HOW TO: Roast a Turkey

During the holidays we like to roast turkeys, ducks, gooses, and other fowl. Most families have one person who do the cooking each holiday and love hosting the celebration. But what happens if you suddenly have to do the cooking and have never roasted a turkey before? Do not worry here is a great way to get started:

There are a few very important things to do when you roast a turkey:

• Start with a high heat oven and lower it half way through cooking
• Based at least every 30 minutes
• Use tin foil to tent it for the a majority of the cooking, only remove the foil 20 minutes before your done cooking to brown up the skin
• Watch for proper temperature, you need to cook it until 180 before pulling it from the oven. Make sure you use the thigh to check temperature
• Let it rest, give your turkey a good 10-15 minutes to time sitting on the stove top before you slice into it

Now lets talk recipe!

Full time: 4-5 hours

You will need:
15-16 lb whole chicken, cleaned and check the inside cavity to make sure to take out the giblets if they are included
1 large onion
3 tbsp butter, divided into 12 small pieces
water

Let us begin:

Preheat oven to 425

Place turkey into a roasting pan with a rack holding it off the bottom of the pan.

To prepare turkey, start by placing it in a roasting pan or baking dish. Carefully insert a very sharp knife into the skin, lift the knife up to move the skin away from the meat. Try not to cut into the meat.

Slide a butter cube into the slit you just made. You want to do this evenly around the turkey, don't forget to get the legs!

Place the onion into the hollow of the turkey.

Pour the water into the pan so that there is a 1/2" of water in the pan.

Tent with tin foil and place in oven. Baste often and watch temperature.

When it hits 100 lower oven to 350.

When it hits 160 remove tin foil and let the skin crisp up. Once it hits 180 remove from oven and let it sit for 10-15 minutes before slicing