Cooking a whole turkey doesn’t have to be daunting – it’s actually quite easy when you break it into steps. Whether you’re cooking a large or small turkey, you can alter the amount (less or more) of ingredients needed to meet your needs. Change up the spices and herbs used in this recipe to suite your liking, or, keep it simple by using just garlic, salt and pepper. No matter what you do, if you start with a Hayter’s Farm turkey, the end result will be delicious when cooked to the proper internal temperature.

Whole Turkey Notes

What Size Turkey You Will Need To Feed Your Crowd: A Whole Turkey feeds roughly 1lb per person – this portion takes into account the bones, meaning each guest will have about a 1/2lb serving. So, if you have 16 people attending, a 15lb to 18lb Turkey would be ideal. It’s important to know your crowd – if you have a lot of littles at your dinner, chances are that they will eat less. If you want leftovers, you may want to size up in your Turkey.

Fresh vs Frozen Turkey: Both are delicious! The main difference is that you will want to thaw your frozen Turkey to ensure even cooking throughout; and, to minimize cooking time.

How Long To Thaw A Turkey: To fully thaw your Turkey, you can either use your fridge or do an ice bath – for both methods, keep the Turkey in it’s packaging. For thawing in the fridge, it will take 5 hours per lb. Therefore, it would take 80 hours for a 16lb Turkey to thaw in your fridge. It’s important to ensure that your fridge is kept at a food safe temperature (0 – 4 Celsius). For thawing in an ice bath, it will take 1 hour per pound. Therefore, it would take 16 hours for a 16lb Turkey to thaw in an ice bath. Place your Turkey in the sink and fill with cold water – you could even throw some ice in there to keep it nice and cold. Ensure you change the water as often as needed for it to be consistently cold.

How To Know When Your Turkey Is Done: Please always use a thermometer to ensure a proper internal temperature has been reached. If you’re looking for an estimation of how long your Turkey will take, slide to the next page to see our chart.

Stuffed = 180F
Unstuffed = 170F

Don’t forget to let your Turkey rest once you take it out of the oven – this lets the juices reabsorb into the meat.

Watch our video on social media for visuals! @haytersfarm

Ingredients

  • 1 x Hayter’s Farm Whole Turkey – Fresh or Thawed
  • 1 Cup Room Temp Butter – Softened Enough to Work With
  • 3/4 Cup Chopped Herbs – Parsley, Rosemary, Thyme or Swap for Your Favs
  • 1 Medium Lemon, Washed Well
  • 1 Head of Garlic, Peeled (Optional)
  • Salt and Pepper

*Above ingredient amounts were used on a 15lb Turkey. Alter the amounts to suit your needs.

Method of Preparation

  1. Remove the Turkey from the fridge 1 hour before roasting it to let it come to room temp.
  2. Preheat oven to 325F – ensure the rack is placed so that the turkey will be positioned in the center of the oven.
  3. Take the turkey out of it’s packaging and remove the neck and giblets from inside the cavities of the bird. Pat the turkey dry with paper towels. It’s important that you ensure the turkey is very dry as this will help you get crispy skin and reduce cooking time.
  4. Make the herb butter by combining room temp butter, chopped herbs, 1-2 minced garlic cloves, the zest of your lemon, and also a little squeeze of lemon juice. Mix well.
  5. Use your fingers to carefully loosen the skin of the turkey off of the breasts. You could also do this to the drums/thighs, if desired. Then, put the butter under the skin, smoothing it out so that it’s as evenly spread as possible. Reserve some of the butter for topping your turkey with it.
  6.  This next part is optional, but, you can use the rest of your garlic cloves and stuff them under the skin as well, or, you could use them to stuff your Turkey.
  7. Next, if you are stuffing your turkey, now is the time! You can use stuffing, or, a mix of herbs/spices, or, the neck and giblets. If you are not stuffing your turkey, you could season the cavity with salt and peeper, then move on to step 8.  For this recipe, we used the rest of the lemon, leftover herbs, and the neck of the turkey and stuffed in the cavity. Note: You can also stuff the giblets in your turkey, or, you can use them for gravy, or a pâté.
  8. Transfer your turkey to a rack in a roasting pan.
  9. Tuck the wings underneath the turkey, or, if you like them crispy, tuck them into the sides. From there, you can either use the piece of skin on the base of the cavity to tuck your drums, or, you can use butcher twine to tie them together.
  10. Salt and pepper the outside of your turkey, then top with the rest of the butter mixture.
  11. Put your turkey into the oven, uncovered, for approx 1 hour. Once the skin is browning nicely, take the turkey out of the oven, baste it, cover it with a lid or tinfoil (ensuring not to touch the turkey with the lid or tinfoil) and return to the oven until fully cooked. Your turkey is cooked once and internal temperature of 165F (Unstuffed) or 175F (Stuffed) is being registered in the thickest part of the breast or thigh. Note: Your turkey will continue to cook once pulled out of the oven. Final temps will be 170F (Unstuffed) and 180F (Stuffed).
  12. Let your turkey rest for at least 30 minutes to reabsorb the juices.
  13. Carve and serve with your favorite sides!