Does your turkey require more flavor and moisture? Try it out! Adjust it as much as your imagination desires to suit your tastes. Save the bones, joints, tail, wing tips, drippings, and reserved onion, garlic, and celery (but NOT the skin) to create turkey soup after carving the entire bird. The apple bits and dressing should be combined.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 3 hrs 30 mins |
| Additional Time: | 40 mins |
| Total Time: | 4 hrs 30 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 1 whole turkey |
Ingredients
- ½ cup cold butter
- 1 (12 pound) whole turkey, neck and giblets removed
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 Granny Smith apples – cored, peeled, and cut into 8 wedges each
- 1 large onion, cut into 8 wedges
- ½ whole head garlic, separated into cloves and peeled
- 1 pound celery, cut into 2-inch lengths
- 1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
- Cut butter into 1-tablespoon pieces, quarter the pieces, and refrigerate butter until needed.
- Use your fingers to loosen the skin over the turkey breast and thighs. Cut a hole in the turkey skin between tail and body (to affix legs); cut a hole on each side of the turkey beneath each wing (to affix wings). Rub the entire skin with vegetable oil.
- Toss apple and onion wedges, garlic cloves, and celery in a large bowl until combined; sprinkle poultry seasoning over the apple mixture and toss again to coat. Stuff the body and neck cavities with the apple mixture. Insert each wing tip into the hole under the wing to secure wings; insert both legs into hole near tail to secure legs.
- Place turkey onto a rack and set in a roasting pan. Insert cold butter pieces under the loosened skin, distributing the butter as evenly as possible.
- Roast the turkey in the preheated oven until an instant-read meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of a thigh, not touching bone, reads 160 degrees F (70 degrees C), about 3 1/2 hours. Check for doneness after 3 hours.
- Remove roasting pan containing turkey from oven and cover with aluminum foil, lightly pressing the foil directly onto the bird. Let the turkey rest for 40 minutes before carving.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 774 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 6 g |
| Cholesterol | 285 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 91 g |
| Saturated Fat | 14 g |
| Sodium | 305 mg |
| Sugars | 4 g |
| Fat | 40 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
cooking breast side down and making sure you let it stand as long as possible after it comes out of the oven, will give you the most moist turkey ever! I had to leave the house in a hurry so I went from the oven to the fridge. I carved it the next morning. You could see all the juices locked in the breast! Best turkey ever!
Very moist. I would have to use more seasonings. Other good.
I will definitely make it again!!
Delicious! Sometimes, I add baby carrots as well! Doing it again this year. We also like rubbing on Tony Chachere’s seasonings as well as parsley flakes.
I love this recipe. The meat was so moist that it basically fell off. Haven’t found a better foundation for cooking a turkey, yet.
I turned the 12lb. bird upside down and flipped it twice more during cooking so i didn’t need to baste. I used cooking bag. The apples disintegrated which kind of disappointed me. Overall good recipe.
I tried this recipe for the first time, it worked… I kinda thought it wouldn’t work but have to say the breast meat was really moist! I am going to try this on a Roast Chicken, which we have more than Turkey, my husband is not a Turkey fan. Will come back and let you know how the chicken turns out..
Very moist turkey. Delicous
I had a 24lb turkey used the recipe stuffing and dusted with rotisserie chicken McCormicks and covered it I basted it only twice then took cover off last 20 minutes…beautiful golden brown,juicy and melt in your mouth good.cooked 4hrs 25minutes.excellent!
also turned turkey upside down in cooking bag in closed roasting pan. Never had such moist turkey. excellent! Thank you