Thanksgiving Turkey

I am 37 years old. And have never cooked a turkey. Until THIS Thanksgiving!! 

And I have to say, the turkey turned out amazing. And I only dropped the bird on the floor once! (No, really, I did.) 

My mom gave me a turkey, or really it was from my sister. Her work gave her a free turkey and it became all mine. So first step, the google. I found these helpful websites in order to get me started. 

• Hint - Brine your turkey in your produce drawer!
• Brine Recipe  
• Reynolds Herb Roasted Turkey Recipe

Once I figured out the turkey did fit in the (garage fridge's) produce drawer, I knew I just needed bags. I'm really fortunate the Turkey Oven Bags come two in a box too! I put both bags in the produce drawer, and put a 95% defrosted turkey into the drawer Wednesday around noon. 

My brine mix consisted of: 

• 1 cup of salt (disolved in 4 cups of warm water)
• 3 more quarts of water (Total Water = 1 Gallon)
• 2 Tablespoons Peppercorns
• Dash of Sage
• Bay Leaves (3)
• Peels of 1 orange and 2 lemons

I poured this over the turkey, sealed the inner bag, then the outer bag. I also flipped the bird around 10pm since the fluid didn't cover the entire bird. Sure, I could have done the 5-gallon bucket trick, and I had plenty of room in my fridge for it, but the great thing about brining in a bag is that I can throw away the bag. I didn't have to buy a bucket, make room for the bucket, and then clean a bucket. 

My goal was to get the turkey into the oven at 11am on Thanksgiving so I could give it time to cook and eat between 3-4pm. I had to rinse the bird and pull out the extra crap they shoved inside. Before unwrapping my brined bird, I prepared a few things: 

Chopped 2 onions and 4 celery stalks into large pieces

One stick of butter chopped up

Spice Mixture: 

• 1 tablespoon dried sage
• 1 teaspoon each dried thyme, basil, rosemary, paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

After the dropping

(Note: the Reynolds Spice Mix called for seasoned salt, however since I brined the turkey in salt, I didn't want to add more salt.)

I rubbed the f butter all over the bird and then the spice mixture. I put onions and celery into the cavity, and then called for help. My husband held open the bag and I dropped the bird into it. This was a pivotal learning point for both of us. The Turkey Oven Bag is not strong enough to hold a bird. That bird fell straight through the bag onto the floor. See the mess?

So lesson learned. Attempt #2 to get the bird into the bag went a lot better the second time. I placed the rest of the onions nad celery peices under the turkey, sealed the bag, and it was ready for the oven!

I put some water in the bottom of the roasting pan (the bird is on the rack) to try and keep moisture in the oven. The turkey cooked for 3.5 hours. I started testing the temperature around 3 hours. I also wound up cutting a slit in the bottom to drain the juices the onion/celery/bird had created.

We had a small and lovely Thanksgiving dinner. I also made Green Bean Casserole, Mashed Potatoes, and steamed sweet potatoes (for the kids). My brother, sister-in-law, and their daughter came and they brought Mac 'n Cheese. And we had rolls!