By Melissa Clark
- Total Time
- 2½ hours, plus at least 24 hours' brining
- Rating
- 5(386)
- Notes
- Read community notes
This unorthodox method for roasting a turkey gives you a delicious, evenly cooked bird — fast. Before roasting, the bird’s legs are splayed so they lie flat on the bottom of the roasting pan, where they are seared. That jump-starts the cooking of the dark meat (which always needs more time than the white meat). Then, after searing, the bird is surrounded by onions and wine before going into the oven; this essentially braises the dark meat while the breast meat roasts. The result is tender dark meat and juicy white meat, all ready in under 2 hours in the oven. An added bonus: You’ll get a pan full of rich oniony drippings that can enrich your gravy, or take its place entirely.
To get the deepest flavor, this recipe calls for dry-brining your bird at least a day or two ahead. But you can reduce the brining time to 2 hours if you’re pressed for time.Also, if you're trying this with a bird that weighs more than 13 pounds, you will need an extra-large roast pan, and to roast it for a bit longer.
Featured in: A New (Faster, Juicier) Way to Roast a Turkey
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Ingredients
Yield:12 servings
- 112-pound turkey, giblets and neck removed and saved for stock
- 2tablespoons coarse kosher salt
- 1½teaspoons black pepper
- Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
- 1bunch lemon thyme or regular thyme
- 10garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
- 2fresh or dried bay leaves
- 2tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, more for drizzling
- Dry white wine, as needed, for the pan
- 1large onion, halved and sliced ¾-inch thick (not thinner, or slices may burn)
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Preparation
Step
1
Using a sharp knife, cut through the skin that connects legs to the breast on both sides of the turkey. Press down on thighs until they pop out of the sockets and the legs lie flat.
Step
2
In a small bowl, stir together salt, pepper and lemon zest. Smear mixture all over turkey, including inside the cavity. Pat herb sprigs and garlic all over bird. Stuff bay leaves into cavity. Refrigerate, uncovered, overnight or for up to 2 nights.
Step
3
Remove turkey from the refrigerator 1 hour before you want to roast it. Remove all but the top rack from the oven. (You can remove that, too, but if you leave it in, you’ll be able to roast something else at the same time as the turkey.)
Step
4
Heat oven to 450 degrees. Take all the herb sprigs and garlic cloves off the surface of the turkey and stuff them into the cavity.
Step
5
Place a large, empty heavy-duty roasting pan on top of the stove, across two burners if possible. Heat up the pan for a minute or so, until the pan is quite hot. Add the oil, let it heat up for a few seconds, then add the turkey, breast side up, so the legs are parallel to the short sides of the pan and have room to flop open. Press down on the splayed legs so they touch the bottom of the pan. Let turkey sear for 5 minutes, pressing down on the legs occasionally.
Step
6
Pour enough wine into the bottom of the pan to reach a depth of ⅛ inch. Scatter onions around turkey and sprinkle them lightly with salt. Drizzle turkey and onions with a little oil.
Step
7
7. Transfer pan to oven, setting it directly on the oven floor (not on a rack). If you have an electric oven, position the rack at the lowest possible position. Top with a pizza stone, if you have one. Place turkey in its roasting pan on the rack and cook as directed. Roast for 30 minutes.
Step
8
Reduce heat to 350 degrees, give the onions a stir, and if the bottom of the pan is dry, add a splash of wine to moisten the onions. (As the turkey continues to cook, occasionally check the onions to make sure they don’t dry out or they may burn, adding wine as needed.) Roast until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh (but not touching the bone) reads 165 degrees and the breast meat reaches at least 160 degrees, about another 40 to 65 minutes depending upon your oven and the pan you use. Transfer turkey to a cutting board and let rest for 20 minutes before carving.
Tips
- For Orange Bacon Chile Turkey:Instead of using lemon zest mixture on the bird, use a mixture of 3 tablespoons finely grated orange zest, 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice, 4 grated garlic cloves, 2 tablespoons salt, 1½ teaspoons pepper, 2 tablespoons ancho chile powder and 1 pinch ground cloves. Omit whole garlic cloves and thyme; pat sprigs from 1 bunch sage all over bird, including the cavity. When it’s time to roast, add 2 tablespoons orange juice to pan with wine. Drape ½ pound thick-cut bacon over turkey breast and legs. Roast as directed, checking the turkey during the last 15 minutes to make sure the bacon isn't getting too brown; if it is, cover it with foil.
- For Fennel, Parmesan and Anchovy Turkey:Instead of using lemon zest mixture on the bird, use a mixture of 5 grated garlic cloves, 1½ tablespoons salt, 1½ teaspoons pepper, 2½ tablespoons lightly crushed fennel seeds and 1 tablespoon olive oil. Omit whole garlic cloves and thyme; pat sprigs from 1 bunch rosemary all over bird, including the cavity. When it’s time to roast, in a small pan, melt together 6 anchovy fillets and 6 tablespoons butter. Drizzle anchovy butter all over turkey and onions, making sure to get all the anchovy solids from the pan. Roast as directed; when you lower the oven temperature after the initial 30 minutes, sprinkle 1 cup grated Parmesan all over turkey and onions.
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out of 5
386
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Cooking Notes
kestrel sparhawk
Every recipe I see for "perfect" turkey is always horribly complicated. I've been doing my birds the same way since grad school, and they're always wonderful: Cook a turkey upside down (ie. breast on bottom) till 1 hour before the finish, then turn it upright the last hour to brown the skin. Everything is cooked, juices go into the breast instead of draining out, and except for turning the bird, you can spend Turkey Day time preparing side dishes. Works for chickens too.
Stu
Some oven manufacturers will void the warranty if anything is placed directly on the floor of the oven during operation, whether or not there are exposed heating elements. I use a pre-heated pizza stone on the lowest oven rack. Get the stone as hot as possible for best browning, either on a gas grill or a gas stove-top. Never, never, never place anything directly on a heating element.
Adam
I have a standard sized roasting pan. Will I be able to use this approach if I am cooking a 17-18 lb bird (I have a lot of people coming over this year)?
Also, there was a nice tip from the folks at America's Test Kitchen that was similar to Melissa's tip of putting the pan on the oven floor. They suggest putting the pan on a pizza stone for the same reason--giving the dark meat a head start.
Melissa Clark
The biggest problem with using a bird bigger than 12 or 13 pounds is that it may not fit in the roasting pan once splayed. If you have a roasting pan that is big enough, you should try it, increasing the cooking time by about 5 to 7 minutes per extra pound. So for 4 extra pounds that about another 20-30 minutes in the oven.
TriciaPDX
Melissa has a gas oven with a floor above the gas heating element. Everybody's right that it would void the warranty on an electric oven if you place the heavy roasting pan on the exposed heating element. Putting the pan on the bottom rack and on a preheated pizza stone will do the same job.
Francine Goldberg
Will this recipe work if I want to stuff the bird? Seems like it would, but I'd like to get some feedback.
Andi
Just did a "test-run" on a standard supermarket bird...white and dark meat delicious and moist. 11 pounds cooked in about an 1:30! Only complaint, the drippings seemed a bit salty. Should I have washed off the dry brine?
Andy
Usually cook a large bird every year. I use this formula, which is essentially fool proof. May take a little more work to use with Melissa's method:
Baseline recipe for 15-20 lb turkey:
-Preheat oven to 450, cover turkey with heavy duty foil, cook for 1 ½ hours basting once
-Remove foil, and reduce oven to 400. Cook 1 hr at 400, basting every 15 mins.
-For every pound under 15 (-) or over 20 (+), subtract or add 15 minutes at both ends
e.g. 22 lb
1:45 @450
1:15@ 400
Stu
Don't guess. Use a remote-reading digital thermometer to determine when it's done. Also, allow for carry-over heat to continue cooking after the turkey comes out of the oven. I use a Thermapen Chef Alarm by ThermoWorks which I love. It's the best insurance against over or under-cooked meat and will pay for itself many times over. No more ruined $200 roasts!
Carl Ian Schwartz
I have a dual-fuel range and oven--gas burners on top and a self-cleaning, electric convection oven. I simply put the lower oven rack at the bottom position (NOT on the element!) and added two minutes to browning time on the stove top before adding the wine and onions.
This is a terrific recipe--and makes an easy-to-carve turkey. The only thing is that the wings could have browned more!
Krysten Chambrot, Senior Staff Editor, NYT Cooking
Thanks for your point. We’ve updated the recipe to address that very issue. If you have an electric oven, you can place the oven rack at the lowest position and roast the turkey there.
Steven
We did thanksgiving last night and I used this recipe for a 20 pound turkey (it took up the entirely of the roast pan) and it was delicious. so juicy that no gravy was needed or requested (which was great as I forgot to make it). Only change was that I also put the rub on the breasts (under the skin). I prepped Friday afternoon, kept it an open box in the fridge till Sunday afternoon. I used a thermometer so don't recall exactly how long it all took. Maybe 3 hours.
Mark
Had to cook for TG today. 12 pound turkey. Some things I wish I had realized in advance. One, watch the video and note that M Clark keeps the wings free and pointed up. Tucking wings under the bird as usual gets in the way of splayed legs. Dry brined for 3 days but would reduce salt by 1 or 2 tsp. Dried herb flavors were excellent though. Dark meat cooked faster than I thought. Keep close watch on temp after 40 mins and monitor breast temp too.
Mark
P.S.: My 12 pounder took 30 mins at 450 and less than 45 at 350 to cook. I used a well-preheated pizza stone which did a fine job of impersonating an oven floor. My nonstick roasting pan didn't yield enough brown bits to flavor a gravy (so seared off and deglazed a wing or two after roasting to produce a fond).
Jack Ziegler
A 12 pound bird should cook in about 2 hours. Remember the internal temp will continue to rise (about 5 degrees + or -) when you take it out of the oven to rest.
Jackie Pilo
I made a 15.5 lb turkey this year, on the lowest rack in my oven, following this method. At 400 ° it was ready in under two hours. Then rested and it carved beautifully. Everyone raved about the turkey. One of my guests who trained at Johnson and Wales, said it was the best turkey she had ever tasted!!!!l Even the leftovers were juicy and tasty.
RJ
Worked perfectly the first time. As noted, for geometric reasons it works best with a 12#/5kg bird but 13# worked fine. The legs could be removed I suppose to allow for a larger bird. But that changes things.What stood out for me was the ease of getting the temperatures right. My gas range allows placing the pan on the bottom of the oven, so after following instructions I removed it after 40 min @350° to check. The thighs were 165°, the breast about 162°. Perfect after resting. Golden brown.
Charles
This really works. Dark meat fully cooked, white just hitting 162 degrees and perfectly juicy.
Jody Li
This is the 7th Thanksgiving for this recipe. The best! Mix up the dry brine ingredients to crate your favorite: I use salt, pepper, garlic powder, orange zest, smoked paprika, a little fresh orange juice. Lots of fresh thyme and sage. Stuff the cut up orange in the cavity. Thank you #MelissaClark
Julie
Trying this for Thanksgiving. Sitting in the fridge now. The uncovered bird makes the fridge smell strongly of garlic. Put some open containers of baking soda in nearby. We’ll see what happens!
Bobbi
I made this for 3 years and absolutely loved it! I have since got a new range that does not heat from the bottom but from the back of the oven. Last year I tried to make this and it did not turn out as well as previously. The juices and onions just did not caramelize enough to get that divine sauce/gravy that I'd gotten before. Any tips that could make this work in this type of oven?
Sharon R Merriman
My stove specifically says not to place anything on the floor of the oven- what now?
Pamela
This recipe was just highlighted again recently. I’m not a fan of onion roasted with turkey. Onion with beef is great, but in my experience and with my palette, the onion overwhelms the taste of turkey. Also, I like to make gravy from the drippings. Will this recipe (without onion) provide enough drippings to make a perfect amount of gravy?
Judy
I have tried this but with some changes. I removed the back and wings to the "elbow", they joined the goody bag to make the gravy, the turkey then was really splayed. I do like the citrus and herb flavors in the dry brine so I doubled them and really rubbed itThe 24 hr dry brine in the fridge gives wonderful crispy skin. I do not use the same pan to roast as I did to brine so the drippings did not get over salty. The onions were a nice touch.This technique works on roast chicken as well.
MOC
Can the splayed turkey cook with stuffing in the bird? Can we cook the bird splayed, without the cooktop searing? Thanks
Chris
Could anyone tell me if they feel that a lot of garlic --- I think ten cloves in this recipe is a lot --- overwhelms the delicate floor of turkey? One time we made a turkey and inserted the cloves into the breast. I thought it was awful; I wanted the taste of turkey, not a kosher salami. If the garlic goes inside the cavity, is the garlic's flavor mellowed out? Is the gravy overwhelmed with garlic?
Pamela
I won’t do garlic or onions with turkey because they overwhelm with flavor when I want to taste turkey
Jimmy Towns
So I cook the bird to 160 internal temp at breasts is reached...then add another 45 min? Your last paragraph was a bit cryptic for an old guy like me.
Sybil
Made this for Thanksgiving. This method produces moist white meat, flavorful dark meat and no fear of pink juices on the carving board. For a 16 pound turkey I started the dry brining on Sunday evening, and uncovered on Wednesday morning. It went into the oven at 12:30, I basted twice , it was done after 21/2 hours. Delicious. One thing to do next time is let the pan juices set to allow the fat to separate from the flavorful drippings.
Ben
I make this recipe every year. It's brilliant for a 12-14 pound bird-don't think I'd bother with turkey another way. I have a gas oven but use my baking steel on the bottom rack.I always use a whole bottle of wine and stuff lemons in the cavity. The pan juices make a great gravy; I serve it alongside a more traditional roux-thickened one (chicken stock fortified with turkey neck & gizzard). I'll add some halved or quartered carrots in the pan along with the onions—they come out delicious.
jackie
This was delicious! Be careful to not use too much oil. Mine came out too quickly- I should have brushed it on liberally. Skin was delectable. Also, it got to 180 F by the first check. But was moist anyway. Also I should have drained the onions in a small strainer to remove more oil. For those that like roasted onions.
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