Live Turkey (Medium Size)

How to Cook Thanksgiving Turkey

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F.
2. In a bowl, stir together the salt, thyme, sage, paprika, pepper, and ground mustard until everything’s mixed up really well. Set the turkey dry rub aside.
3. Remove the turkey from its packaging. Remove the neck and the bag containing the gizzards and heart from the turkey’s cavity. (You can keep these items to make stock or discard them. Your choice.)
4. Use paper towels to dry off the skin of the bird and inside the cavity. Then place the turkey on the rack of your roasting pan. If you aren’t using a roasting rack, roll some foil into a thick snake-like tube and then form into an oval. Place the oval in the bottom of the roasting pan and set your turkey on it. This will help keep the bottom of the bird doesn’t get soggy.
5. Lift the skin on the turkey breast by sliding your hand under the skin on the side closest to the legs. Don’t be afraid to get in there and separate it from the breast meat. Do this on both sides of the breast.
6. Insert three pats of butter under the skin on each side of the turkey breast spreading them evenly across the breast.
7. Sprinkle the dry rub all over the turkey. On the breast, legs, wings, anything you can see. Don’t worry about the bottom of the turkey. The juices and butter are going to drip on the bird and season that area. If you have any extra rub once the turkey is coated, sprinkle it inside the cavity.
8. Place the onion halves and garlic cloves inside the turkey cavity. Shove ’em all the way in there.
9. Next, take a good-sized piece of foil and place it over the turkey breast. You want to make sure to the foil piece is big enough to fit over the whole breast and plus extra sticking over the sides. Press down and mold the foil to the breast while avoiding the legs. Let the ends stick up if the foil is a little big so the legs aren’t covered.
10. Place the turkey in the oven and roast for 2 hours (depending on the size of your turkey – see my cooking chart below).
11. After 2 hours, remove the turkey from the oven. Carefully take off the foil from the turkey and baste the bird in the pan juices.
12. Increase the oven temperature to 400 degrees F and cook the turkey for another hour. The internal temperature of the breast will reach 165 degrees F and the skin is golden and crispy when your bird is done. If the pan is too hot for the fats and juice that ran off during the first roasting, pour in 1/2 cup chicken broth to help stop the popping and smoking.