Ingredients

  • 1 fresh free-range turkey (14 - 20 pounds)
  • For the brine:
  • 1 lb. kosher salt
  • 1 lb. honey
  • 2 quarts vegetable broth
  • 1 7 pound bag of ice
  • 1 gallon water
  • For the aromatics:
  • 1 red apple, sliced
  • ½ onion, sliced
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1 cup water
  • 4 sprigs rosemary
  • 6 leaves sage
  • Canola oil

Directions

1. Combine all brine ingredients, except ice water, in a stockpot, and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat, cool to room temperature.
2. Late the night before cooking, combine the brine, ice and water in a clean 5-gallon bucket. Place thawed turkey breast side down in brine, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 6 hours. Turn turkey over once, half way through brining.
3. A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500F. Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes.
4. Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard brine. Place bird on roasting rack in low wide pan and pat dry with paper towels.
5. Add steeped aromatics to cavity along with sage. Tuck back wings and coat whole bird liberally with canola oil.
6. Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500F for 30 minutes. Remove, cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe thickest part of the breast and return to oven. Reduce oven temperature to 350F and set thermometer to 161 degrees. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require 2 1/2 hours of roasting on conventional setting, or a little under 2 hours if using convection roasting. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for about 15 minutes before carving.



Categories
Christmas, Holiday, Thanksgiving
Keywords
Christmas, Thanksgiving