Roasted Whole Heritage Breed Turkey

Ingredients

• One Whole Galli Family Farm Standard Bronze Turkey.

• Salt and Pepper to taste.

• 4 large cloves of garlic sliced into lengthwise slivers.

• 1 whole onion quartered.

• Anise stalks from one head.

Preparation

1. Prepare Turkey. Remove the turkey from the plastic package and rinse. Be sure to remove the neck and giblets from inside the carcass and set aside to be used in gravy or stuffing. Remove any excess fat from around the neck area or body cavity, and set aside. With a thin blade knife poke holes into the breast, approximately 5 to 6 holes on each side.

2. Season the Turkey.  Slice the fat into similar sized slivers as the garlic slices. Wrap the garlic with the fat and place each garlic and fat into a hole in the breast. Liberally coat the Turkey with salt and pepper on all sides and inside the cavity. Place the quartered onion and anise stalks into the cavity. Place the Turkey in your preferred roasting tray, adding approximately 3 cups of water to the bottom of the tray. Add the neck, and giblets to the bottom of the tray to create the stock for your gravy.

3. Cook the Turkey. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. When the oven reaches temperature, put the Turkey into the oven. Cook the Turkey approximately 15 minutes a lb. A 20 lb. Turkey will need approximately 5 hours of cooking time. Your goal should be to reach an internal temperature of  160 degrees.

4. Rest Turkey. When the Turkey is done, let it rest outside of the oven on a cutting board so as not to continue cooking. The bird should rest at least a half hour before carving.

Tips

If there is any excess fat left over after filling all of the holes in the breast, depending on how much fat you have, gently place fat under the skin over the breast. Also, place the remaining fat into the cavity, for additional flavor added to the gravy liquid.

Another good use for the excess fat is to be used as the saute base for the vegetables, being used in a stuffing. The giblets can be used here as well.

Have a good cooking thermometer readily available. The internal Temperature is more important than the actual cooking time . When the bird is approximately 3 quarters done, start checking the internal temperature in the thickest part of the breast without touching the bone, and the thickest area around the leg/thigh joint.  You don't want to overcook the bird. 

To develop a golden brown color, on the Turkey coat the bird in your favorite fat. For us it is Olive Oil. Margarine, butter or vegetable shortening can all be used.