My great-grandmother always cooked Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys all night. She'd cook them on low for at least 8 hours. By morning the wonderful aroma of her baked turkey filled the entire house. It would smell so delicious everyone would wake up hungry and ready for the holiday feast to begin.
My mom always followed my great-grandmother's technique for cooking turkeys and now so do I. The turkey is the main event for many peoples' holiday meals and this recipe is simple, easy to put together, and incredibly tasty. The meat is incredibly juicy, tender, and falls off the bone.
Isn't That A Beautiful Bird?
The Recipe
Your turkey should be thawed out. Unpackage your turkey into an empty and clean sink. Check to make sure all the feathers are plucked out, take out the neck and bag containing the insides (heart, lungs, etc.). Clean the inside of the turkey so that there is no bloodiness in there.
Put the turkey in a deep roasting pan. Mine is about three inches deep. Put half an onion, a few broken up stalks of celery, 1 bay leaf, and a whole stick of butter inside the bird. Most turkeys have a device on the legs to close the turkey up. If your bird doesn't have one then tie the legs together so all the ingredients don't fall out. You also can tie the wings together. I did this in the one in the picture but I've stopped doing that. The meat falls off the bone and the rope is a pain to deal with when the meat is super tender.
Salt and pepper the outside of the turkey. This involves flipping it around until the entire turkey is seasoned.
Make sure the turkey is breast side down towards the bottom of the pan. This is where all that good white meat is located. Keeping it at the bottom helps the most meaty part cook in all those delicious juices.
Fill the pan with a few inches of water. If you put too much water you'll hear it boiling over in the oven. You can see in my picture the level of juices once finished cooking. Also, cover the top of the pan with foil. This will trap the moisture inside.
Put it in the oven for 1 hour at 400 degrees. Cook the turkey at a high temperature at first to kill any bacteria and to get the bird nice and hot. Then turn down the oven.
Turn down the heat to 200 degrees. Roast for at least 7 hours but I've done it up to 11 for late dinners. The best thing about this recipe is that as long as you keep the turkey covered in foil with water in the pan you can keep cooking it. Some people cook theirs up to 20 hours but I think that's going overboard. Seven hours is my typical time frame. I put mine in right before I go to bed and by the time I wake up in the morning it is done. If you are paranoid and feel the need to check it during the night then look at the water level. If it is low then add more water and go back to bed.
When you are ready for the bird to be done kick the heat back up to 400 and take off the foil. You'll leave the turkey in only long enough to get the skin nice and golden brown. Once that happens your turkey is ready to eat!