Tuscan Roast Turkey Recipe
(Doesn’t that look absolutely delicious?!?)
Ingredients:
Serving Size: 16
- 1 16-pound young turkey
- Kosher salt, to taste
- 1 cup Tuscan Herb Paste
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
- 2 teaspoons celery salt
- 3 fennel stalks with fronds, rough
- chopped
- 3 onions, large dice
- 1 stalk celery, small dice
- 2 1/4 quarts chicken stock
- 3 ounces all-purpose flour
Steps:
- Remove giblets from turkey’s cavity, rinse cavity and pat dry, set aside.
- Season turkey inside and out with Kosher salt.
- Mix Tuscan Herb Paste with crushed fennel seeds and celery salt. Starting at the neck of the bird, slip your hand between the meat and the skin to loosen.
- Rub half the paste mix under skin, and rub remaining paste inside the cavity and over the rest of the turkey. Season all over with kosher salt.
- Place two-thirds of the chopped onion and fennel stalks inside cavity. Truss bird.
- Place turkey in a roasting pan. Roast at 400°F for 30 minutes.
- Reduce temperature to 325°F and continue cooking the turkey to an internal temperature of 160°F, approximately 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Baste turkey often during cooking with juices from pan. If turkey begins to overbrown, cover it loosely with aluminum foil.
- As turkey roasts, simmer giblets (neck, heart and gizzard), the other one-third of the fennel stalk, onion mix and diced celery in 1 quart chicken stock until tender, approximately 1 1/2 hours.
- When turkey is done, remove from roasting pan and set aside to rest. Degrease roasting pan, reserving 3 ounces of fat to make a roux.
- Deglaze pan with a small amount of chicken stock. Transfer stock to a saucepot, and add remaining stock and broth from giblets. Bring to a simmer and degrease.
- Make a blond roux with reserved fat and flour. Add roux to the liquid, whisking well to prevent lumps. Simmer 15 minutes. Strain gravy through a fine-meshed strainer. Adjust seasoning.
It must be my own pre-conceived ideas but I had no idea that cooking a turkey ‘from scratch’ was so easy. Thanks for this recipe. I’ll have to keep an eye our for that Tuscan Herb Paste.
this sounds so good, I am going to have to try this recipe!