Tender Thanksgiving Turkey Recipe

Tired of a Thanksgiving Turkey that tastes like eating cardboard? I honestly don’t know how many Thanksgiving dinners I have struggled through… at a get-together, at an in-laws, or even some restaurants, where the turkey that was served was dry, tough, and nearly next to inedible. There is an alternative. Take the initiative this year, and YOU cook the turkey.

You can cook a Thanksgiving turkey with less than 15 minutes prep time, and the result be an unbelievable juicy tender turkey. File this cooking tip away as your own secret. (It works on roasts as well.)
The following is how to cook a turkey in a ‘Reynolds Oven Bag’. This is a special plastic bag, made specifically for oven cooking.

Oven Turkey Herb and Spice Marinade

1 whole turkey (about 8-10 lbs)
1 tbsp. sea salt
2 tablespoons olive oil, (you can substitute a vegetable oil)
2 tsp. oregano
2 tsp. paprika
2 tsp. basil
1 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. of dried parsley flakes
1 tsp. Mrs. Dash poultry spice
1 lg. sweet onion, chopped (walla walla sweet onion if possible)
1/4 cup of water
1 ‘Reynolds’ Plastic Baking bag, Turkey size. (most supermarkets carry these)

In a medium bowl combine together herb and spice mixture and set aside. Rinse turkey thoroughly and pat dry. Place turkey in an oven baking bag and drizzle oil over turkey then sprinkle all of spice mixture inside and out of meat. Place chopped onion inside of turkey and close bag. Tie with provided nylon plastic oven tie. Marinate overnight in refrigerator.

Place in roasting pan and make 5 or 6 ½ inch slits on top of the bag.

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees. Open plastic tie and add ¼ cup of water to inside of oven bag. Close bag and re-tie nylon tie. Bake at 350 degrees until appropriate doneness according to the size of the turkey. This will be about 1 hour 15 minutes, to 1 hour 35 minutes. You can carefully open the bag, and test with a knife or fork for whether or not the turkey is done, it will flake open… if the turkey is large you may need another 5 or 10 minutes… but don’t over do it.

Remove turkey from oven bag, carve and serve. It will be juicy, and be extremely tender.

One last note, there is no clean up. You discard the oven bag and there is literally no pan, grill, or roasting mess to clean.

oven roasted turkey, turkey marinade spices, turkey oven bag