There are a bazillion ways and recipes for cooking a turkey. I opt for the most foolproof. After all, Thanksgiving is ALL about the food. The turkey is the star. If you screw that up, nobody lets you off easy.
So I always cook my turkey in an oven bag. That way you never have to worry about having a dry turkey, and it still gets nice and brown. Don’t put stuffing in the bird. That’s just nasty. Cook your dressing in a separate pan.
For a twenty pound turkey, you’ll need:
Three carrots
Three ribs of celery
One large onion, cut in big chunks
1 cube of butter, softened
2 Tablespoons of McCormick’s poultry rub
Set the oven to 350 degrees. Put a couple of Tablespoons of flour in the oven bag, seal it, shake it around, then dump out the excess flour.
Put the carrots, celery and onion in the bottom of the bag, set inside a large roasting pan. Mix the poultry rub into the butter, then rub it all over the turkey. Put the turkey on the veggies, seal the bag, then poke about six 1/2 inch slits into the top of the bag to let out steam.
Bake the turkey about 4 hours, or till it hits a minimum of 165 degrees in all parts. I personally cook it to 180 degrees to be safe, and it doesn’t dry out in a bag. Then cut the bottom of the bag and let the broth drain out into the roasting pan. Pour the broth into a bowl or pan to make your gravy. Then I throw some heavy beach towels over the turkey to keep it warm and let it sit at least 30 minutes or until we’re ready to carve it up for dinner.
I use a separator to remove the grease from the broth, or you can just skim it off. Then you can just thicken it with cornstarch and it should be some pretty good gravy without having to add any seasoning. I didn’t take the time to take a picture of our Thanksgiving turkey, but pretty sure you all know what a turkey looks like.