I am very happy to contribute to the @cookwithus pot luck dinner to benefit @adollaraday charity. As a founder and judge of @cookwithus I never get to enter the contest. So, I am excited to be part of the community this week! @adollaraday is a great charitable organization, run by @pennsif, that gives to causes all around the globe. Check out the latest post by @adollaraday where they interview the founder of an organization that they contribute to.
For the pot luck dinner, I will contribute an American classic, the roast turkey. Because this bird is quite large (mine is 14 pounds), it is usually reserved for special occasions. This turkey was prepared for our Thanksgiving feast which occurred this past Thursday. Below you can see the bird at different stages of cooking.
Here is the bird ready for the oven. It is a 14 pound heritage bronze turkey just seasoned with salt and pepper. Check out this video from website Eater for more information about this type of turkey, how they are raised and the Stone Barns farm where I bought them from. The turkey is stuffed with my stuffing of sourdough bread, mirepoix, sausage, prunes, pecans, turkey liver and fresh herbs. If you notice, I do not truss in the traditional way. I just tie the legs enough to keep them from touching the sides of the roasting pan. I like to keep the legs open to help cook the, hard to reach, area of the hip socket.
Here is the turkey after 45 minutes at 350F. Every 20 minutes while the turkey is cooking I rub the skin with butter. I simply take a stick of butter and partially pull the paper back. Then I rub the butter all over the turkey. The stick of butter should be almost totally gone after the full 2.5 hours of cooking.
Here is the turkey after 1.5 hours of cooking. It is starting to smell great in the kitchen!
Here is the finished turkey at 2.5 hours and an internal temperature of 165F. You can see how rubbing the skin with butter helps to give the finished bird a richly colored and crispy skin. The skin even stayed crispy after resting the bird for 30 minutes.
Thanks for reading my post today and I hope that you consider making an entry to the @cookwithus pot luck dinner and/or a donation to @adollaraday!
