The most Perfect Roast Turkey recipe relies on dry-brining and butter-basting for the juiciest, most delicious turkey you’ve ever had. Save your pan drippings too for an easy classic gravy recipe.
My idea of a perfectly roasted turkey involves juicy meat, butter-crisp skin, and plenty of flavor.
Luckily, there’s a way to get all three of those things without a giant bucket of salted water (taking up precious fridge space) or a vat of boiling oil (too risky and unpredictable.)
Whether you’re a first-time turkey roaster or a seasoned Thanksgiving host, this recipe is easy to follow and always makes people come back for seconds.
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe. Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
Do You Put Butter on a Turkey? Making Your Bird Golden and Juicy
As Thanksgiving approaches, home cooks everywhere are contemplating how to prepare the star of the meal: the turkey. With so much time, money and tradition riding on this centerpiece dish, it’s no wonder cooks want to get it just right. One of the keys to a perfectly roasted bird is keeping it moist and full of flavor. This is where butter comes in. Rubbing butter on the turkey serves several purposes: it helps the skin get beautifully browned and crisp, it bastes the meat from the inside to keep it tender and juicy, and it imparts rich, savory flavor.
Butter’s Effect on the Skin
The first reason to coat your turkey with butter is to help the skin achieve that ideal crispy, golden brown exterior. As the butter melts and the turkey cooks, the milk solids in the butter undergo the Maillard reaction, which causes browning. This is the same chemical reaction behind the crust that forms on a seared steak or roasted potatoes. Butter helps facilitate this on the delicate turkey skin, setting it on the path to becoming crispy, delicious cracklings.
Adding Moisture Below the Skin
Butter’s second benefit for turkey is moisture. By gently loosening the skin from the breast meat and rubbing softened butter directly onto the meat, you are essentially basting the turkey from the inside out. As the butter melts during roasting, it bastes the breast and other areas, keeping them tender and juicy. The skin forms a protective barrier, sealing in all that wonderful butter and natural turkey juices.
Flavor Infusion
Finally, butter adds tremendous flavor to turkey as it cooks. Butter picks up and carries the flavors of any herbs and seasonings you mix with it before applying it under and on top of the skin. As the butter slowly melts, those flavor compounds penetrate all the way into the meat. The natural milk solids and fat in the butter also lend a rich, savory taste. Using high-quality butter makes a difference you can taste.
Preparing the Bird
Getting the butter under the turkey skin takes a little finesse. You need to gently work your fingers between skin and meat to loosen an opening without tearing the skin. Use your fingers or a thin rubber spatula to spread room temperature butter evenly over the breast, thighs, drumsticks and any other area you can access. Don’t be shy with the butter—use 3-5 tablespoons for a 12-15 lb turkey. Any pats of butter that are too thick to spread can just be placed on top of the skin.
For even more flavor, you can blend herbs, garlic, citrus zest or other aromatics into the butter before applying it. Compound butter under the turkey skin is an easy way to incorporate new flavors.
Over the Skin, Too
Don’t stop after putting butter under the skin. Spread a bit more softened butter over the outside of the skin as well. This will help the skin brown evenly and give a final boost of richness and flavor. Apply butter over every area of skin you can reach to keep the whole turkey basting in its own buttery juices while roasting.
Use an herb brush to brush on any leftover flavored butter two or three more times as the turkey roasts. This periodic basting helps the skin continue browning to a gorgeous mahogany sheen.
Butter and Gravy
All the melted butter and turkey juices will collect in the bottom of the roasting pan as you cook. Be sure to save these flavorful pan drippings after removing your turkey to rest. Just add a bit of flour, chicken or turkey stock and seasonings to the drippings in the pan and simmer to create an incredible turkey gravy.
TheTakeaway
There’s no need to overthink preparing the holiday bird. Just remember to coat it liberally with butter before it goes into the oven. Adopt this easy technique, and your turkey will turn out tender, juicy and full of flavor every time. Let melted butter work its magic for foolproof results you can feel confident serving family and guests. This Thanksgiving, relax and let butter do the hard work of making your turkey taste like a dream.
Do you need an instant-read thermometer?
Because roasting times may vary, the best way to tell if a turkey is done is with a good instant-read thermometer. I love my Thermapen One from ThermoWorks and it’s one of my most used cooking tools. I get nearly instant, extremely accurate results every time. In fact, we named it the top pick in our roundup of the best instant-read thermometers.
It’s a bit pricey and you can get it for $99 at ThermoWorks. It does go on sale every so often, but if you want a more budget-friendly option, I also like the ThermoPop, which is only $15.99 at ThermoWorks and it makes a great gift!
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: Plan for 1 ¼ pounds turkey per person (some of the weight is from bones). This recipe assumes a 15-pound bird which will feed about 12 people (about 1 ½ cups turkey per person or 18 cups total). The math is: 12 people x 1.25 pounds per person = 15-pound turkey.
- Storage: Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- Make ahead: Get a jump start on your Thanksgiving prep with my easy Make Ahead Turkey recipe. Roast, carve, and freeze the turkey in its juices. Then thaw, reheat, and make the gravy.
- Roasting times may vary: After all, you may be cooking a slightly smaller or larger turkey. An unstuffed turkey takes about 15 minutes per pound when roasted at 325 degrees. However, the best way to tell if a turkey is roasted through is with a good meat thermometer (165 degrees at the thickest part of the thigh).
- Table-side carving: Follow this method if you prefer to carve the turkey at the table, rather than handle everything backstage. Just above the thigh and shoulder joints, carve a deep horizontal cut through the breast toward the bone to create a base cut. Starting near the breastbone, carve thin slices vertically, cutting downward to end each slice at the base cut.
- Slow Cooker Turkey Breast: This recipe delivers a delicious, tender bird without taking up any oven space.
- Ultimate Turkey Guide: Cook your best Thanksgiving menu (or Sunday dinner) ever. Brush up on how to buy, thaw, brine, and cook a turkey, plus learn how easy it is to make turkey broth from bones and turkey gravy from pan drippings.
Plan on 1 ¼ pounds per person. If you can’t find a turkey small enough for your group, consider a turkey breast instead. And if you’re feeding a large group, consider a couple of medium or large turkeys rather than an enormous one (it is easier to thaw and cook a couple of average birds rather than the biggest one you can find).
Your turkey is done when a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reaches 165 degrees for 15 seconds and the juices run clear
For food safety reasons, and for a more evenly cooked bird, most modern recipes don’t encourage stuffing a turkey. If you decide to stuff your turkey, combine wet and dry stuffing components just before placing them in the cavity, ensuring any raw meat, poultry, or seafood used in the stuffing is fully cooked beforehand. Do not stuff a bird with cooked stuffing. Use a large spoon or your hands to loosely stuff the body and neck cavities (do not pack it tightly because the stuffing expands while it cooks). Truss the main cavity with trussing pins to keep the stuffing inside. The stuffing must register 165 degrees on an internal thermometer to be safe to eat. For more information, see the USDA website.
Turkey Injection Recipe | Butter and secret goodness
FAQ
Should I put butter on top of my turkey?
Can I put a stick of butter in my turkey?
Why do people put butter on their turkey?
Do you season a turkey or butter at first?
Can you cook a Turkey in butter?
An easy butter herb rub for turkey that will result in a perfectly cooked meal! Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Pro Tip: Prep your turkey the night before you plan to bake it. You can completely coat the turkey in butter and keep it in the fridge until you’re ready to bake.
What are the best substitutes for butter?
The substitute that you might want to use depends on what you are using butter for. In baking you can use any fat such as olive oil, nut butters, or even avocados. In baking you can also substitute non-fats for butter such as Greek yogurt, mashed bananas, pumpkin puree, or even applesauce. For replacing butter as a spread, you can use any fat, hummus, avocado, nut butter, or cheese. For cooking, canola oil can be a great sub, or avocado oil is also good because it has a high smoke point.
Can you put butter under a turkey breast?
Just really carefully work your hand under there, you don’t wanna poke through the skin. Otherwise, once the turkey is roasting, all that moisture is going to escape. And what you’re doing here is you’re creating little pockets so that once you put the butter in there, it can spread all over. After you’ve loosened up the skin on both breasts,
How do you add butter to a Thanksgiving turkey?
Impart rich flavor and add moisture to your Thanksgiving turkey by adding a layer of butter under the skin before roasting. Learn how to do this simple (but genius) technique for a delicious Thanksgiving turkey. Released on 11/01/2013