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Thanksgiving Turkey & Gravy

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You need only a small amount of pan drippings for basting, but if at any point you find you’re running dry, add a little turkey stock to the pan.

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Rate this recipe 4.5/5 (8 Votes)

Ingredients

  • For Turkey:
  • 1 fresh 12-pound turkey with giblets & neck reserved for gravy
  • 1/4 stick softened butter, for greasing roasting pan
  • 1/2 stick softened butter, for covering turkey
  • Maldon sea salt
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/2 lemon
  • 1 sprig sage
  • 1/4 stick softened butter, for inside turkey cavity
  • For Gravy:
  • turkey giblets and neck
  • 2 peeled onions
  • 4 peeled carrots
  • 1 head garlic, halved crosswise
  • 6 quarts water
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 cups red wine
  • reserved turkey pan juices
  • 2 cups turkey stock
  • 1/2 stick butter

Details

Servings 8
Adapted from wsj.com

Preparation

Step 1

Make Turkey:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Remove bag of giblets and neck from inside turkey. Lightly butter a heavy roasting pan. Rinse and dry turkey. Rub outside with butter, Maldon sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Rub lemon inside cavity. Leave lemon, along with sage and butter, inside cavity.

Place turkey in greased roasting pan and cook, basting turkey with drippings every 10 minutes and rotating pan 90 degrees every half hour, until a meat thermometer inserted into the fattest part of the thigh (avoiding bone) registers 165 degrees, about 1¼ hours. (Begin checking temperature after 45 minutes of cooking.) Remove turkey from oven and let rest in a warm area 1 hour. Remove turkey from pan and set on a serving platter, reserving juices in pan for gravy. Carve and serve.

Make Turkey Stock:
In the morning before roasting turkey, roast turkey giblets and neck in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. Combine roasted giblets and neck, onions, carrots and garlic, in an 8-quart stockpot. Fill with water and bring to a boil. Add bay leaves. Skim any foam from surface, then reduce heat to low so liquid is slowly simmering. Cook until flavorful, at least 2 hours.

Strain stock, discarding solids. Transfer liquid to a medium pot over medium heat. Simmer until reduced to 2 cups, about 1 hour.

Make Gravy:
Once turkey is cooked and removed from pan, bring red wine along with reserved pan juices to a simmer in turkey roasting pan over medium heat. Let wine simmer, scraping up browned bits from bottom of pan, until liquid is syrupy, 10 minutes. Stir in turkey stock, then strain liquid into a saucepan over medium heat. Cook gravy until slightly thickened, 10-15 minutes. Whisk in butter and serve.

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