Oven Turkey Bags? Love ’em!!

I have to admit I was pretty skeptical about using an oven turkey bag to cook our turkey this year. I am now a big fan of these wonderful inventions. No messy cleanup, the turkey comes out moist and delicious and to my surprise the turkey browned beautifully. The photo below is our actual turkey and she’s a beauty! I stuffed the turkey with my Mom’s recipe for summer savory stuffing and it was delicious. (See my other post for my Mom’s Stuffing recipe)

Ingredients:

• 12 – 24 lb. turkey (fresh or frozen and fully thawed)
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 3 garlic cloves, minced (1 Tbsp)
• 1 tsp dried thyme, or 1 Tbsp chopped fresh*
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 4 celery ribs, chopped into 2-inch pieces
• 1 large yellow onion, peeled and chopped into chunks
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped into 2-inch pieces

Instructions:

• Move oven rack one level below center and preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• In a small mixing bowl stir together butter, garlic, thyme and season with a little salt and pepper.
• Remove neck and giblets from turkey and remove any pin feathers left behind. Tuck wings under turkey. Season cavity of turkey with salt and pepper.
• Using the back end of a wooden spoon separate turkey breast skin from breast. Rub butter underneath skin and smooth over skin to spread butter out.
• Season all over turkey with a fair amount of salt and pepper.
• Add 1 Tbsp flour to the Reynolds Kitchens Turkey Size Oven Bag and shake, leave the flour inside the bag. Place oven bag in a roasting pan, add celery, onion and carrots to oven bag. Place turkey over vegetable layer in oven bag.
• Close oven bag with the oven safe tie included. Cut 6 slits across top of the oven bag to allow steam to escape then tuck ends of oven bag into the pan.
• Cook unstuffed turkey according to size (the breast should register 165 degrees in center of thickest portion in several places and the thigh 175 degrees on an instant read thermometer):12 – 16 lb turkey: 2 – 2 1/4 hours16 – 20 lb turkey: 2 1/4 – 2 1/2 hours20 – 24 lb turkey: 2 1/2 – 3 hours
• Let turkey rest 20 minutes. Carefully cut top of oven bag open, transfer turkey to carving board (I used a cookie sheet) and carve.

Notes

• Plan about 1 lb of turkey per person, for example a 12 lb. turkey should feed about 12 people.
• To thaw a frozen turkey allow about 24 hours for every 5 pounds of turkey thawing in a refrigerator set to 40 degrees. I like to add an extra day just to be safe. A fully thawed turkey can be held in the refrigerator 2 more days.
• *Other herbs work great here including parsley, rosemary, sage or marjoram. You can also add lemon zest to the butter mixture if desired.
• Ensure that oven bag does not touch top element or sides of oven or it can melt.