Roasted Herb Turkey for a Shared Platter

Roasted Herb Turkey for a Shared Platter keeps the shopping list focused on Whole Turkey of any size, Fresh Rosemary picked and chopped, and Fresh Sage picked and chopped. It serves 6 people.

Count on 20 minutes of prep, 2 hours of cooking, about 2 hours from the first measurement to the plate.

Ingredients Method

What goes in the bowl

• 1 Whole Turkey of any size
• 2 tablespoons Fresh Rosemary picked and chopped
• 2 tablespoons Fresh Sage picked and chopped
• 1 tablespoon Fresh thyme picked
• 1 onion peeled and halved or quartered
• Additional herbs if desired for the turkey cavity
• 2 tablespoons bacon fat melted, optional
• ¼ cup butter melted
• Kosher salt to taste
• Cracked Black Pepper to taste
• 1 cup Turkey or Chicken stock plus more as needed. My Homemade Chicken Stock Recipe is the way to go!

How the cooking goes

1. Heat the oven to 400°F.
2. Dry off the turkey. it helps to let it sit in the refrigerator for the final 12 hours uncovered. This allows the skin to dry and it will get crispier in the oven.
3. Set turkey, breast side up, in a roasting pan fitted with a roasting rack or a rimmed sheet pan fitted with a wire rack. Remove the packet of gizzards from the turkey’s body cavity. You can stuff them back inside, chop them up and use them in a stuffing, or you can cook them in some stock for you, your pets or to enrich your gravy.
4. Using kitchen twine, tie the turkey’s legs together. You use make several figure 8’s around the legs and then tie it off into a bow, but anything will work as long as the legs stay together!
5. Gently loosen the skin from the breast meat by running your hand between them. Use a sweeping motion with your fingers to break that connective tissue and free the skin. Try not to tear it. The skin is the protective barrier and our first line of defense against a dry turkey.
6. Once loosened, shove the chopped herbs between the breast meat and the skin. You could always put some butter in there to self-baste, but that is up to you.
7. Tuck the turkey’s wings under the thighs to keep the wing-tips protected. They burn easily and have a tendency to overcook.
8. Shove whatever leftover vegetables and herbs you have inside the turkey cavity. it helps to use onions, carrots, leek tops and herbs. This is optional but also a great way to add more flavor to the turkey and the turkey drippings (aka your gravy!).
9. Brush the outside of the turkey with melted bacon fat. This is optional. You could use olive oil or melted butter instead. Just don’t forget that whatever you put on the turkey will end up in the pan drippings then then in your gravy, if you are making gravy.
10. Sprinkle with kosher salt and cracked black pepper.
11. Tip chicken or turkey stock in the bottom of the roasting pan. Depending on the size of the pan, you can use more. You want to cover the bottom, which will keep the drippings from burning.
12. Oven-bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes and then reduce temperature to 325°F convection or 350°F conventional. Continue cooking until and instant read thermometer registers the temperature of the thickest part of the thigh as 165°F. The general rule of thumb is 13 minutes per pound at 350°F for an unstuffed turkey.
13. After 45 minutes you baste the turkey with a bit of melted butter. This is optional.
14. Put more stock or water as needed to keep the bottom of the pan from drying out. As the cooking progresses, there will be juices and fat that drip from the turkey and you won’t need to add as much.
15. Once the skin begins browning, you cover the whole turkey with aluminum foil. This will allow the turkey to continue to cook without the skin burning or the breast and leg meat drying out.
16. Once the turkey is done, it needs to rest about 20 minutes before slicing. This allows the juices to reabsorb and distribute throughout the meat, which will keep it from being dry.
17. Make the easy gravy from pan drippings next!
18. If you are not making gravy, the turkey can rest in the roasting dish. If you are, then you will need to remove the turkey from the roasting pan. You can remove the whole rack if using a roasting pan and rack insert, otherwise you will need to carefully remove the bird from the wire rack set inside a rimmed sheet pan. This can be done with tongs, large serving forks or those turkey forks that look like pitch forks.
19. Check out the Turkey Carving Tutorial for all the easiest tips and tricks!

After it comes off the heat

Cool the pot before it goes into the refrigerator. It reheats gently on the stove the next day.

If you want another plate from Turkey, open Twice Baked Spaghetti Squash with a Clear Method and Baked Turkey Meatballs for a Shared Platter.