THANKSGIVING TURKEY

Thanksgiving is around the corner and I have an amazing recipe to take your turkey to the next level!

As a Reynolds Wrap® partner, I’m excited to show you how I use the brand’s Heavy Duty Foil to make sure my thanksgiving turkey is delicious, juicy and ready to eat in under 2 hours.

I use Reynolds Wrap® Heavy Duty Foil for pretty much everything; lasagnas, BBQ’s, etc. — but one interesting technique I’ve found that works great, is when I cook our thanksgiving turkey 🦃 I use Reynolds Wrap® foil to create a shield for the white meat of the breast of the turkey.

Reynolds Wrap® Heavy Duty Foil now has improved packaging – it’s the same heavy duty strength – with a new blue box for ease of finding while shopping and an easy to open tab that also keeps the box fully closed for storing after use. Look for the blue box of Reynolds Wrap® Heavy Duty Foil at your local Walmart store for easy prep, cooking and cleanup.

If you buy a high-quality turkey from the store, then brining the turkey is an unnecessary step. You can do it if you want, but you can still achieve a deliciously moist turkey without brining it.

The first thing I do is I fill the inside of the turkey with bell peppers, onion and garlic.

Then I make a paste to season the bird combining spices like onion powder, garlic, rosmery, peper, salt and herbs, add some olive oil, and lime juice. Then I take this paste and apply it to the turkey on the skin and inside the skin also, and add some butter cubes between the skin and the meat.

Before starting to cook, I will use heavy duty foil and form a shield around the breast of the turkey. I form it snuggly around every crevasse to make sure all of the white meat is covered. I then remove the foil breast shield and set it aside making sure to keep its shape.

Then I put my oven at 500 degrees, put the turkey inside for around 15 minutes so that all of the skin gets nice and crispy. Then I open the door and place the breast shield back on to the breast of the turkey essentially protecting the white meat from getting over cooked.

Then I proceed to cook the bird at 350 degrees for about an hour and a half or more depending on the size. Once finished, take the bird out, remove the breast shield and tent the bird loosely with foil — this lets it breathe and rest for at least 15 min before cutting into it.

This cooking technique will keep your white meat tender with a crispy skin coating without overcooking it, along with perfectly cooked dark meat. Most other recipes suggest to cook their birds for 3 or 4 hours, then broil at the end, which makes the white meat super dry.