Spicy Roast Turkey

This is a moist and flavorful bird with a crispy, spicy skin. I developed this particular recipe myself. I just don't like a soggy-skinned bird and the spices really kick it up. The roasting technique is my adaptation of Alton Brown's Good Eats turkey. The photograph that I included is actually a deboned bird that made for Thanksgiving 2003. The turkey (especially the leftovers) loses much of the gamy flavor if it has been deboned prior to roasting and it is so much easier to slice!

• Ready In: 3 hrs 20 mins
• Serves: 12

Ingredients

• 1 -1 1⁄2 cup mayonnaise
• 2  tablespoons paprika
• 1⁄2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1⁄2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2  teaspoons salt
• 1  teaspoon onion powder
• 1  teaspoon oregano
• 1  teaspoon thyme
• 1  teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 (14 lb)  turkey

Directions

1. Mix the spices into the mayonnaise until thoroughly blended.
2. Tuck back the wings and slather the spicy paste all over the turkey, massaging it into the bird.
3. (Rub inside the bird, outside the bird and make sure to spread it under the breast skin).
4. Roast on lowest rack of the oven at 500°F for 30 minutes.
5. Remove the turkey from the oven and cover the breast with a double layer of heavy duty aluminum foil folded into a triangle (leaving the legs and dark meat uncovered), insert a thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return it to oven.
6. Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F.
7. Roast until the turkey temperature reaches 161°F (14 to 16 pound bird only needs a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting).
8. Remove the turkey from the oven and let it rest, loosely covered for at least 15 minutes before carving.