh tarragon (this goes for this one and the rest of the fresh herbs I’m listing…the dried ones found in the spice aisle are fine too. It’s up to you)
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh sage
1 3/4 tablespoons fresh rosemary
4 cloves minced garlic or 4 heaping teaspoons of already minced garlic from the jar. Or more if you love garlic (or less if you don’t)
Position oven rack to lower third of oven. Preheat oven the 425°. Once you’ve taken your turkey out of the brine and completely patted it dry (and hopefully you already removed all that stuff from the insides!), season the cavity generously with salt and pepper. Cut your citrus fruits into wedges (you can leave the skin on them), and stuff them into the bird. STUFF IT!
Soften your butter so it’s mashable, but not melted. Add all of the other ingredients listed after 2 sticks of butter (from above ingredient list) and mix well. Reserve about a 1/4 of this mixture-set aside.
Using your hands, gently pry the skin away from the breast meat, working front to back, and slather that softened butter mixture in there (in between the skin and breast meat).
Melt down the mixture that you had set side and dunk your cheesecloth in there. Soak it. Completely cover the turkey with the soaked cheesecloth. I like to tuck in any pieces of cheesecloth that may be hanging over. I also cut a tiny hole where the turkey thermometer is so I can see when it pops up.
Pour your 4 cups of chicken broth or stock into the bottom of your roasting pan.
Place the turkey in your oven that’s at 425° for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, drop down to 350° (and bast, and do that approx every 45-60 minutes) and cook your turkey at 15 minutes per pound (so an example of the math on that would be 20lb turkey x 15minutes per lb = 300 divide that by 60 (minutes in an hour) = 5.
5 hours. But also account for the first 45 minutes in the oven at 425°….so less than that your turkey thermometer should pop up, or if you are using your own meat thermometer, stick that in the thickest part of the breast and if it reads 165°, you are good to go.
Do not worry if the cheesecloth looks like it’s browning, A LOT. That’s normal.
Also, this recipe is really intended for how to season your turkey and make it come out moist. I didn’t include “how to brine” although I did mention that I brine. I personally do, I just happen to like adding that step in. I have included a link below for the kit I use and they tell you step by step instructions on what to do. I usually do mine Tuesday night.
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