Anytime you're ready, Paula, go for it
It's hard to believe it's turkey time again, y'all, but it is that time of year
And I'm gonna show you how to roast a simple turkey. Very simple, but very tasteful
As you and I both know, there is a hundred ways to cook a turkey
But I'm gonna share with you a simple roasted turkey. Daddy, what can I do for you
Hey, my angel! Oh, thank you! Thank you so much. They're beautiful
You want to sit them up here? Oh, yes, I will sit them up here
Y'all, this is my grandson, Henry, and he just brought his guinea flowers
Oh, my goodness. You know the way to your guineas. Smell these
Oh, smell those. Oh, yum. Thank you so much, Angel. Have a good time with Papa
Okay. Thank you for my flowers. I am going to stick my flours right in here with my herbs
I just have to make sure I don't chop those up for the turkey
Alright, I've got a 12 pound turkey here. If we were going to fry this turkey, I think a 12 pounder is perfect
But like I said, we're just going to roast this one off in the oven. And I'm going to start by seasoning up his cavity because you want to make sure that your bird is good and seasoned inside and out
So a little salt, a little pepper, and then we're going to just season him up all on the outside
salt and pepper him good because the skin is going to get nice and crispy
And it just so happens it's like Guinea's favorite part, which they say to avoid the skin
And I go right for it at Thanksgiving. Yum. Okay, so there we go
We got him nice and seasoned up. You notice I have him on a rack
and I'm gonna just fill his little cavity with some onions. We don't have to worry about peeling it or doing anything like that
because we're gonna take all this out when we go to carving
and the garlic, put it straight into, skin and all
goes right in there, and I'm going to make sure I get it up as high as I can
oh, that almost came out his head, or where his head used to be
that went all the way to the neck, alright, and all these things that I'm sticking in there
Speaking of neck, I'm gonna go right up there and stick him in that neck
And all these things that we putting in there is just gonna permeate that turkey Now because my bird might allow his legs to open I going to prevent that by tying
his little legs together because I want him to stay nice and tucked. So I'm going to tie
that nice and tight just like that. Now, for the good part, we've got to have some kind
of fat to rub into that skin on that turkey so it'll crisp up and have lots of flavor
And I'm going to do that by taking a stick of butter, or maybe a stick and a half of butter
Alright, I'm going to take some, the more butter the better. Alright I'm going to chop up about two tablespoons of fresh rosemary
And this should yield us about two tablespoons. Just mix it up, you know, as nice as you can
As fine as you can. And to me it's very important for that beautiful, delicate turkey meat
it to receive only thing, the only thing that's good enough for this turkey is fresh herbs
not dried. So that looks about the right amount
So in the butter that goes. I'm going to pull out some parsley
Y'all please don't let me pull out rose bushes. because it's right there
The parsley adds a wonderful fresh aroma and flavor to it. And then I've also got some fresh thyme in here
Right here. I think I'm going to have to pull out the rosemary to find the thyme
Oh, I found the thyme. Look at this. This is actually from my garden, y'all. And I have found that thyme is so easy to grow. In fact, I've got it in a raised bed, and in that one bed now, it has completely taken over the bed
and it's something that if it doesn't freeze too bad, it'll keep coming back up every season
and I just love that. Uh-oh, there's a little dried stalk
We'll get rid of him. A much easier way, I have two different size processors
that I keep in my kitchen. One is a big one for bigger things and another one is like a
two cupper and if you wanted to do this the real fast way you just put that in that smaller food
processor, whizz it a couple of times and you would have the perfect size fresh herbs
So there we go. So we've got our parsley, our fresh rosemary, and our fresh thyme to about one and a half
sticks of real butter, no margarine. Butter, butter, it has to be butter. Yes, look at that
beautiful butter. You know, one of my favorite gifts to give at Christmas time is butter
Yes. Yes! How they know me. How my friends know me. But I love making compote butters, you know, sweet
I love making them savory. And people just love them. So I'm going to take this seasoned butter
Smell, Dan. Can you smell? Doesn't it smell good
It tastes fabulous. So we're just gonna rub that bird down with that butter. Yum. Yum
with that butter. Yum. Yum
Cause this is gonna melt and run down. There we go, look at it
Look at it on that leg. This bird has the prettiest legs in town
Not a hair on them. Unlike mine
All right. So when this melts, it's going to run all down
that bird. Now we're going to roast this bird at 375 uncovered and we're going to cook it
18 minutes per pound. This is a 12 pound turkey so we're looking at about three and a half
hours. Alright so he's ready to go in the oven. One simple tie and he's ready. And I
keep melted butter on my stove so that I can constantly baste him while he's cooking. And
if my brush will fit down in there I'll use that butter where all the herbs are. Because
you want to make sure that you keep that breast nice and moist. Now this is what the Finnish
bird looks like He is beautiful Just beautiful nice and brown
And there's nothing I love better than taking the whole turkey to the table and letting
one of my sons carve it for us. And look at this time
time has grown so and done so well it's blooming out. So how beautiful is that with the blooms
It makes a beautiful presentation and it just continues that aroma all through the turkey
and all through the table. Now to carve our bird, we're just going to cut our legs loose
and I like to just pull the leg down, pull the thigh and the leg down, and I make one
slice this away, horizontal, and then I come in vertically and slice down just like that
Look at that beautiful, perfectly roasted turkey. And I want to make sure that my turkey, I'm
I'm swallowing hard now. This is the point where I start swallowing hard
I want this breast to be as moist and tender as I do that thigh and that leg
Because my favorite part of the turkey is a turkey sandwich the next day
You know, isn't it wonderful? Our Thanksgiving meal is one of the most important meals that we'll serve for the whole year
And how simple is that to prepare? Mmm. You can taste all those herbs
And it's perfectly yummy. So stay tuned to this network, y'all. And if this is not the way you want to cook a turkey, come back, visit with me, and I'll show you other ways
I'm bound to have the way that's perfect for your table. I have one question, Paula
Yes. When did the veggies come out? As you're carving? When I get down to them
You might want to tell people that. You said something about it earlier
Just go tight on her, Dan. Now you notice I left the veggies that I had thrown in there, I've left them in the turkey
because they're beautiful peeping out of there. You can remove them before you take it to the table or you can do as I've chosen to do
and that's leave them in because I wanted to untie my legs at the table
We can cut, we're good guys, thank you. Thank you