Rosemary Citrus Turkey Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How much rosemary do I add to turkey? ›

Besides stuffing, you can put aromatic ingredients like onions, garlic, herbs (such as rosemary, thyme, or sage), citrus slices (lemon or orange), and vegetables (carrots, celery) inside your turkey to add flavor during roasting. Remember to remove these ingredients before serving.

What Temperature to Cook the Turkey? Cook your turkey at 325 degrees F for most of the cook time; in the final 45 minutes, remove the cover or foil tent from the turkey, increase the oven temperature to 425 degrees F and baste the bird with butter. The initial lower oven temperature cooks the turkey through evenly.

Instead of filling your bird with stuffing, fill it with aromatics. (News flash: Cooking stuffing inside a turkey can be dangerous.) The basics, like onion, garlic, thyme, rosemary, and sage, help lend that traditional Thanksgiving flavor. Take your aromatics up a notch by adding halved lemons or oranges.

Add rosemary to a variety of dishes by sprinkling the finished product with 1 to 3 teaspoons (1 to 3 g) of the freshly diced herb.

However, there have been occasional reports of allergic reactions. Because of their volatile oil content, large quantities of rosemary leaves can cause serious side effects, including vomiting, spasms, coma and, in some cases, pulmonary edema (fluid in the lungs).

It's better to cook a turkey at 350°F after preheating the oven to 450°F. This makes the skin crispier and ensures the turkey will get cooked evenly.

No stuffing: don't stuff the turkey, because it's a food safety issue – in order for stuffing to reach a safe internal temperature, the breast will almost certainly be dried out. Stuffing cooked outside of the turkey is also much lower in fat and calories so you can eat MORE.

Stuffing Safety

Both the turkey and stuffing need to reach a minimal internal temperature of 165°F in order for harmful pathogens in the stuffing to be killed, explains Baker.

To achieve a perfectly golden, juicy turkey, let the bird spend time both covered and uncovered in the oven. We recommend covering your bird for most of the cooking time to prevent it from drying out; then, during the last 30 minutes or so of cooking, remove the cover so the skin crisps in the hot oven.

How long should a turkey rest before carving? ›

You carve a turkey the same way you carve a chicken or other poultry. It might be intimidating since it's the largest bird of the bunch, but with a little know-how, you'll handle it like a pro. Before you cut a thing, let your turkey rest — at least 30 minutes — so its juices don't end up on the cutting board.

Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) Preheat your oven and take the turkey out of the fridge. Thirty minutes to an hour before the turkey needs to start roasting, turn on your oven and let the turkey sit out at room temperature while it's heating up.

Stick with salt and pepper, put herbs like rosemary, thyme, and sage to work, or take spicy Cajun seasoning for a spin for some kick. Whatever blend you choose, spread it all over the turkey—on top, underneath, between the body and wings and legs, under the skin, and even in the cavity of the bird.

Why is my turkey bland? If your Thanksgiving turkey is bland, it has probably been under-seasoned. Turkeys are big, and it takes a lot of salt and pepper to flavor the entire bird.

Rub the skin with fat

Fat is going to help the skin get brown and crisp, and contrary to what most might think, butter isn't better. Butter does an okay job, but because it contains a lot of water, oil is a better fat to rub on the skin to ensure it gets extra crispy.

Rosemary extract is commonly added to commercial ground turkey meat as a flavoring agent but also acts to stabilize color. A cross-section of antioxidants have been tested for their ability to stabilize meat color through direct addition.

Due to its potency, Rosemary Essential Oil should never be applied undiluted. For safe use, mix 15 drops of Rosemary Essential Oil with any 100ml carrier oil of your choice.