a turkey with maple syrup in the New England way. A relaxed Thanksgiving feast results from it. Consider stuffing it with a sausage, apple, and cranberry stuffing. Two teaspoons of dried marjoram may be used in place of fresh marjoram if it is not available.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 4 hrs |
| Total Time: | 4 hrs 30 mins |
| Servings: | 20 |
| Yield: | 20 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 cups apple cider
- ⅓ cup real maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh marjoram
- 2 ½ teaspoons grated lemon zest
- ¾ cup butter
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
- 14 pounds whole turkey, neck and giblets reserved
- 2 cups chopped onion
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 1 cup coarsely chopped carrots
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 tablespoons apple brandy (Optional)
Instructions
- Boil apple cider and maple syrup in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat until reduced to 1/2 cup (about 20 minutes). Remove from heat and mix in 1/2 of the thyme and marjoram and all of the lemon zest. Add the butter, and whisk until melted. Add salt and ground pepper to taste. Cover and refrigerate until cold (syrup can be made up to 2 days ahead).
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Place oven rack in the lowest third of oven.
- Wash and dry turkey, and place in a large roasting pan. Slide hand under skin of the breast to loosen. Rub 1/2 cup of the maple butter mix under the breast skin. If planning on stuffing turkey, do so now. Rub 1/4 cup of the maple butter mixture over the outside of the turkey. With kitchen string, tie legs of turkey together loosely.
- Arrange the chopped onion, chopped celery, and chopped carrot around the turkey in the roasting pan. If desired, the neck and giblets may be added to the vegetables. Sprinkle the remaining thyme and marjoram over the vegetables, and pour the chicken stock into the pan.
- Roast turkey 30 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and cover turkey loosely with foil. Continue to roast, about 3 to 4 hours unstuffed or 4 to 5 hours stuffed, until the internal temperature of the thigh reaches 180 degrees F (80 degrees C) and stuffing reaches 165 degrees F (75 degrees C). Transfer turkey to a platter, and cover with foil. Reserve pan mixture for gravy. Allow turkey to sit about 25 minutes before removing stuffing and carving.
- To Make Gravy: Strain pan juices into a measuring cup. Spoon fat from juices. Add enough chicken stock to make 3 cups. Transfer liquid to a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil. In a small bowl, mix reserved maple butter mixture with flour to form a paste, and whisk into the broth. Stir in thyme, bay leaf, and apple brandy. Boil until reduced and slightly thickened. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Here’s the Cranberry, Sausage and Apple Stuffing recipe I use.
- Please note the differences in ingredient amounts and oven temperature when using the magazine version of this recipe.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 584 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 11 g |
| Cholesterol | 206 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 65 g |
| Saturated Fat | 11 g |
| Sodium | 314 mg |
| Sugars | 8 g |
| Fat | 29 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I have made this exact recipe for Thanksgiving for the past 15 years, since before my husband and I were married. I have never deviated or changed a thing. It is by far the very best, most flavorful turkey and gravy recipe I have ever had. It gives the turkey such amazing depth. Make sure to use FRESH thyme. It really does make a big difference. And if you don’t mind an ugly turkey, bake it on its breast. It makes the meat super moist. This gets rave reviews from anyone who’s ever tasted it. You won’t be disappointed.
I made this for Thanksgiving. It is probably one of my favorite’s so far. My daughter in law who does not really like turkey, but eats a little just because of tradition, LOVED this recipe. In fact she ate leftovers for three days. This is so moist and perfect.
I don’t even know how this recipe isn’t one of the top 10 recipes in Allrecipes?! For any of you out there who struggle with turning out a tasty turkey, this is your recipe. Even if you don’t, this is amazing! I love the flavors and how juicy it comes out. I’m not a huge turkey fan. As a matter of fact, I could take or leave it. So I think that’s why I struggle so much when I need to cook one. With this recipe it will come out superb every time.
this was my 1st year making my own Turkey and it was amazing!
I really should have checked this more as it cooked it got a little dark on the wings. It still turned out good, moist and tasty. Next time I will know to add more liquids and baste just to keep checking on its progress.
Our go to recipe, my daughter won’t let me do it any other way.
this is my new Turkey for Holidays recipe, it was so good. This was the first time I did this, so I was over-careful. No tweaking since it is so good as is!!
This is so delicious! The turkey comes out nice and juicy with great flavor. The gravy made at the end is wonderful. It’s a bit of a shock as it’s kind of sweet, but still amazing.
We love this and make it every year! One question though, why can you only make the cider/syrup recipes up to 2 days before? Would love to get an early jump on this!
Has anyone tried brining their turkey in this and frying it? or injecting? I really want to try this, but with a fried turkey.
Love that maple glaze. Turkey was tasty, especially the skin. We used real maple syrup we just bought in Canada. The gravy was AMAZING! It was my first time doing gravy from scratch. It didn’t thicken up as quickly as I expected and ended up adding additional 2 T of flour . (in a rue made from the broth). I’m usually not a gravy fan, but this was delicious. I like slightly sweet flavors. NOTE–I misread the directions and used almost all the glaze mix on the turkey, so I mixed up an additional glaze –loosely using the proportions in the recipe; minus the lemon zest, using lemon juice instead.
I would make it again. Glad I ran out of maple syrup and did not have what was specified in the recipe because it was sweet enough. Would have preferred the gravy to be more savory.
I made this last year and I’m making again tomorow. I love this recipe so much. the flavor is unbelievable, and the bird looks perfect. juicy and delicious
I am not a roasted turkey, but this was easy and very delicious!
I discovered this recipe five years ago, and it has been requested by my family every Thanksgiving since then! The gravy from the drippings is to die for!
I have make this my Thanksgiving Turkey recipe every year now and its wonderful. I coarsely chop the veggies that go under the turkey and then save them along with about half the dripping *before making the gravy* and use them for turkey noodle soup with the leftover turkey. The first time I made this, my family kind of turned their noses up, until they tasted it. Now they request this turkey instead of the traditional one we used to make 🙂 Thanks Ibby look up her pumpkin stuffing recipe but make sure you use Ibby’s pumpkin bread recipe to make the stuffing, its less sweet but is awesome!
I made this turkey as my first turkey two years ago for my fiance’s family. Best turkey we ever had. Thank you so much! I did this as a three day process to make it perfect. Day 1-i defrosted the turkey all night in the fridge Day 2-I brined the meat in a large soup pot with water and all the seasonings listed, including slices of lemon and orange. I then carefully put the pot in a large garbage bag so that nothing got inside, and left it in the garage since it was the coldest place at the time. Overnight. Day 3-Turkey day! I actually did a plaid pattern with bacon ontop just for the heck of it. I basted every 15 minutes until the last 45 minutes. I covered with aluminum foil at this point and allowed it to cook. Didnt do the gravy, wasnt a master chef yet, well…that year, anyway. I messed it up and it came out lumpy. was delish though!
I’ve been making this every Christmas for about 6 years and it’s always a hit.
Added a quartered Apple to the cavity, but pretty much followed the recipe. This ended up fantastic!!!! Bird was super juicy, skin was crispy and delicious. Would definitely make again. Ooo I also cooked it for the first hour breast down.
Sexy beautiful color coming out of the oven and made the whole house smell incredible which could have upped our expectations of the flavor. Which we found lovely, but very mild and easily lost.
It was ok, needed a lot more to bring out the maple taste.