Roasted Buttered Garlic Herb Turkey

I know i'm a little late but... hey, who says we can't make and eat turkey any other day of the yr?? You can make this for xmas!:P

So this was my 3rd year preparing our Thanksgiving dinner. The past 2 years I made our turkey the same way, but this year I decided to go with something different. So I went with a roasted buttered garlic herb recipe. It was very simple, tasty and everyone loved it. We had a very small amount of leftovers and we had visitors the day after asking for more. :)

Here is how I made this roasted buttered garlic herb turkey.
This serves about 15-20 people

 Ingredients: 

•  16 lbs Turkey frozen or half thawed the night before.
  I soaked it overnight in equal parts vinegar and water to get rid of that nasty gamey flavor (unless you like that taste)Wild turkey usually has that flavor. Just make sure it's covered in the mix and in the fridge.
•  1 cup butter, softened 
• 2-3 tablespoons of red chili pepper flakes 
• 3 tablespoons of chicken flavor bouillon (recommended: Knorr) 
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic (I used the one that comes in a jar) 
• 2 tablespoons garlic herb sauce mix (recommended: Knorr) 
•  1 (32-ounce) bag celery 
•  2 small bags of carrots 
• 2 large onions, large dice 
• 1 (32-ounce) container low-sodium chicken broth (I only use swanson. Don't like the flavor of all the other ones) 1 small packet of zesty 
• Italian dressing mix (0.6 oz powder see below)

• 1 tablespoon salt 
• 1 tablespoon pepper 
• 2 small bouquets or small bunches of  fresh oregano 
• 1 bunch of flat leave parsley 
• 4 (3/4-ounce) packets fresh herbs poultry herb blend (sage, thyme and rosemary) If you grow your herbs at home, even better! 
•  2 lemons, thickly sliced 
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano 
• 1-1/2 teaspoons onion powder 
• 1-1/2 teaspoons garlic powder 
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes 
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 
• 2 garlic heads  

Directions:

In bowl, combine softened butter, garlic herb sauce mix, minced garlic a tablespoon of chopped rosemary and the rest of the dry ingredients (none of the other fresh herbs).
Use a fork to mix together until well combined. Cover and put in the refrigerator for 15 to 30 minutes, until firm but not hard. I prepared the butter mixture the night before and took it out of the fridge in the morning right before rinsing the turkey and getting everything else I was going to need together and ready. By then, the butter was nice and soft and ready to use.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Separate and peal one garlic head. Cut carrots in half both ways so that they are long and do the same with the celery. Rough chop one medium size onion and slice one lemon. Arrange celery, carrots, peeled garlic cloves,lemon and onion in the bottom of a roasting pan. Add chicken broth and set aside.

Rinse the thawed turkey and pat dry. Use your finger to carefully loosen the skin around the entire bird. Take the butter mixture and with your hands, rub the butter under the skin of the entire turkey, be generous (use almost half the mixture). Rub the remaining butter on the outside of the skin (all over the breast, wings and legs)and season with salt and pepper.

Stuff the inside of turkey cavity with the 2nd medium onion (chopped the same way as the other one), 2nd peeled garlic cloves, lemon slices, flat leave parsley, fresh oregano and fresh herb poultry blend at the end. (Truss if necessary.) Insert the pop-up thermometer at an angle about 3-inches down from the neck cavity and 2-inches from the breast bone, in the thickest part of the breast.

Place turkey on the bed of vegetables in roasting pan. Slightly cover with foil paper. Place in the oven and reduce temperature to 350 degrees F. Roast for 1 hour and 30 minutes, then baste with pan juices every 20 minutes until thermometer pops up or until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thigh registers 180 degrees F, about 4 hours. Remove foil paper only on the breast part for the last hour.

Enjoy!

I will post recipes for the sides I made as well.

Happy Holidays! 


Marysinn 
XOXO

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