Easy Thanksgiving Roasted Turkey!
Here you’ll learn all you need to know to cook the perfect juicy and
tender turkey, the secret starts with an oven bag. It’s a breeze to
prepare and it turns out delicious every time following a few simple
steps!
How to Cook Turkey {In an Oven Bag}
- Servings: 12 -24
- Prep Time 15 minutes
- Cook Time 3 hours
- Cool Time 20 minutes
- Total Time 3 hours 35 minutes
Ingredients
- 12 - 24 lb. turkey (fresh or frozen and fully thawed)
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 3 garlic cloves, minced (1 Tbsp)
- 1 tsp dried thyme, or 1 Tbsp chopped fresh*
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
- 4 celery ribs, chopped into 2-inch pieces
- 1 large yellow onion, peeled and chopped into chunks
- 2 carrots, peeled and chopped into 2-inch pieces
Instructions
-
Move oven rack one level below center and preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-
In a small mixing bowl stir together butter, garlic, thyme and season with a little salt and pepper.
-
Remove neck and giblets from turkey and remove any pin feathers left behind. Tuck wings under turkey. Season cavity of turkey with salt and pepper.
-
Using the back end of a wooden spoon separate turkey breast skin from breast. Rub butter underneath skin (again I just use the back end of the spoon), smooth over skin to spread butter out. Altnerately you can just rub butter over skin but I feel it seasons better when rubbed underneath.
-
Season all over turkey with a fair amount of salt and pepper.
-
Add 1 Tbsp flour to the Reynolds Kitchens Turkey Size Oven Bag and shake. Place oven bag in a roasting pan, add celery, onion and carrots to oven bag. Place turkey over vegetable layer in oven bag.
-
Close oven bag with the oven safe tie included. Cut 6 slits across top of the oven bag to allow steam to escape then tuck ends of oven bag into the pan.
-
Cook unstuffed turkey according to size (thickest portion of thigh and breast should register 165 degrees in several places on an instant read thermometer):
12 - 16 lb turkey: 2 - 2 1/4 hours
16 - 20 lb turkey: 2 1/4 - 2 1/2 hours
20 - 24 lb turkey: 2 1/2 - 3 hours -
Let turkey rest 20 minutes. Carefully cut top of oven bag open, transfer turkey to carving board and carve.
Recipe Notes
- Plan about 1 lb of turkey per person, for example a 12 lb. turkey should feed about 12 people, a 24 lb. turkey should feed about 24 people.
- To thaw a frozen turkey allow about 24 hours for ever 5 pounds of turkey thawing in a refrigerator set to 40 degrees. I like to add an extra day just to be safe. A fully thawed turkey can be held in the refrigerator 2 more days.
- *Other herbs work great here including parsley, rosemary, sage or marjoram. You can also add lemon zest to the butter mixture if desired.
- Ensure that oven bag does not touch top element or sides of oven or it can melt.
