This recipe yields a very tender turkey, roasted slowly in the oven without basting.
After the turkey pieces are cooked, you can save the broth from the slow-cooker for soup, gravy, casseroles, or other recipes. See directions in the recipe below.
- 1 large fresh turkey (12 lb or more) (or a low-sodium frozen turkey, completely thawed)
- Stuffing OR onions, celery, and Mrs Dash Garlic Herb Seasoning mix.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Line a roasting pan with aluminum foil using foil pieces large enough to completely wrap the turkey.
- Remove the neck and giblets from the turkey.
- Rinse the outside and inside of the turkey in cold water.
- Place the turkey in the roasting pan
- Stuff the inside of the turkey with prepared stuffing OR sprinkle Mrs Dash Garlic Herb Seasoning liberally in the turkey cavity and then fill the cavity with chunks of onion and celery.
- Completely wrap the turkey with the aluminum foil, leaving no gaps in the foil.
- Place the roasting pan in the oven, breast side up. (We usually place a cookie sheet with sides under it. This makes it easier to remove the roasting pan from the oven and will catch any turkey juice that might overflow your roasting pan.)
- After you close the oven door, reduce the oven setting to 330 degrees.
- Cook a 12 lb turkey for 8 hours, a 16 lb turkey for 10 hours, or a 20 lb turkey for 12 hours. After the appropriate amount of time, carefully use a fork to open the aluminum foil (watch out for steam!). Check to see that the turkey is completely cooked and very tender (dark meat falls off the bone when you poke it with a fork).
- Optional: If you want to brown the turkey skin after the turkey is completely cooked: uncover it, increase the oven temperature to 375 degrees, and cook the turkey 15 minutes or so until the skin turns brown.
- Remove the turkey from the oven. With the aluminum foil covering the turkey very lightly to keep it warm, let the turkey sit for 20 minutes or so before carving.
- Strain the vegetables, bones, meat, skin, etc from the broth and place the strained broth in a covered bowl or pan.
- After it cools a bit, put the broth in the refrigerator for a couple of hours (or overnight) to allow the fat to rise to the surface. (Don't stir the broth; just let it settle)
- After the broth is completely cooled, you can remove the fat by scraping it from the top with a spoon. Discard all of the fat.
- Divide the broth into useful portions (I like to save it in ½ cup or 1 cup portions.) Then put it into zip-lock bags and freeze it for later use in soups, gravy, casseroles, or other recipes.
- Note: this yields a very robust broth. To use the broth in a recipe, you will want to add approximately 1 part water for each 1 part broth. For example: 1 cup of this broth plus 2 cups water is appropriate for use in a recipe that calls for 2 cups of low-sodium chicken or turkey broth.
Our estimates assume the use of fresh turkey with only 3% sodium per serving (instead of frozen turkey that has been infused with a high-sodium broth).
Note that sodium percentages depend on which daily reference you use. The estimated 70 mg of sodium per serving implies that one serving of this recipe provides:
– 3% of the U.S. FDA daily reference value for sodium for a 2,000-calorie diet that includes 2,400 mg sodium, or
– 5.0% of the American Heart Association recommendation of 1,500 mg sodium per day, or
– 7.0% of the Ménière’s diet recommendation of 1,000 mg sodium per day.
(As is the case with all of the recipes on this web site, the nutrition information provided in this recipe is only an estimate based on nutrition information provided on the packaging of each of the ingredients we used in this recipe and/or on a variety of sources on the web. This information should be regarded as an opinion only, with no guarantees that it is accurate. Obviously, the nutritional information will vary depending on the ingredients and quantities that you use.)
