Easy, Juicy Thanksgiving Turkey

Name: Easy, Juicy Thanksgiving Turkey
Prep time: 13 h
Cook time: 4 h
Total time: 17 h
Yield: 15
Ingredients: 1 14-pound turkey; 1 ½ cups Primal Kitchen Oil &amp; Vinegar Dressing &amp; Marinade; Salt; 1 large onion, quartered; 4 apples, sliced; 4 carrots, cut into 3”-long pieces; 4 celery stalks, cut into 3”-long pieces; 12 garlic cloves, separated; 6 sprigs fresh rosemary; 10 stems fresh thyme; 10 stems fresh sage; 2 sticks unsalted butter, melted; Freshly cracked black pepper

November 08, 2019

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Whether it’s a family affair or Friendsgiving, every cook hopes to burst out of the hot kitchen to present a perfectly shiny bird with crackled, bronzed skin and moist, tender meat. Just imagine yourself placing a magnificent turkey on the dining table, savoring the gasps and applause from ravenous guests, and finally sinking into a chair to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Save yourself a frantic call to the turkey hotline (yes, this is actually a thing) by learning our easy injection method. We used a meat injector syringe to add our acidic, herby, and well-seasoned Avocado Oil & Vinegar Dressing to the turkey's interior and slathered the bird in room-temperature melted butter to ensure even browning and plenty of moisture. Reast easy: Our turkey cooking method doesn’t include adjusting oven temperatures, babysitting and basting your bird, or flipping a half-cooked, dripping turkey inelegantly in the roasting pan.

You might feel a bit like a mad scientist plunging vinaigrette into the turkey, but it beats brining your bird for a day or two in a ridiculously large container that doesn’t fit in the refrigerator. So, get that needle, buy the bird and two bottles of our Avocado Oil & Vinegar Dressing, follow the instructions below, and get ready to be a culinary Thanksgiving hero. You can act like roasting a beautiful bird took more effort than running a Turkey Trot—we won’t tell if you mist your forehead with water and add a few extra sighs when carrying this easy-to-make Thanksgiving turkey to the table.

Easy, Juicy Thanksgiving Turkey

Rated 5.0 stars by 1 users

Servings

Prep Time

13 hours

Cook Time

4 hours

Calories

702

Skip the laborious brining, avoid the potential for hot oil burns, and leave the flavor to us! With a bottle of our savory Oil & Vinegar Dressing, plus a syringe and a few spices, you can have a perfectly crisped, golden brown bird on the table with minimal effort this holiday. Serve with mashed potatoes, gluten-free stuffing, and our delicious no-dairy Turkey Gravy made with organic turkey bone broth and coconut cream.

Image of Easy, Juicy Thanksgiving Turkey

Ingredients

1 14-pound turkey
1 ½ cups Primal Kitchen Oil & Vinegar Dressing & Marinade
Salt
1 large onion, quartered
4 apples, sliced
4 carrots, cut into 3”-long pieces
4 celery stalks, cut into 3”-long pieces
12 garlic cloves, separated
6 sprigs fresh rosemary
10 stems fresh thyme
10 stems fresh sage
2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
Freshly cracked black pepper

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Directions

Prep the night before you cook:

If frozen, make sure the turkey is thawed completely before starting preparation process. Remove the giblets and neck from body cavity of turkey and rinse turkey thoroughly with cool water. Pat the turkey dry completely with paper towels.
Blitz Avocado Oil & Vinegar Vinaigrette in a blender for 10–15 seconds.
Pour Oil & Vinegar Dressing into the injection syringe, and start poking the needle into the flesh of the turkey and injecting the vinaigrette inside the bird.
Add more vinaigrette to the syringe as necessary until you’ve evenly injected vinaigrette all over the bird. Plan to make about 30–40 injections into a large bird.
Place the turkey in the refrigerator, covered, if desired, for about 12 hours to allow the vinaigrette to distribute throughout the bird.

How to cook your turkey:

Preheat oven to 325ºF.
Remove turkey from the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature on the counter, about 20 minutes or so.
Season the turkey liberally inside and outside with salt. Place cut onions, apples, carrots, celery, garlic, and half of the herbs inside of the cavity of the turkey. Scatter any remaining fruit, veggies, and herbs onto the bottom of the turkey roasting pan.
Place stuffed turkey on top of the roasting rack.
In a saucepan over medium-low heat, melt better. Set aside to cool.
Pour half of the melted butter on top of the bird. Massage butter onto the outside skin of the turkey with your hands so that it’s completely coated.
Grind fresh cracked black pepper on top of the turkey.
Place a tent of aluminum foil over the turkey and place the tented turkey in the oven. Roast for approximately 15 minutes per pound. For our 14-pound bird, we roasted it in the oven for about 3.5 hours total.
About one hour before the cooking time is done, remove the aluminum foil tent. Baste the turkey with remaining melted butter, and allow it to roast and brown for another hour.
When the cooking time is complete, remove the turkey from the oven. Insert a meat thermometer inside the breast of the turkey (away from any bone) and read the temperature. A reading of 173ºF+ indicates that the turkey is fully cooked.
Allow the turkey to rest for 20–30 minutes before carving (you can tent it with aluminum foil again to keep it warm). Slice, serve, and enjoy!

Recipe Note

Nutritional information calculated using Cronometer.
Cooking time will vary depending on your oven and the size of your bird, so be sure to check for doneness with a meat thermometer before serving.