Cooking Organic Turkey
Discover why Cooking Organic Turkey means healthier, flavorful meat, with fresh herbs and basting, for a delicious buttery golden crisp skin.Makes 1 whole turkey. Roast 13 minutes per pound.If you are hosting 12 guests, plan on a 15-pound bird. Usual serving is 1.25 pound per guest.
Ingredients
DRY RUB:
- 4-6 Tbsp Kosher salt
- 1-2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1-2 Tbsp sugar
THE ORGANIC WHOLE TURKEY:
- 1 (12- to-15-pound) whole organic turkey, make sure it’s thawed if frozen
- 4 cups chicken broth, or vegetable or turkey
- Clementines, or tangerines, cut in half (or whole oranges, quartered)
- 1 cup fresh herbs, thyme, rosemary, or sage, oregano, or a combination of all, plus 1 cup fresh parsley
- ½ cup unsalted butter, for basting last 45 minutes
Equipment
- 1 Roasting pan
- 1 Turkey baster
Instructions
Prepare the turkey for roasting:
- Thirty minutes to an hour before roasting, take the turkey out of the refrigerator. Make sure it is completely thawed. Remove any packaging, plastic, pop-up thermometer, neck, and the bag of giblets if present (check in the body and neck cavities). I usually rinse and then pat dry the inside and outside of the turkey with paper towels.
- Preheat the oven to 450°F. Arrange an oven rack in the bottom third of the oven, remove any racks above it, so the roasting pan fits in the oven.
- Prepare the dry rub: In a small bowl add the herbs, Kosher salt, pepper, and sugar and mix together.
- Set the turkey in a roasting pan breast side up on the roasting rack. Pull back the skin of the breast and the neck area and fill with the dry rub. Just rub it everywhere with your hands, pushing it under the skin and inside and outside the cavity.
- Fill the cavity with the small orange halves.
- Salt the bird very lightly with a sprinkle of Kosher salt on all sides. Make sure the bird is breast side up and ready for roasting! TIP FOR BROWNING: We recommend leaving the bird un-trussed and unstuffed because the bird will cook more evenly and it’s just easier to handle. Also toward the end of roasting time, if the bird gets too brown, lay a sheet of foil lightly over the bird. We do not recommend flipping the bird.
- Add the broth into the bottom of the roasting pan.
Roast the turkey:
- Place the turkey in the oven and turn down the heat 350°F. Roast the turkey 13 minutes per pound.
- Start checking the temp a little earlier though to gauge how fast it’s cooking. You do not want to overcook the bird. CHECK THE TEMP: Halfway through baking, you can check the temp of the bird in the breast, inside thigh, and outer thigh. The meat should be 165 degrees when the turkey is finished cooking.
Basting the bird:
- Bast the bird every 45 minutes with the broth at the bottom of the pan. If you don’t have a baster, use a spoon. To make it easier you can remove the whole bird from the oven to do this, then quickly put it back in the oven. TIP: I set the timer on my phone.
- The last 45 minutes of cooking time, melt the ½ cup of butter (1 cube) and baste the bird to get a nice crisp, golden brown skin. (This can be optional if you don't want to baste with butter.)
Resting and carving:
- When the turkey is done, remove from the oven and tilt the rack a bit so any juices run out of the turkey into the pan. You will want to save these juices to make gravy (optional).
- Transfer the turkey from the rack to a cutting board and cover loosely with a piece of foil. Allow the turkey to rest for 30 minutes before carving.
- First remove the wings, then remove the legs, then the breast meat. Once you have the meat off, you can cut the legs into thighs and drumsticks and cut the breast meat into individual slices. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
TIP: Put all turkey meat in the fridge after 2 hours of cooking!!