This is not your usual turkey recipe. Instead of worrying about a dry turkey or lumpy gravy, this recipe makes an extremely moist bird. Plus, roasting the turkey on a bed of vegetables yields not only the best tasting clear gravy, but a vegetable side for your meal.
Ingredients
1 turkey, 12-18 pounds
5 carrots, coarsely chopped
3-4 large onions, diced
3 stalks of celery, coarsely chopped
1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced
1/2 pound raw chicken livers, chopped
One 28-ounce can crushed peeled tomatoes
Salt, pepper, and paprika to taste
2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped, or garlic powder
1 tablespoon chicken fat or butter
Directions
- Rinse the turkey. Rub a little salt on the inside of the turkey cavity.
- Place the carrots, onions, celery, mushrooms, livers, and tomatoes in the bottom of a large roasting pan. Season to taste with the seasonings and the garlic; be light-handed with the salt.
- Place the turkey breast side up on top of the vegetables. Season the turkey lightly with the salt, pepper, and paprika. In addition, garlic powder can be sprinkled on as well.
- Rub the tablespoon of fat all over the turkey skin. Cover with a tent of aluminum foil being sure that the shiny side is facing out.
- Roast the turkey at 325°F for 15-18 minutes per pound or until the internal temperature of the meat is about 180°F. Baste often with the juices in the pan. If necessary, you can add some boiling water to the bottom of the pan. Remove from oven and set aside for 15 minutes before carving.
- Using a slotted spoon, remove the vegetables to a microwave-proof casserole and pour the remaining liquid into a container. If refrigerated for a while, the fat will be easy to skim off the top.
- Slice the turkey. Reheat the vegetables and the gravy if necessary. Serve.
Additional Notes
- The most important direction to this recipe is tenting the bird with foil. Always place the shiny side out so that the heat is reflected away from the breast meat. That’s the trick to avoiding dry white meat on roasted poultry.
- The sliced turkey will freeze well if you freeze the meat in airtight freezer bags and freeze the gravy separately.
