MUCHA ALE | FOOD AND LIFESTYLE: Recipe: My first baked turkey

"The first time I baked a turkey" was supposed to be on Thanksgiving, in November, but it was delayed. There was a lot of anticipation because the supermarket clerk sold us on the idea (and the turkey) that it would sell out. We did not count on being invited to a Thanksgiving dinner in another city. But the bird still got what was coming to it and I made it during the first week of December.

Pavo al horno

What I learned about making a turkey is that you need patience and strength (because it weighs a lot). I began by thanking the turkey for its sacrifice and also toasting with myself to it tasting good. A little bird recommend to me to have a drink while preparing the turkey. Listening to music also helps.

Coming back to the recipe, it is based on the Baked Christmas Turkey entry from my Nicolini cookbook. With all the recipes online, this is a good one for beginners. The outcome was a turkey with a nice flavor and the gravy was like a vegetable cream.

I hope you like it! Happy holidays!

Before you begin
- You can thaw the turkey by soaking it overnight in salted water. After that, keep in in the refrigerator and don’t remove the wrapping until you are ready to cook.
- The baking time depends on the weight of the turkey and if it has stuffing. The turkey I used was 13 lb / 5.8 kg and stuffed, and took 4.5 hours to cook. I used the guide here.
- You can check if the turkey is ready with a baking thermometer or by making small cuts. If you are using a thermometer, the turkey will be ready when the leg temperature is 165 ° F. If you are not using one, the turkey will be ready when the juice that comes from cuts between the chest and leg don’t contain blood and are colorless.
- A lot of recipes recommend using a rack over your tray. You can make one by twisting aluminum into tubes and cross them over the tray.

Rejilla hecha con papel aluminio

- I followed a video from Real Simple for how to carve the turkey. They recommend to remove the wings, legs, and chest (on both sides), and then slicing and / or removing the meat from these pieces. The video is very illustrative.

Ingredients
1 medium turkey, thawed - turkey used was 13 lb / 5.9 kg
3 onions, in slices
4 celery sticks, diced
1 leek, in slices
2 peppers, in slices
150 grs of butter
4 tablespoons of Italian parsley, chopped
4 tablespoons of fresh rosemary - if you don’t have fresh, it can also be dried
1 tablespoon of fresh thyme - if you don’t have fresh, it can also be dried
1 whole garlic, peeled and minced
4 cups of chicken broth - I prepared it by boiling 5 cups water, 1/2 chicken breast, turkey neck, 1 stick celery, and salt
Salt and ground pepper
Stuffing - Some people use bread and vegetables. I used Rice with Noodles and Fungi
2 tablespoons of cornstarch or other starch - to give the gravy consistency

Tools
1 tray
Aluminum foil
Cooking string
Turkey baster

Preparation
Preheat the oven to 350 °F.

Consider having one drink while you cook

Place the onion, celery, leeks, and pepper on the tray.

Onion, celery, leeks and pepper in the tray

Clean the turkey with water, just as you would with chicken or meat. Remove the neck and giblets, if needed. Cover generously with salt and ground pepper.

Place the turkey over the tray with the chest facing up. Tie the legs together with the string.

Melt the butter and mix it in with the herbs and garlic. Spread the mixture over the turkey. Add the filling of your choice inside the turkey. Pour the chicken broth over turkey.

Cover the tray with foil.

Cover with foil

Place in the oven and cook for the required period. Remove the aluminum cover 45 minutes before you finish cooking so that it can brown.

When ready, turn off the oven and let cool for 20 minutes, minimum.

Carefully remove the source from the oven. With the help of the turkey syringe, remove the juice from the source and separate into a bowl. With the help of a carving (s) or other tool (s) remove the turkey to rescue the vegetables on which it was cooked. I used a cord to lift the turkey. Remove the vegetables from the source and separate into a bowl. With a spoon can remove the rice from the inside of the turkey and separate into another bowl.