Baked Turkey

Baked Turkey

Ingredients:

21 pound fresh, whole turkey
2 onions
10 bay leaves
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon parsley
1 teaspoon basil
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon garlic
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/8 teaspoon ground celery seed
3 strips lemon zest
32 ounces chicken broth

Directions:

Remove the turkey’s legs from the plastic clip. Don’t ruin the plastic clip and you don’t have to completely separate it from the bird. Just take the legs out of it. Now inside the cavity of the turkey, you will find a bag of innards such as the liver and heart.

Take the bag out of the turkey cavity. You will also find the turkey neck. Be sure to pull it out too. Do not discard all this stuff!

Now turn the cold water on high and rinse the turkey. Fill the cavity full of water and rinse the innards too. Let the water drain from the turkey while you prepare the pan.

In a large roasting pan, line the bottom with a large sliced onion.

Now comes the really fun part…It’s the artistic part of cooking a turkey. Use the prettiest bay leaves you have in the container. Add bay leaves under the skin

Carefully separate the turkey skin from the breast meat using your fingertips to avoid ripping the skin. Softly and gently separate. That’s the key to prevent the ripping of the skin.

Very carefully arrange the bay leaves between the skin and breast meat. You can make a design or just lay them under the skin. Now put a bay leaf inside the cavity on one end and a couple bay leaves in the other end.

Cut an onion in quarters and put it inside the turkey cavity.

In a separate bowl combine pepper, salt, dried parsley, basil, thyme, garlic, cumin, and ground celery seed. Pat most of the mixture all over the outside of the turkey.

I took the onion out of the cavity and sprinkled the rest of the spice mixture inside the turkey.

Now add the chicken broth to the pan around the turkey. Peel off three medium size pieces of lemon zest. Put one in the broth at one end of the turkey and put the other two in the cavity at the other end or in the broth.

Seal the roasting pan base tightly with aluminum foil. Put the lid on tightly. Bake in a preheated 450 degree Fahrenheit oven for 30 minutes. Reduce the heat to 325 degrees Fahrenheit and cook until done – approximately 4 hours for a 21 pound turkey. Do not peek or open the aluminum foil. Just trust me and bake it 12 minutes per pound. .