Roast Stuffed Turkey
- Total Time
- 4 hours 30 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 117-to-20-pound ready-to-cook turkey
- 6cups stuffing such as a pork and sage stuffing (see recipe)
- 3tablespoons corn, peanut or vegetable oil
- Salt to taste if desired
- Freshly ground pepper to taste
- 2onions, about ½ pound, peeled
- 1turkey neck
- 1cup fresh or canned chicken broth
- 1cup water
- Giblet gravy (see recipe)
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Preparation
- Step 1
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Step 2
Stuff turkey cavity with about 5 cups of stuffing. Place folded piece of aluminum foil inside cavity opening to hold stuffing in place. Fill neck opening with remaining stuffing and fold over skin to enclose. Truss turkey with string.
- Step 3
Place turkey in large roasting pan. Rub all over with oil, salt and pepper. Scatter onions and turkey neck around it. Put in oven and roast about 45 minutes or until golden brown. Baste and cover breast loosely with aluminum foil.
- Step 4
Reduce oven heat to 400 degrees.
- Step 5
Roast turkey about 50 minutes and pour chicken broth and water around it. Replace foil and continue baking, basting often, at least every 15 minutes. Cook about 2 hours longer. Total cooking time is 3 hours and 30 minutes. The cooking time is 11 or 12 minutes per pound. When done, joint between leg and thigh bone will move easily when touched. If skin is pierced at that joint, the juices that run out will be clear. A meat thermometer inserted into the stuffing or breast meat will register 160 degrees.
- Step 6
Remove turkey from roasting pan and pour off the basting liquid. Strain it. Skim off the fat. Pour skimmed juices into the giblet gravy. Bring to the boil and skim off any additional fat. There should be about 3 cups of gravy.
Private Notes
Comments
This is the turkey I've made for 25 years, usually with a much bigger turkey. People often worry that a stuffed turkey will be either overcooked, if the stuffing is cooked enough, or unsafe, if the stuffing is not cooked enough. I simply heat the stuffing before I put it in the turkey. I use a recipe like Claiborne's, adding mushrooms and using pork sausage, and homemade turkey stock, which I heat before mixing with the bread cubes. Then I stuff it in hot. Never a problem.
Took the bird out of the oven at 150 degrees, juices ran clear and the dark meat was done. Very moist this way.
Took the bird out of the oven when the temperature reached 150 degrees. Juices ran clear, so tented it while preparing gravy. The breast meat was moist, while dark meat was just the way it should be. Excellent+!
This is the turkey I've made for 25 years, usually with a much bigger turkey. People often worry that a stuffed turkey will be either overcooked, if the stuffing is cooked enough, or unsafe, if the stuffing is not cooked enough. I simply heat the stuffing before I put it in the turkey. I use a recipe like Claiborne's, adding mushrooms and using pork sausage, and homemade turkey stock, which I heat before mixing with the bread cubes. Then I stuff it in hot. Never a problem.
Forgot to say I never add the egg, as in Claiborne's version, and I use a bottle of white wine in the roasting pan, over the course of cooking, instead of the chicken broth he calls for; makes for the best gravy in the world.
Gravy is my nemesis, and I am a little confused by the directions in the recipe above. I love that you use wine instead of stock. How do you prepare your gravy?
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