Roast Turkey

Roast Turkey

Your Key Ingredient:

NESCO 18 Qt. Roaster Oven

Grocery Ingredients:

One 14 to 22 lb turkey, fresh or frozen
Poultry seasoning
Salt & pepper
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 teaspoon browning sauce such as Kitchen Bouquet® (optional)

Instructions:

  1. Preheat 18 quart NESCO® Roaster Oven to 400° F. Clean and rinse turkey. Pat dry.
  2. Remove neck and giblets. If desired, prepare separately. Place turkey on rack. Use a pastry brush to spread mixture of butter and browning sauce evenly over turkey skin. Season with poultry seasoning, salt and pepper.
  3. Determine length of roasting time, normally 12-15 minutes per pound (fresh) or 15 to 20 minutes per pound (frozen or stuffed). Stuff cavity, if desired. Cover. Roast one hour at 400° F.
  4. With baster, remove any liquid and fat from cavity of bird and cookwell. Set aside to make gravy. Brush bird with basting liquid or butter mixture. Reduce temperature to 350° F. Roast for remainder of cooking time.
  5. Use baster, to remove any liquid from cavity of bird and from cookwell when cooking time is about half-way through. If dry, baste turkey with basting liquids. If turkey isn’t as brown as you like it, increase temperature to 400° F. Roast remaining portion of time.
  6. Use lift handles to remove turkey. Be careful – rack will be hot. Set turkey on a platter or cutting board. Let stand 10 minutes before slicing. If turkey is done early, reduce temperature to 200° F until serving time.

Note: Roast turkey until internal temperature of meat reaches 165° F on meat thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh muscle. Save juice to make gravy or as a base for soup.

Variation: For extra flavor, add 1/4 cup apple or orange juice concentrate to butter basting mixture. If you choose not to stuff it, a sliced onion or a little garlic inside cavity of turkey also gives it a nice flavor.