One Hour Whole Turkey Recipes

TWO-HOUR TURKEY AND GRAVY

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 450°F.
• Put the onion, garlic, and rosemary, if using, into the empty turkey cavity. Place the turkey in a large roasting pan, breast side up, and brush with the butter or oil. Place in the oven, uncovered, and roast, unattended, for 1 hour. Carefully remove the turkey from the oven (close the door of the oven), watching out for steam. Brush the turkey with butter or its juices. Return to the oven quickly and reduce the heat to 400°F.Roast another 30 minutes, checking the pan juices occasionally. Cover with foil if the breast is too brown. Cook another 30 minutes, adding stock if the pan juices evaporate.
• The turkey is done when a meat thermometer inserted in its thigh registers 170°F and the juices run clear. Let rest 10 minutes (the temperature should rise 10 degrees in 10 minutes). Remove the turkey to a board or platter for carving. Carve. Discard the onions and garlic from inside the turkey. The turkey can be made a day ahead and refrigerated before reheating, carved, or it can be carved 10 minutes after resting.
• If you decide to roast and carve the turkey ahead of time or if you want to freeze a portion of the turkey for another occasion, place the carved turkey in a shallow baking dish, cover it with broth, then wrap with foil or place the dish in a plastic bag; refrigerate for up to 2 days or freeze for up to 1 month. When you are ready to serve, defrost, if necessary, in the refrigerator for up to 2 days or freeze for up to 1 month. When you are ready to serve, defrost, if necessary, in the refrigerator, then bake in a 350°F. oven for 30 to 45 or until heated completely through (or heat in the microwave).
• While the turkey is resting, place the pan over medium-high heat. The skin, fat, and juices should be a beautiful dark bronze, not black. Remove all but 1/2 cup of the fat. Keep as much of the juices as possible. Whisk the flour into the fat and cook, stirring, until the flour turns light brown. Whisk in the rest of the broth, and boil until thick and flavorful, stirring occasionally. Strain if lumpy or any part is burned. Add water or canned broth or stock if a thinner gravy is desired. Add as much cream as desired. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

CHEF JOHN'S BONELESS WHOLE TURKEY

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
• Place turkey, skin-side down, on a work surface and arrange meat with your hands into a flat, even surface. Season with salt and black pepper. Press stuffing all over the surface of the meat.
• Fold long edges of turkey around stuffing into the center of the bird and carefully turn turkey seam-side down. Tie the leg-end of the turkey with kitchen twine to cinch the turkey together. Repeat ties at 2-inch intervals along the length of the turkey, ending with a single tie along the length of the turkey. Season with salt and place in a large roasting pan.
• Roast turkey in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) and roast until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the turkey reads 155 degrees F (68 degrees C), about 1 1/2 hours. Transfer turkey to a platter; remove and discard twine. Let rest until internal temperature increases to 165 degrees F (74 degrees C), about 20 minutes.
• Place roasting pan over medium-high heat and stir cream into pan drippings. Cook and stir until sauce thickens and reduces, 3 to 7 minutes. Pour through a fine mesh sieve into a gravy boat or bowl. Slice turkey crosswise and top slices with gravy.

ONE-HOUR THANKSGIVING TURKEY WITH PAN GRAVY

Steps:

• For the brine: The day before you plan to roast the turkey, bring 5½ quarts of water, the salt, bay leaves, and thyme to a boil in a large pot over high heat. Reduce the temperature to low and simmer for 5 minutes, then remove the pot from the heat and cool to room temperature. When the brine is cool, submerge the turkey into the brine and refrigerate for 24 hours. After 24 hours, drain the brine and discard and dry the bird well with paper towels.
• For the turkey: Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F. To spatchcock the turkey, use kitchen shears to cut through the ribcage along both sides of the backbone. Remove the backbone and discard. This will allow the bird to be splayed open, or butterflied. (To fully spatchcock, you can also remove the breastbone, but we are not going that far with it.) Clip the ends of the wings. Press down on the turkey to create a uniform flatness, then flip it over to prepare for seasoning. Carefully separate the breast meat from the skin by wiggling an upside-down spoon between the skin and the meat. Evenly rub butter underneath skin over the breast meat, taking care not to tear the skin.
• Season the entire bird with 1½ teaspoons of kosher salt and place the turkey skin side up onto a lightly buttered baking sheet or a large roasting pan. Place the pan into the oven and cook for 15 minutes, then lower the oven temperature to 375 degrees F and continue cooking for 50-60 minutes or until the turkey reaches an internal temperature of 160 degrees F.
• To test for doneness, place the thermometer into the thickest part of the leg and the breast for an internal temperature of 160°F degrees. Remove the pan from oven, and when it's cool enough to handle, place the turkey onto a large cutting board to rest at room temperature.
• For the gravy: Pour the pan drippings into a bowl; return half to the roasting pan. Heat the roasting pan and, using a wooden spoon, scrape up the brown bits on the bottom. Stir 3 tablespoons flour into the pan drippings. Continue to cook until mixture is bubbly and thickened. Whisk in the chicken stock and ½ teaspoon of salt and bring to a boil to thicken, all the while whisking to take out the lumps. Remove from heat and pour into a serving vessel. Set aside.
• Carve the turkey: Remove legs by pulling them away from the body and slicing along connection point. Remove any visible tendons. Separate the thigh from the leg. Slice down the middle of the breastbone and pull the wing back on each side, then slice to remove. Separate the wing into two pieces. Remove the breast meat from the bone and cut into thin slices. Arrange onto a serving platter and serve with the gravy drizzled over top.

2-HOUR TURKEY, REALLY

Steps:

• Since this employs the use of a VERY hot oven, make sure your oven is CLEAN before you start to reduce the risk of smoking your family out of the house. Place oven rack on lowest position in oven. Preheat oven to 475*F.
• Remove all giblets, neck, pop-up thermometer (if there is one) and any trussing. Rinse turkey THOROUGHLY, inside and out with cool water, letting all water drain out of neck and body cavities. Pat dry, inside and out, with paper toweling.
• Place on V or U-shaped wire rack in roasting pan, so that turkey doesn't rest on bottom of pan. First time I made this I didn't have a rack, so I just slapped it in my grandmother's old-fashioned blue-enamel roaster pan and it turned out FINE.
• Rub entire outside of dried-off turkey with olive oil. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. I use Kosher salt because it has large, coarse grains.
• Pull wing tips AWAY from the body, twist them and tuck them, backwards, under the bird -- up by its neck.
• Using aluminum foil, form caps over the end of each drumstick. If any parts of the turkey extend beyond pan rim, make a foil "collar" underneath to make sure drippings flow back into pan. Do NOT tie legs together, do NOT add stuffing, do NOT close body cavity. THAT's a NO; NO; NO;. Half-way through cooking time, turn roaster/turkey around to ensure even cooking.
• If any part of the turkey becomes too brown during cooking, cover it loosely with foil tent.
• Cooking timing chart below: (times are approximate) 10-13 lbs. = 50 minutes to 1 1/4 hours 13-16 lbs. = 1 1/4 hrs to 1 hour 50 minutes. 16-19 lbs. = 1 1/4 hrs to 2 hours 19-22 lbs. = 1 1/2 hrs to 2 hours 22-24 lbs. = 1 1/2 hrs to 2 1/2 hours 25+ lbs. = Are you sure it's not an ostrich you're roasting? If not, call Guinness Book of Records. It's done when internal temp (in breast) is 160 degrees. When done, remove from oven. Cover completely with foil, and let rest 30-45 minutes before carving. The internal temp will continue to rise to the recommended 165*F. After resting, transfer to platter for carving. NOTE* There will likely be a LOT of juices in the cavity, drain them out before transferring the bird to a platter. Save the juices to make gravy or moisten dressing!

KITTENCAL'S BLASTED RAPID ROAST 2-HOUR WHOLE TURKEY

Steps:

• Set oven rack to second-lowest position.
• Set oven to 450°F and preheat for about 8 minutes.
• Grease a large roasting pan and a flat rack to fit into the pan.
• Pour about 2 cups water into the pan or enough to cover the bottom of the pan generously.
• Rinse the turkey inside and out with cold water, then pat dry using paper towels.
• In a bowl mix together the melted margarine with salt until well combined.
• Slice off the hanging neck skin then tuck the wing tips under the breast.
• Using cotton butcher's string tie the legs together (do not use nylon string for this).
• Place the turkey on a flat rack breast-side down into the roasting pan.
• Brush turkey with margarine/salt mixture then generously season with fresh ground black pepper.
• Turn the turkey over with breast-side facing up, then brush the top of the turkey with remaining margarine mixture (you do not have to use the full amount of margarine) then season with lots black pepper.
• Insert a meat thermometer into the fleshy part of the thigh but away and not touching the bone.
• Roast turkey at 450°F rotating the pan 180°F about halfway through roasting (at this point you will most likely need to add in more water to your pan).
• Roast at 450°F for 1-1/2 hours to 2-1/2 hours, cooking time will vary depending on the size of your turkey.
• Cook/roast the turkey until the thermometer reads 170°F (the temperature will rise to 180°F when the turkey is removed from the oven).
• For 14-pound turkey start checking the thermometer at around 75 minutes.
• Do not allow the water in the pan to evaporate or your oven will start to smoke, add in more if needed during cooking time.
• When the thermometer reads 170°F remove from oven then lift one side of the turkey to allow the juices from inside cavity to drain off in the pan.
• Cover loosely with foil and allow to stand for 30 minutes (do not slice or stick with a fork or the juices will run out of the turkey).