Thanksgiving dinner is my favorite meal! This recipe is for the perfect roasted turkey that is moist and delicious.
Make the Prosciutto Butter
This seasoned butter makes the base for the gravy as well as the seasoning for the turkey. You can make it several days in advance, and store it, covered, in the refrigerator. Take it out to bring it up to closer to room temperature before using it.
Start by letting the unsalted butter soften in a bowl. Chop the hazelnuts (I get mine at Trader Joes), garlic, and fresh thyme. Crush the peppercorns, and slice the prosciutto into small pieces.
To slice the prosciutto, separate the slices from the plastic sheets in between them, and use a very sharp, straight edge, knife. Stack the sheets up, and slice them long ways first, then across. Separate the pieces a bit, but don’t worry about it too much, as they will separate when you mix it all together.
Put all ingredients into a bowl, and use your hands to mix it all up.
When it’s mixed well, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Keep it refrigerated until ready to use. It will keep well for up to a week. When you are ready to use it, remove from the refrigerator, and let it sit out until it comes up to a temperature that allows you to work with it.
Use the prosciutto butter as a base for your gravy with this recipe. Use the rest of it under the skin of the turkey, and on top of the skin to create a delicious crust.
Roast Turkey
Start by letting your turkey defrost if frozen. You can defrost by leaving it in the refrigerator for a few days, or in a bowl of water to defrost it faster.
When you are ready to roast it, take it out of the refrigerator and let it come up to room temp or close to room temp. Rinse it well, and remove the innards and neck. They are usually located in two places: in the body cavity, and in the neck cavity.
The next step is to season the turkey. Loosen the skin by sliding your hand under the skin, starting at the neck, and working your way to the legs and thighs. You have to break through some membranes to do this, but make sure you do not break through the skin itself.
Once you have loosened the skin, start putting small handfuls of prosciutto butter between the skin and the meat. Your turkey will look bumpy when you finish. Use the remaining prosciutto butter on top of the turkey’s skin. It will crisp up nicely.
Before roasting, stuff some onion, garlic, and fresh rosemary and thyme into the body of the turkey.
If you have good, oven safe thermometers, insert them into the breast, starting at the neck end, parallel to the ground. I put one in each side, so I can make sure it cooks evenly. I roast the turkey at 325° until the thermometers reach 165°. If it starts to brown too much, tent it with aluminum foil. I also wrap foil around the tips of the wings and legs to prevent them from burning.
When the thermometer reaches 165°, pull it out, tent it with foil, and let it rest until carving time. You want to let it rest at least 30 minutes. Carve, serve, and enjoy the best tasting turkey!
Roast Turkey with Prosciutto Hazelnut Butter
Equipment
- 1 Roasting pan with rack
Ingredients
Turkey
- 1 20-24 lb turkey
- 1 onion, quartered
- 5 cloves garlic, peeled, halved
- 5 sprigs fresh thyme
- 5 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 1 Tablespoon crushed black peppercorns
Prosciutto Butter
- 3 cups butter, unsalted, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup finely chopped hazelnuts
- 3 Tablespoons Sherry wine vinegar
- 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
- 1 Tablespoon crushed black peppercorns
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 18 oz thinly sliced prosciutto, chopped
- 6 green onions, chopped
Instructions
Turkey
- Allow turkey to defrost completely. Once defrosted, remove innards and rinse. Set on rack in roasting pan.
Prosciutto Butter
- Place butter in large bowl.
- Add hazelnuts, vinegar, thyme, crushed peppercorns, garlic, and salt.
- Mix well.
- Add prosciutto and green onions, and mix well.
- Set aside until ready to use. The seasoned butter can be made ahead and refrigerated for up to three days. Cover it and keep it in the refrigerator. Remove and allow it to come up to room temperature when ready to apply to turkey.
- Reserve about 1 cup of the seasoned butter for the gravy.
Seasoning the turkey
- Loosen the skin on the turkey: starting at the neck end, slide your hand between the skin and breast, leg, and thigh, to loosen skin.
- Set aside about 1 cup of the butter mixture for the gravy.
- Spread the prosciutto butter under the skin generously. You want to cover the breast, legs, and thighs. Make sure you do not pierce the skin as you spread the butter.
- Salt and pepper the entire turkey, both inside and out.
- Place the quartered onion, halved garlic, thyme, rosemary, and crushed peppercorns inside the turkey's cavity.
- Spread some more prosciutto butter on top of the skin, if desired. You can also omit this, and butter baste the outside instead. Both methods are delicious!
Cooking the turkey
- Preheat oven to 325°.
- If you are using an oven safe probe thermometer, place it in the turkey before putting it in the oven. I place two probes, one in each breast, down low, and horizontally.
- Roast in oven until the thermometer reaches 165°. It usually takes about 3 hours for a large (20-23 lb.) turkey.
- If the turkey is getting too brown, tent it with aluminum foil. Wrap small pieces of foil around the ends of the legs and tips of the wings when they are brown.
- When the turkey reaches 165°, remove from the oven and allow to rest at least 30 minutes. You can tent it with foil to rest.
- Carve the turkey after resting, just prior to serving.
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