What's not to like about Thanksgiving?! Cold weather, warm family gatherings, and license to eat all of the comfort foods I love the best. This year, my family's Thanksgiving celebration is at my house. Entertaining is one of my favorite things about (finally) having a house that's big enough and close enough to friends and relatives. I couldn't be more excited to host aunts, uncles, cousins, and my grandparents for the holiday (though technically, we'll be celebrating the weekend after the big day).
Excited as I am, however, I'm also a little bit terrified. I've never cooked a whole turkey before, and instead of starting with 2 or 4 people as I normally would, I'm jumping strait to a group of 16. I have no doubt that my trusted sources at allrecipes will do right by me.
Below is the recipe I plan to cook. (I've left the alternate temperature suggestions in for my mom and anyone else who might find themselves cooking in other than the most familiar circumstances.) Do you have any tips or tricks to help this first-time bird baker? Note that any suggestions to use a deep fryer will go unheeded. I'm going traditional this year :)
Ingredients:
1 12-pound whole turkey
6 tbsp butter
2 tbsp dried parsley
2 tbsp dried minced onion
4 cups warm water
3 tbsp chicken bouillon
2 tbsp seasoning salt
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Rinse and wash turkey. Discard the giblets, or add them tot he pan if they are anyone's favorites.
2. Place the turkey in a Dutch oven or roasting pan. (I'll be using the roasting pan.) Separate the skin over the breast to make little pockets. Put 3 tbsp of the butter on both sides between the skin andt he breast meat. This makes for very juicy breast meat.
3. In a medium bowl, combine the water with the bouillon. Sprinkle in the parsley and minced onion. Pour over the top of the turkey. Sprinkle seasoning salt over the turkey.
4. Cover with foil, and bake in the preheated oven 3-1/2 to 4 hours, until the internal temperature of the turkey reaches 180 degrees F (80 degrees C). For the last 45 minutes or so, remove the foil so the turkey will brown nicely.
