November 14, 2022
Cooking a turkey seems daunting. I don’t blame you for thinking that. It’s a big bird. How long does one cook it? What seasonings? Will it turn out good? Let me see if I can help you with all your concerns in this blog post. Along with dropping tips for cooking a great turkey, I am also going to hook you on to this amazing recipe for it. Like the title says, its “Asian spiced” and it’s delicious.
This year I have partnered with Crescent Foods, and let me tell you when I say this was the best Turkey I’ve ever cooked, I am not kidding. The turkey arrived on my doorstep – so the convenience factor just won my heart. It’s Halal and hand cut. No antibiotics and no hormones. This is so important to me with the meat that we buy. Knowing that I can trust this company to deliver on their promise – gives me a lot of peace of mind.
How to cook a Turkey
Let me take you through some tips and the cooking process. I’m also going to link some things I use for cooking a Turkey below.
Step 1: Thawing the Turkey
I cooked the 12-15 lb turkey. The thawing instructions are on the back of each turkey on the packaging. The turkey gets delivered to your doorstep frozen. Remove the turkey from the box it came in, transfer to a foil tray and place in the refrigerator in advance of when you plan to cook it (don’t remove the packaging it comes in). A 12-15 Lb turkey took me 4 days to thaw.
Step 2: Brining the Turkey
For this turkey recipe, I did not brine the entire turkey. I removed the packaging, and let the turkey air dry for 1 hour. I followed this by patting it dry. Remove the gizzards which are packed on the inside of the turkey, as well as the neck bone. Pat the cavity (where the neck bone and gizzards are) of the turkey dry as well.
Step 3: Seasoning the Turkey
Next, you want to gently elevate the skin attached to the meat. This will ensure the skin getting really nice & crispy. I typically only detach the skin over the breast and extend onto the legs. Be very gentle so you don’t tear too many holes. Once the skin is loose you want to go in with a seasoning mixture of salt, pepper and garlic powder and season the meat. Lift the skin of the turkey gently and sprinkle that seasoning inside. This will ensure a well seasoned bird.
Step 4: Stuffing the Turkey
Make the dressing for the bird and slather it all over. I use mayonnaise, because it not only keeps the bird super moist, but also ensures the skin gets nice and crisp too. Make sure you get into all the crevices. Tie the legs of the turkey, stuff it with aromatics and place it breast side down on a roasting rack and bake at 450F for 1 hour.
Step 5: Baking the Turkey
After an hour, flip the bird, lower the oven temperature to 350F and cook it for an additional 1.5 hours. Cooking times vary: I cooked each pound of turkey for approximately 13 minutes. Each Crescent foods turkey comes with a little red doneness indicator. However I did use a meat thermometer to check the bird at the thickest part of the breast a few times during the cook and removed the bird from the oven when it reached an internal temperature of 165F.
Entire recipe with measurements linked below. Happy Cooking!
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Asian Spiced Turkey
- Total Time: 3 hours
- Yield: 10–12 1x
Ingredients
- 1 Crescent foods Turkey 12-15lbs
- 1 tbsp of salt
- 1 tbsp of fresh cracked pepper
- 1 tbsp of garlic powder
- Mix the above seasonings and set aside
Dressing
- 1.5 cups of mayonnaise
- 1 bunch of chopped spring onions
- 1 bunch of cilantro
- 1/4th cup of sambal olek
- 1/4th cup of soy sauce
- 2 tbsp of teriyaki sauce
- 1 heaped tbsp of dried basil
- 1 tbsp of red chili flakes
- 1 tbsp if garlic powder
- 1 tbsp of red chili powder (can reduce if you like)
- 1 tbsp of dry parsley
- 1 tbsp of of onion powder
Cavity Stuffing
- 1 bunch of green onions cut in to half
- 1 onion cut into chunks
Instructions
- Thaw out your turkey based on its weight. Guidelines for this are written on the back of the packet. a 12-15 lbs of turkey took 4 days
- Remove from packaging and let the turkey air dry completely for an hour.
- Remove the gizzards and the neck from the inside cavity of the turkey. Pat the turkey dry with paper towels including the cavity. Pre heat oven to 450 degrees F.
- Next release the skin from the meat doing so very gently. I only release the skin from the breast and legs area.
- Season the meat with the seasonings mix.
- Mix all the ingredients for the dressing, and slather it all over making sure all the exposed skin is covered with the dressing.
- Place the Turkey breast side down in a roasting rack, and place in the oven for 1 hour. After an hour remove the turkey from the oven, and flip it so its breast side up.
- Reduce the heat to 350, place the turkey back in to the oven and cook it for an additional 1.5 hours. (Cooking times vary: I cooked each pound of turkey for approximately 13 minutes for more notes see above)
- Each Crescent foods turkey comes with a little doneness indicator. However I did use a meat thermometer to check the bird at the thickest part of the breast and removed the bird from the oven when it reached an internal temperature of 165F.
- Always make sure you rest your bird after it comes out of the oven loosely tented with foil for about 20 minutes. The temperature will continue to rise a few more degrees and the juices will evenly distribute.
- Carve the turkey and enjoy with all the sides.
Notes
- Happy Thanksgiving from me & my family to all of you. Wishing you a season of love and gratitude!
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 2.5 hours
Review
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