Good Eats Roast Turkey

The best turkey my family and I have ever had! The turkey was moist, flavorful and the skin was crisp and golden. The white breast meat was moist and just right. The dark meat was even more flavorful. This was my first turkey and I definitely do not regret it! I got rave reviews and all of my guests were impressed. At first I was weirded out that my kitchen smelled more like apple pie than turkey during the first 1-2 hours of baking. It took 4.5-5 hours of baking at 325 to make a 14 lb turkey. This is becuase I did not roast at 500 for the first stage as my oven caused the power in my house to flicker when i turned it to 500. I had just enough brine to cover my 14 pound turkey. I tried the roaster bag for the brine as someone on the boards suggested but it burst and the brine leaked out. So I transferred it to a 5 gallon bucket. So, do not use the bags! I also had a hard time finding vegetable stock, after looking at a few stores I found it at walmart. If you are looking for a turkey recipe you won't go wrong with this one. I can't wait to get into the leftovers. I have now been making this recipe without fail for several years and it always comes out fantastic.

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LOVE! Never enjoyed turkey until we used Alton's recipe couple years ago...now I look forward to Nov when the first turkeys start showing up in the markets!

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Best Turkey I have ever cooked

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I've never been a fan of Thanksgiving turkey as a child. This was my first time cooking a turkey, and I had worked myself up in to such nervousness because of how hard it was supposed to be! But this recipe made it simple, and the bird was perfect and SO delicious. It was so easy and juicy in fact I went out and bought a second turkey after Thanksgiving JUST for sandwich meat. My only complaint with the recipe as-written is one of taste - my husband and I don't care much for rosemary, and the flavor of it permeates the turkey. I leave it out now, and to my tastes the bird is perfect.

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It's true this is the best turkey ever! The first year I made it there was absolutely NONE left. I was upset that my hubby didn't put ANY to the side for us and said I'd never do all of that work again and not get to enjoy the fruits of my labor. Well my dh PROMISES that we are going to put some to the side during carving time and is begging me to do this turkey again. I must admit it is WELL worth the labor of love. This is the ONLY turkey recipe for me. I do add my hickory bacon and my special glaze 1 hr before it's done. It turns out a beautiful golden brown and the flavor is simply devine!

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The drippings make the best gravy!

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I've used this recipie 5 times now. It produces a great moist turkey. If you can't find or aford vegtable broth I have used chicken broth and the turkey tastes great.

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Hands down best turkey ever! Thanks for the great recipe!

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I made two turkeys for Thanksgiving 2009, this recipe and a non-brined bird.... The brined bird was completely DEVOURED! It was wonderful, the only bad thing was, no leftovers.... except for the "non-brined bird!" Well worth the time and effort!

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I had high anxietey about making the Thanksgiving turkey this year since it turned out so dry last year. I searched and searched for a new way to make the turkey and decided to go with this brining recipe. Soooo glad that I did. My 28lb turkey came out moist and delicous. This is the way I will make my turkey for now on. Thank you so much! i will never be anxious about cooking a turkey again.

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Have done this two years in a row and gotten rave reviews both times. Amazing recipe, although my father did think that the gravy didn't turn out as well due to this brine.

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DO NOT COOK YOUR TURKEY ANY OTHER WAY! I made the turkey for the first time this year, with mother and grandmother attending, I had a tough panel of judges. Both were skeptical because it breaks all of the "traditional rules" of cooking a turkey (500 degrees!? No stuffing!? No basting!?) They were both blown away by the results... my mom even called me TWICE in the following 2 days to tell me how it was the best turkey she'd ever had. WORTH EVERY SECOND OF EFFORT!

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I followed everything to a "t" and after 30 minutes in the oven at 500 mine came out burned. The whole house smells burn even after the next day. Yes, I turn the oven to 350 after 30 minutes on 500. I was so nervous but I'm glad the burned part was just the skin. The appearance is not so good but the turkey meat is juicy and tasty. I guess nextime I should lower my temperature at 400. Okay got to go clean my oven now. :)

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This year was the first year I ever had to cook a turkey all by my lonesome— and I can't tell you enough how nervous I was about the big day. I purchased the biggest (and last in the grocery store) bird I have ever seen, weighting in at 25lbs and attacked the recipe with high expectation and slight hesitation. I did some slight alterations: taking in account of the large size, I multiplied the recipe by .5 / added carrots & celery to the aromatics & eliminated the sage. I brined one side of the bird for 6.5 hours and the other side for 14 hours. (I had no intentions of bringing it for so long but I had a one too many thanksgiving-eve cocktails and well, simply didn't remember to remove the bird from the brine till the next morning.) I rinsed & dried the bird for 4.5 hour before I put it in the oven. I encountered a lot ( A LOT!!) of smoke after the first hour & half. The juices from the bird boiled over the roasting pan and onto the bottom of the stove causing all the smoke. The end result was delicious! The extra hours in the brine didn't negatively affect the bird at all. Cooked bird at 400 for 30 minutes, 350 for 3hrs 20 min. I would quickly recommend this recipe to anyone.

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Love this recipe! It was my very first brine, and I have to say, I am never going back! Didn't brown as much as I would have liked, but my oven runs a tad low. Next time, a little longer at 500.

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My turkey turned out moist and juicy. best turkey I've ever had. Will be using this method year after year.

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This recipe is AWESOME! I have made our thanksgiving turkey with this recipe for the past 3 years and my family loves it! My husband is not a big fan of turkey or white meat, but the turkey comes out so tender and juicy that my husband absolutely loves it!

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Made this for Canadian thanksgiving last month and it turned out BEYOND incredible. I never made a turkey before and my guests would have never guessed that. We sliced the top off of a 5 gallon water cooler bottle, filled that with the chilled brine and the turkey and then put that into a cooler. We marinated for 24 hours, turning once. SO worth the effort. Moistest meat ever! Thanks for the recipe!!

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