Recipe for Fall off the Bone Turkey

At the close of this amazing Thanksgiving Day, I wanted to share my recipe for an amazingly juicy, fall off the bone turkey, because that’s what ours was! It was the juiciest, most tender turkey I’ve ever had or made, so here’s how I did it.

What you need:

• 20 lb. turkey (I used a store brand) thawed in the refrigerator, in the packaging
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 4 medium onions, cut into quarters
• Several baby carrots
• Salt
• Pepper
• a large roasting pan
• water
• aluminum foil

What you do:

Preheat oven to 375F

1. Remove the neckbone and gizzards from the cavities
2. Rinse the turkey in cold water
3. Pour a small amount of EVOO into palms and rub all over outside of turkey
4. Do the same as above with salt and pepper
5. Stuff both cavities with onions and carrots
6. Tie down the wings and loose skin over the cavity with string
7. Place bird breast side down in roasting pan
8. Add about an inch of water in the bottom of pan
9. Cover with aluminum foil, pressing tightly around the edges of the pan. (I used two pieces of foil and overlapped the edges over the center of the turkey, but didn’t “seal” it)
10. Bake on 350F for 1 and 1/2 hours
11. Reduce heat to 275F and bake for 4 hours
12. Increase heat to 400F for the final hour
13. Remove from oven, but be careful because the juices in the pan were almost over flowing. (We scooped out some of the juice for gravy before lifting it out of the oven.
14. Carve, if you want to call it that. There was not much carving to do, because most of the meat literally fell off the bone. I’ve never seen a cleaner turkey carcass!

We had to increase the temperature for the last hour in order to bake some acorn squash, sweet potatoes and green bean casserole. I checked the turkey about 3 hours after reducing the heat to 275F and some of it looked done and some didn’t. I think cranking the heat that last hour was the trick to the fall of the bone tenderness, but I’m not sure. Any thoughts, comments?

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About the author  Mary Lutz began blogging in 2004 on her personal blog. In June of 2008, she began her own Virtual Assistant Business, and discovered her passion for writing. Besides writing for her own blogs, she also writes for other Work at Home Mom sites. Read more from this author

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