Simple Roast Turkey

Anytime you're ready, Paula, go for it

It's hard to believe it's turkey time again, y'all, but it is that time of year

And I'm gonna show you how to roast a simple turkey. Very simple, but very tasteful

As you and I both know, there is a hundred ways to cook a turkey

But I'm gonna share with you a simple roasted turkey. Daddy, what can I do for you

Hey, my angel! Oh, thank you! Thank you so much. They're beautiful

You want to sit them up here? Oh, yes, I will sit them up here

Y'all, this is my grandson, Henry, and he just brought his guinea flowers

Oh, my goodness. You know the way to your guineas. Smell these

Oh, smell those. Oh, yum. Thank you so much, Angel. Have a good time with Papa

Okay. Thank you for my flowers. I am going to stick my flours right in here with my herbs

I just have to make sure I don't chop those up for the turkey

Alright, I've got a 12 pound turkey here. If we were going to fry this turkey, I think a 12 pounder is perfect

But like I said, we're just going to roast this one off in the oven. And I'm going to start by seasoning up his cavity because you want to make sure that your bird is good and seasoned inside and out

So a little salt, a little pepper, and then we're going to just season him up all on the outside

salt and pepper him good because the skin is going to get nice and crispy

And it just so happens it's like Guinea's favorite part, which they say to avoid the skin

And I go right for it at Thanksgiving. Yum. Okay, so there we go

We got him nice and seasoned up. You notice I have him on a rack

and I'm gonna just fill his little cavity with some onions. We don't have to worry about peeling it or doing anything like that

because we're gonna take all this out when we go to carving

and the garlic, put it straight into, skin and all

goes right in there, and I'm going to make sure I get it up as high as I can

oh, that almost came out his head, or where his head used to be

that went all the way to the neck, alright, and all these things that I'm sticking in there

Speaking of neck, I'm gonna go right up there and stick him in that neck

And all these things that we putting in there is just gonna permeate that turkey Now because my bird might allow his legs to open I going to prevent that by tying

his little legs together because I want him to stay nice and tucked. So I'm going to tie

that nice and tight just like that. Now, for the good part, we've got to have some kind

of fat to rub into that skin on that turkey so it'll crisp up and have lots of flavor

And I'm going to do that by taking a stick of butter, or maybe a stick and a half of butter

Alright, I'm going to take some, the more butter the better. Alright I'm going to chop up about two tablespoons of fresh rosemary

And this should yield us about two tablespoons. Just mix it up, you know, as nice as you can

As fine as you can. And to me it's very important for that beautiful, delicate turkey meat

it to receive only thing, the only thing that's good enough for this turkey is fresh herbs

not dried. So that looks about the right amount

So in the butter that goes. I'm going to pull out some parsley

Y'all please don't let me pull out rose bushes. because it's right there

The parsley adds a wonderful fresh aroma and flavor to it. And then I've also got some fresh thyme in here

Right here. I think I'm going to have to pull out the rosemary to find the thyme

Oh, I found the thyme. Look at this. This is actually from my garden, y'all. And I have found that thyme is so easy to grow. In fact, I've got it in a raised bed, and in that one bed now, it has completely taken over the bed

and it's something that if it doesn't freeze too bad, it'll keep coming back up every season

and I just love that. Uh-oh, there's a little dried stalk

We'll get rid of him. A much easier way, I have two different size processors

that I keep in my kitchen. One is a big one for bigger things and another one is like a

two cupper and if you wanted to do this the real fast way you just put that in that smaller food

processor, whizz it a couple of times and you would have the perfect size fresh herbs

So there we go. So we've got our parsley, our fresh rosemary, and our fresh thyme to about one and a half

sticks of real butter, no margarine. Butter, butter, it has to be butter. Yes, look at that

beautiful butter. You know, one of my favorite gifts to give at Christmas time is butter

Yes. Yes! How they know me. How my friends know me. But I love making compote butters, you know, sweet

I love making them savory. And people just love them. So I'm going to take this seasoned butter

Smell, Dan. Can you smell? Doesn't it smell good

It tastes fabulous. So we're just gonna rub that bird down with that butter. Yum. Yum

with that butter. Yum. Yum

Cause this is gonna melt and run down. There we go, look at it

Look at it on that leg. This bird has the prettiest legs in town

Not a hair on them. Unlike mine

All right. So when this melts, it's going to run all down

that bird. Now we're going to roast this bird at 375 uncovered and we're going to cook it

18 minutes per pound. This is a 12 pound turkey so we're looking at about three and a half

hours. Alright so he's ready to go in the oven. One simple tie and he's ready. And I

keep melted butter on my stove so that I can constantly baste him while he's cooking. And

if my brush will fit down in there I'll use that butter where all the herbs are. Because

you want to make sure that you keep that breast nice and moist. Now this is what the Finnish

bird looks like He is beautiful Just beautiful nice and brown

And there's nothing I love better than taking the whole turkey to the table and letting

one of my sons carve it for us. And look at this time

time has grown so and done so well it's blooming out. So how beautiful is that with the blooms

It makes a beautiful presentation and it just continues that aroma all through the turkey

and all through the table. Now to carve our bird, we're just going to cut our legs loose

and I like to just pull the leg down, pull the thigh and the leg down, and I make one

slice this away, horizontal, and then I come in vertically and slice down just like that

Look at that beautiful, perfectly roasted turkey. And I want to make sure that my turkey, I'm

I'm swallowing hard now. This is the point where I start swallowing hard

I want this breast to be as moist and tender as I do that thigh and that leg

Because my favorite part of the turkey is a turkey sandwich the next day

You know, isn't it wonderful? Our Thanksgiving meal is one of the most important meals that we'll serve for the whole year

And how simple is that to prepare? Mmm. You can taste all those herbs

And it's perfectly yummy. So stay tuned to this network, y'all. And if this is not the way you want to cook a turkey, come back, visit with me, and I'll show you other ways

I'm bound to have the way that's perfect for your table. I have one question, Paula

Yes. When did the veggies come out? As you're carving? When I get down to them

You might want to tell people that. You said something about it earlier

Just go tight on her, Dan. Now you notice I left the veggies that I had thrown in there, I've left them in the turkey

because they're beautiful peeping out of there. You can remove them before you take it to the table or you can do as I've chosen to do

and that's leave them in because I wanted to untie my legs at the table

We can cut, we're good guys, thank you. Thank you