How to bake a turkey : Need to know how to bake a turkey? This baked turkey recipe is super easy to follow. It’s tender, juicy and covered in a delicious herbed butter your family and friends will love. The perfect turkey for Thanksgiving or any time you want to celebrate.
How To Bake A Turkey
Thanksgiving is a big deal at the Smith House. And my boys look forward to the turkey and dressing more than anything else. Here in the South, we’re fond of deep fried turkey. And though it’s a great choice for the rest of the year, Thanksgiving at our house means a turkey that’s slowly oven baked. That’s because I like the idea of baking up a beautiful turkey all morning that fills our house with those wonderful smells to ready us for our traditional Thanksgiving feast.
While it’s baking, I’m usually prepping the cornbread dressing or some other traditional side and the boys are usually hanging around the kitchen, too, hoping to catch of taste of something before dinner. It just smells so good while everything bakes.
I’ve baked many a turkey in my day. And, I’ve ruined many a turkey, too, by baking until it was bone dry. I’ve also tried some off the wall baked turkey recipes that called from all these ingredients I first had to hunt down and then, once it was baked, the strange ingredients left my turkey with a strange after taste, too. Yes. It’s happened. And we don’t want that for our Thanksgiving turkey.
Don’t miss our Leftover Turkey Sandwiches!
How to Bake the Perfect Turkey for Thanksgiving Click To Tweet
That’s why, for me, finding the perfect baked turkey recipe was an essential part of our holiday celebration. I wanted a recipe that was, first of all, tender and juicy, as well as filled with the flavors my family would love. I’m happy to say that this oven roasted turkey is absolutely wonderful. The skin is crisp like our deep-fried favorite, and the meat is juicy, tender, and flavorful.
Check out our Christmas Gift Guides for stocking stuffer ideas, too!
Seriously. It’s delicious. And since it cooks up so nicely just the way we like it, this has become my go-to turkey for Thanksgiving for years now.
So how to bake a turkey that’s moist and delicious? Here’s how I like to make mine.
How to Bake a Turkey (perfect easy recipe)
Ingredients
turkey
Vegetable Stuffing Ingredients:
2 large onions, peeled and quartered
3-4 stalks celery, cut in several pieces
2-3 carrots, cut in several pieces
3 rosemary sprigs
1/2 bunch sage
Seasoning Blend:
1 Tbsp. black pepper
1 Tbsp. poultry seasoning
2 Tbsp. kosher salt
Herbed Butter (click here for herbed butter recipe)
Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
In a small bowl, mix together and prepare the seasoning blend and set aside. Prep the turkey by folding underneath the wings. Then, season the inside of the turkey generously with the prepared seasoning blend.
Stuff the inside of the turkey with the chopped up vegetables, rosemary, and sage. Then, secure the legs of the turkey with string.
To make the skin of the turkey amazingly delicious and buttery crisp, loosen the skin on the top of the breast–I just use my fingers, but a silicon spatula works great, too. You really want to loosen that skin so that you have room to add all the herbed butter. It really helps to moisten the meat and gives the skin a nice golden crispness, too.
Add several large spoonfuls of the herbed butter under the skin. Then rub down the top of the turkey breast to spread the butter throughout. Rub the remaining herbed butter all over the outside of the turkey and sprinkle generously with the rest of the seasoning blend.
Add the rest of the chopped up vegetables to the bottom of a roasting pan, about a 1/2 inch water, and then place the prepared turkey on the top.
To prevent the top from burning, add a piece of foil over the breast, then roast according to the turkey’s packaging directions, removing the foil the last hour of baking, and basting a couple of times during baking, too.
Other Recipes You May Enjoy
- Turkey
- 2 large onions, peeled and quartered
- 3-4 stalks celery, cut in several pieces
- 2-3 carrots, cut in several pieces
- 3 rosemary sprigs
- 1/2 bunch sage
- 1 Tbsp. black pepper
- 1 Tbsp. poultry seasoning
- 2 Tbsp. kosher salt
- Herbed Butter (see attached recipe)
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
- In a small bowl, mix together and prepare the seasoning blend and set aside. Prep the turkey by folding underneath the wings. Then, season the inside of the turkey generously with the prepared seasoning blend.
- Stuff the inside of the turkey with the chopped up vegetables, rosemary, and sage. Then, secure the legs of the turkey with string.
- To make the skin of the turkey amazingly delicious and buttery crisp, loosen the skin on the top of the breast--I just use my fingers, but a silicon spatula works great, too.
- Add several large spoonfuls of the herbed butter under the skin. Then rub down the top of the turkey breast to spread the butter throughout. Rub the remaining herbed butter all over the outside of the turkey and sprinkle generously with the rest of the seasoning blend.
- Add the rest of the chopped up vegetables to the bottom of a roasting pan, about a 1/2 inch water, and then place the prepared turkey on the top.
- To prevent the top from burning, add a piece of foil over the breast, then roast according to the turkey's packaging directions, removing the foil the last hour of baking, and basting a couple of times during baking, too.