Roasted Turkey
The "traditional" turkey dinner is my husband's favorite meal in the whole world. Every year after Thanksgiving he says, "Let's do this dinner more often, like three or four times a year." I always say, "sure why not?" Finally, this year, we actually pulled off an extra turkey dinner in September! We found a local farm with organic free range birds (frozen when not in season), invited over a bunch of friends, and put it all together.
Thawing out a turkey is a bit of a pain, but can't be avoided unless your meal is planned during the short-window while fresh birds are "in season" (November through December). See: Thawing instructions and times. In my experience, the refrigerator thawing never works, and my bird ends up in the extra sink undergoing the water-thawing technique which always saves the day!
Stuffing - Since I love bread stuffing, if I'm cooking a turkey it will be stuffed.
Roasting - Here is the simplest Roasted Turkey Recipe I have found. Honestly, I actually never bother with basting (either I'm a little lazy or I just like to keep things simple, maybe both!). I think the most important thing is to start with a good quality bird. I have noticed that free range birds are much leaner than regular ones, as should be expected. So much so that the bird isn't swimming in it's own fat which saves the step of having to separate the fat from the drippings to make the gravy. Gravy is a treat, and like stuffing, if I'm making a turkey then I will also be making turkey gravy!
Turkey Soup - There is nothing like homemade turkey soup! So after the leftover meat is carved off the bird this is the next step.
Nutrition information:
light meat, skinless; 4 oz.
Calories: 136 protein: 28.7g total carbohydrate: 0g total fat: 2.3g
sugars: 0g saturated fat: 0g sodium: 679mg dietary fiber: 0g
dark meat, skinless; 4 oz.
Calories: 189 protein: 27.3g total carbohydrate: 0g total fat: 8g
sugars: 0g saturated fat: 2.1g sodium: 93mg dietary fiber: 0g