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A roasted whole turkey 🦃 with crispy, golden-brown skin sits in a black roasting pan on a bed of cooked vegetables, including celery and onions, on a kitchen counter.
Melissa Jo

Turkey 🦃

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Get ready for Thanksgiving by making the juiciest whole turkey for your holiday centerpiece with me! My sister and I learned to make a whole turkey from my grandmother, Josephine. I cannot tell you how many times we called my grandmother to get the recipe to make a whole turkey. The funny thing is that no matter how many years we made the turkey on our own we always had to call my grandma! And usually it was halfway through the process or trying to figure out how long to roast the turkey in the oven!
So now, I have all the information signed, sealed, and delivered to make a whole roasted turkey using Butterball turkey! This recipe is best made with a Butterball turkey! It’s simple, it’s easy and you will not believe how moist and delicious this turkey is! Happy Thanksgiving and let’s make it! 
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Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 7 hours 30 minutes
Total Time 8 hours
Servings: 10 people
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American

Ingredients
  

  • 1 Butterball Whole Turkey mine was 15 lbs
  • 1-2 large onions roughly chopped
  • 1/2 stalk of celery with leaves roughly chopped
  • 1 oz.fresh sage ripped up
  • 1 tbsp of kosher salt for every 4 lbs. of turkey
  • 4-5 tbsp of cracked black pepper
  • rubbed sage dried seasoning about 1/4 of the bottle or at least 5-6 tbsp.
  • 2 sticks of salted softened butter
  • aluminum foil

Method
 

  1. Clean the turkey pat completely dry. The turkey must be at room temperature before you prepare and put in the oven.
  2. Preheat oven to 325° F
  3. Rub both sticks of salted butter all over the turkey in everything nook and cranny including the inside of the turkey cavity.
  4. Add about 2-3 tbsp. of rubbed sage into 1 stick of the butter and as best you can shove the butter under the skin of the turkey.
  5. Liberally season the turkey with kosher salt, pepper, and rubbed sage all over the outside , inside, and back of the turkey.
  6. Add the Celery & onions into the turkey cavity and scatter all around the turkey roaster.
  7. Cover loosely with aluminum foil and bake in the oven at 325° F for 20 minutes per lb.
  8. Baste the turkey every 30-45 minutes. The turkey will brown under the foil, but uncover the last hour of roasting.
  9. Remove the turkey at 165° internal temperature and let it rest until it rises to 170° before serving!

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