Cooking with Danielle: How to Make a Thanksgiving Turkey

Cooking with Danielle: How to Make a Thanksgiving Turkey

hi guys it’s Danielle from Bliss one domestic and today we are in the kitchen cooking um a lot of you guys have asked um how we do a things giving turkey uh today or yesterday um I have a post on how we got our turkeys so you guys can check it out there on the blog but we were able to get two turkeys this month for free and so you can find out on my blog how we were able to do that so I’ve already done the cleaning of the turkey we we thought it out just so you know FYI a turkey takes about two days to thought out um if it was frozen solid um and what we did is that we left it I took it out in the late afternoon and put it in the sink of cold water not hot water cold water um and that slowly PL it out just again so that you know I know a long time ago like when my parents were younger you know my dad used to just put ground beef on the counter and bought out that way and they’ve actually said like hey that’s not a good idea to do it actually bacteria can grow because the outer layers of the meat heat up before the middle or become room temperature before the middle part has thaw out so just FYI don’t thaw your meat out that way you can thaw it out in the in the sink in cold water or you can’t do it in the fridge the fridge will take a little bit longer but so it takes about like a day and a half two days depending on how big your turkey is um but you can you know press the turkey you can tell if it’s set out so ours took um um a little over a day and a half almost 2 days um ours is a just almost 20 lb turkey and you can see I have mine in a cooking bag the reason I do a cooking bag is because it cuts the cooking time in half and I figure that’s less time running the oven so why not um I also have already cut all the vegetables and I will let you know what we’re putting in our turkey but I’ve done the cut out the vegetables and done the stuffing okay so you can see I have a bag of vet vegetables here these are all the scraps from the things that I cut up to put in our vegetable mixture we’re using leaks today carrots celery and I just happen to have some tomato in here cuz this was an older bag of frozen vegetables so you will put these all your scraps in here you can throw them in the freezer and you can continue to add to it once you have a full bag you can put this in your crock pot and fill the rest of the crock pot up with water and then it will become vegetable broth it’s just a free way to make something that really a lot of people would just throw away but you can make vegetable broth and you can freeze the broth in freezer safe containers or you can can it so that’s just another option something we like to do I’m going to toss that over there okay so to start out if we’re going to talk about seasonings for the turkey and we keep it pretty simple if it was up to my husband we probably have a lot more seasonings but then he’d be the only one that could eat it so we use L’s seasoning salt it’s probably the one seasoning that I do buy name brand um honestly because they sell it inexpensively at Costco this is also the seasoning I grew up on when my father used all the time we also use poultry seasoning which has thyme Sage marom Rosemary black pepper and nutmeg in it we’re going to use some sage and we like to use paprika paprika is really good to put on top that’s how you get that like nice Brown like little crust kind of thing going on on the top and this is a pepp will help that happen and then we’re also going to use some oil um you can use any type of cooking spray that you have I haveen to use a misto I got it from Amazon for under under 15 bucks and you con like you can refill it with any type of oil so soybean oil olive oil vegetable oil all that stuff so this is what we use and it’s pretty awesome so we’re going to start seasoning the turkey first again I already have it in my bag and when you’re using a bag you want to put a handful of flour in there give it a good shake and that’s going to make it so that your turkey does not stick to the bag so to start out um you’re going to take your cooking spray and you’re just going to lightly spray the top of the Turkey um if you are someone you like to rinse your turkey really really well we give it a little rinse but um I don’t want you know the junk from Turkey to get all over the wall so I prefer to use the oil and it just gives it a better taste and that is our oven that is preh hated you should preheat your oven once you kind of are ready to assemble your turkey you’re preheating it for or at 350° so with this one it’s a self pump so you have to pump it to get the air going in there compressed and then I’m just going to lightly spray the top of my turkey and this gets you got to get a little creative with it cuz you got the the bag going on and you can get the legs and St to just kind of pull your bag back if you are someone that’s kind of a germaphobe which I kind of am just you know after just know you can rinse everything down with soap and water and get off whatever turkey juice or whatever has gotten on your stuff okay once you’ve done the oil then I like to always start with L’s you can see I keep a lot of my seasonings the ones that we use pretty much almost every day um I keep them in mason jars and that’s just cuzz I like the way it looks so what I’m going to do is I actually going to grab not that one where are you a little measuring pup just kind of helps since I don’t have the sprinkle thing and I don’t want to stick my whole jar into the cup okay and I’m just taking a little bit put on there I’m we’re pretty generous with our seasoning all it’s really a personal taste and so you’re going to go in and you’re just going to sprinkle this all over your turkey you could do this before you put it in the bag but I find it’s very hard to get in the bag and sometimes the seasoning can get rubbed off and stuff and I don’t like that so just give it generous sprinkling of lar salt and you can kind of go over with your hand and just kind of Pat that stuff in okay let get okay and in general when you cook if you’re using raw meat I try to just do it with one hand so I know this is the hand I’m not going to touch anything with um cuz this is the hand that actually touch the meat so same using my measuring cup I’m going to sprinkle my poultry seasoning in there and I’m probably using maybe 4 tsps but I will link the actual measurement below actually I don’t think that’s work oh no all that’s actually like one and a half I overshot that one okay so you put your poultry seasoning on top Yum Yum Yum same thing with your hand that’s touching the meat which actually I guess I touch this this so just I’ll Give All My Season j a good clean afterwards okay next we’re going to use the sage and again I’m just going to sprinkle it into my measuring P I’m going to sprinkle it all over my turkey okay and then the last thing is the paprika just a sprinkle on top of the turkey okay give it that nice nice little brown okay again kind of rub in your seasoning so it’s staying on the turkey and as it Cooks it’ll mix with those juices and tastes oh so good okay now that that part’s done I’m going to wash my hands and I’m going to move my seasoning so I can rinse them off afterwards now that my hands are clean I’m going to move on so in general I know most people just do a stuffing for me I like to do a stuffing and then like a ve vegetable mixture around the turkey mainly because if I can get most of my cooking done in the oven in one little bag that’s just less time I have to spend in the kitchen on Thanksgiving so I try to do as much prep work as I can so for the stuffing what I’ve done is that this is just one box of stuffing mix turkey stuffing mix and and I like to actually go a little bit on the dry side with the stuffing because once it goes into your bird it’s going to soak up all those juices from the turkey which make it taste really yummy so in our stuffing I put so one box of stuffing mix um four celery stocks and I do three huge handfuls of dried fruit today I’m doing raisins in the past I’ve done crains which is also really yummy I just like that extra sweetness that the fruit gives it and then the same seasonings that I’m using on the turkey the sage poultry season paprika and lauri’s I’m going to use in my stuffing and I just give it a generous I’m pretty generous with the the sprinkling it’s really a personal taste um but those are the seasonings that I use that just make it taste really yummy so using the spoon you’re going to start filling your turkey cavity now um husband my husband and I just saw show where they did stuffing underneath the bird but for today since I’m showing you how to do it I’m going to go with what I’ve been doing um and I just stuff as much as I can get into that turkey and so just using the Spoonful just shove it in there I find it’s easy to just kind of scoop it in and then push it to the back with your spoon um you of course can use your hand um I remember growing up my mom I know I’ve talked about how she doesn’t typically cook but she always did Thanksgiving and so she’s actually the one who taught me how to make a turkey cuz I used to I think that was before bags cuz we used to get up really early cuz we would have to cook all day and so I would get up with her and I would help her and she just showed me how she did it and from what I remember she always did her stuffing a little bit on the dry side too so it absorbed that turkey juice and so this is kind of you know that’s how mom did it and so that’s how I do it and so just keep as much stuffing as you can fit in there and since this is a pretty big bird I’m going to be able to get that whole box of stuffing in there if you are someone who you’re having a lot of people over to your house you might want to make additional stuffing just to cook regular on its own in the oven um but for us this should be more than enough and let’s a little bit left to go and again I will link or put all the recipes down below okay so now my stuffing is in there I’m going to put my bowl to the side and now the last thing that I need to do is I have a huge bowl of what’s in here um one leak three carrot sticks you know the long ones the uh uh what is it like the unskinned the the long carrots the whole carrots um three rusted potatoes es um four socks of celery and I have two Galla apples on top of all that I have again the same seasonings I’m keeping the seasonings going throughout um the L’s uh pure seasoning sage and uh paprika and I went a little bit lighter cuz these are going to go in the turkey and the turkey already has all that seasoning and stuff going on I did add um a four a cup of brown sugar and just kind of coated that a little bit on everything what that’s going to do is it’s going to help bring up that Sweetness in the gala apples so as you eat the turkey and your sides you’re getting that savory and sweet together that just is awesome together so now with this I’m going to end up putting this all around the turkey so as the turkey Cooks this stuff actually kind of boils and is boiling SL steaming um in the turkey juices and so those potatoes those carrots all that it’s going to absorb that turkey juice that broth it’s going to be amazing um you can also if your cavity if you have a little bit of space from where your stuffing is you can put a scoop or two in there and it’ll be awesome so we’re going to scoop it in I also added some dried onions to the mix mainly because um I have regular onions but I just when I cook onions I cry and not like a glistening tear it’s like insane and I did not feel like doing that right now since I already had to cut the leaks um so I just added some dried onions which will also absorb that turkey juice and just be awesome so we’re going to scoop all of this in here and um I’m using my own turkey roast pan you can also use the ones from the store the ones from the store are kind of nice it just makes the clean up quite a bit easier um so just kind of going with you know what you have if you have in your budget to go use the reusable turkey pans um my turkey pans I do have from KATU they were not quite this big and I didn’t think that they’d be able to hold everything so I went with my own turkey pan and even if I run out of room I even start kind of putting it on top my turkey has an automatic the timer that pops up when it’s done which I really like if yours does not have that just a rule of thumb is a turkey should be the internal temperature should be 180° um and just using any type of meat thermometer is going to let you know what’s going on there but you just really want to make sure that middle is cooked so no one’s no one’s getting sick that’s just something you don’t want to give your guest no sickness okay I’m just about done here I just have one more little scoop see mine’s pretty it’s it’s overflowing here make sure you can see it in the video and so now I’m going to take you I’m going to take it all we’re going to kind of shoving it in on the sides to make sure it all gets in there and I’m going to twist oh actually hold on just joking my turkey has that little leg holder and so keep the legs closed and so I’m going to just kind of close those legs real quick and then now now I’m going to use my little zip tie that comes with it and I’m going to close it and you just want to close it nice and tight and then you’re going to add two slits and that’s going to be you know to let the let the steam out um so your bag does not become like a balloon and pop so just again here I’m just adding a little slit um you can do two or three actually I think I’m doing four so three or four just to let that seam out and now you’re going to put it in the oven for a 20 lb turkey takes 3 and 1/2 to 4 hours to cook because I have it stuffed you need to add an extra hour um so 4 and 1/2 to 5 hours and but you have all the um times on here let me see was that right no actually correct that a 60 to 20 lb turkey is 3 to three and 1 half hours stuffed so about 3 and a half hours till our turkey is done and I’m going to pop in the oven at 350 and it’s going to cook for those three and 1 half hours and I will show you whenever it’s done all right guys it’s been 4 hours and you can see the turkey is beautiful um my bag actually stuck a little bit on top that’s because I forgot to base it in the middle but as it’s cooking you can pull it out and you can periodically base it um I actually forgot to them that’s why it got a little little darker on top but you can see has the pretty color and this one had the automatic timer so you can see how it popped out and we have our own meat thermometer that we went through just to double check you never can overcheck poultry you just always want to make sure and so now I’m going to scoop out the stuffing and the potatoes to serve and I will make some gravy I know some of you guys were asking why don’t I make gravy myself that’s mainly because the stuff that comes out of the turkey that neck and the other stuff that you can make gravy out of it totally repulses me and I just don’t make gravy because of that so that is why I either use a mix or go with the store bought kind um so there you go that is how to make a Thanksgiving turkey I hope you guys like this video and if you’re new to this channel hit the sub button and subscribe and have a great Thanksgiving thanks guys

We’re making a turkey today!!

Below are the recipes mentioned in the video:)

Stuffed Turkey

Ingredients:
1 whole turkey 15-20 pounds
1 tbl seasoning salt
1 1/2 tbl. poultry seasoning
1 tsp. sage
1 tsp paprika
Stuffing for turkey

Spray your turkey with cooking spray. Sprinkle top of turkey with seasoning. Stuff with stuffing. Place in bag and cook for 3 1/2 – 4 hours @350. Allow to sit for 20 minutes before carving.

Stuffing:
1 box stuffing – prepared according to package directions
1 cup raisins
4 celery stalks, diced
turkey seasoning to taste

Vegetables for Around Turkey:
1 leek
3 carrots
3 russets potatoes
4 stalks of celery
2 apples
1/4 cup brown sugar
turkey seasonings to taste

wash and chop your veggies and apple. Toss with brown sugar and place in cooking bag around turkey.

*A turkey takes two days to thaw out. Thaw your turkey out in the sink by placing it in cold water.
*A cooking bag will cut the cooking time in half!

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