I have heard and read about cooking a turkey upside down for a few years and this year I decided to give it a try. Boy am I glad I did. It was so moist and juicy. This will be my go-to way of cooking my Thanksgiving turkey.
Upside Down Turkey
Ingredients
- 1 fresh turkey or frozen-thawed
- For the Rub:
- 1 cup of butter softened
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried sage
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- Inside the Trueky Cavity:
- 2 oranges cut in quarters
- 1 red onion cut into quarters
- 6 large garlic cloves peeled and left whole
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Remove the neck bone and the giblets from the turkey and discard.
- In a bowl add your softened butter, garlic, lemon juice, thyme, sage, rosemary, salt, and pepper and mix together until combined.
- Pat the outside of the turkey dry with paper towels.
- I wear disposable gloves for this part: Use your hand and make a pocket underneath the skin of the turkey breast and add half of the butter mixture and spread it underneath the skin.
- Spread the remaining butter mixture all over the rest of the turkey.
- Stuff the turkey cavity with oranges, opinion, and garlic.
- Place the turkey upside down on the roasting rack and place it in the oven.
- Lower the heat to 325 degrees.
- Cooking time depends on the size of your turkey.
- When half of your cooking time is up, take the turkey out of the oven, turn it over (breast side up) and place it back in the oven for the second half of cooking.
- Don't worry about the marks from the rack the breast meat will plump right back up.
- Cook until the temperature reaches 165 degrees in the thickest part of the breast meat
- Remove from oven and let rest for at least 15 minutes before carving.
- Serve and enjoy:)