The Thanksgiving Turkey Recipes & Tips

These are some Recipes on Bedding the Turkey and Keeping it moist, as well as some of my favorite tips for cooking a Thanksgiving Turkey.

Bedding the pan

1 1/2 lbs carrots, peeled and halved
1 bunch of celery, cleaned, stalks separated and halved
one ot two large onions quartered
2 large bay leaves
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 large can or box of chicken broth
1/2 cup butter

Spray the bottom of your roasting pan with non-stick spray, place all chopped vegetables on bottom of pan, spread out to cover as much of the pan as possible, focusing on the area where the turkey will set. ass butter, garlic, and bay leaves. Pour enough chicken broth into your roasting pan to come almost to the top of the vegetables. Place your turkey on top of bed of vegetables and bake as directed, add more chicken broth as needed to keep vegetables from scorching. broth can also be used for basting turkey if desired.
*Adding the vegetable bed to the bottom of your pan, keeps your turkey elevated and away from the direct heat, keeping the turkey moist and juicy, the vegetables add flavor to the turkey through the basting juice and if used for the gravy, will also give you one of the most flavorful turkey gravies that you will ever have.
I often place the neck and giblets in the pan with the turkey to yeild flavor, but personally don't like to add them to the gravy, (so the cats get a thanksgiving feast as well)

Keeping it moist

1 cup butter at room temp
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

Mix all ingredients untill well combined.
Separate skin of turkey from body at openings to make a large pocket (at neck area into the breast area, and at legs area into the body area
(DO NOT REMOVE THE SKIN) Stuff herbed butter under the skin of the turkey, placing as much of butter mixture as possible. gently arrange the skin back in place and proceed to stuff and bake as usual.

*I like to bake my turkey overnight, we are used to an early Thanksgiving dinner, leaving us the rest of the day to snack and relax, so I place my turkey in the oven the night before, actually around 3 am. (I am a night person). I place the turkey in the oven at 450F to 500 F for about 30 minutes with the cover off the pan to seal the skin and keep juices in. I then place the cover on the roasting pan and lower the oven temp to 275F to 300F, baste once and go to bed. In the morning, I baste the turkey every couple of hours, and it is usually done by 12pm. If the turkey has not browned to my liking, I increase the temp in the oven to 350F for the last hour or so of cooking.
*Prior to roasting the turkey, I stuff the area under the skin (see directions above) with the herbed butter. I also rub the entire turkey with butter at room temperature. I then season the turkey  with salt, and pepper and sprikle poultry seasoning inside and out, I squeeze the juice of half a lemon on the inside of the turkey to take away some of the gamey taste that it can have.  I then stuff the turkey and roast as ususal.