Butter Injected Thanksgiving Turkey

For years I have been cooking a traditional turkey for Thanksgiving. The same exact way as my mother did it every single year. One year I decided to play with it, I wasn’t feeling turkey during that Thanksgiving. So I made an all-purpose seasoning to season the skin of the turkey and made a butter mixture to inject the meat. My family and friends were impressed with the turkey, and they want it in a similar way all the time for Thanksgiving. The results in my honest opinion between Injecting vs Placing butter under the skin, you get juicier turkey meat and it helps to prevent the turkey meat to overcook on you.

Butter injection

2 sticks of unsalted butter = 16 tbsp/1 cup

1 tbsp salt

½ tbsp black pepper

½ tbsp garlic powder

½ tbsp onion powder

½ tbsp paprika

Aromatics

1 lemon

1 orange

½ medium onion

4 garlic cloves

2 sprigs of rosemary

2 sprigs of thyme

1 sprig of sage

Dried parsley flakes

1 whole turkey

Be sure to allow your butter to come to room temperature. Add all your ingredients from the butter mixture into a bowl and mix well. Place in microwave for 15 to 30 seconds to melt butter, you can do this before or after adding ingredients.

Remove neck bone and gizzards from turkey cavity and pat the skin of the turkey dry with a paper towel. Trim any unwanted neck skin and remove the tail.

Now take your injection syringe and inject the turkey breast, legs, thighs and wings heavily. I like to focus more injections on the turkey breast so the finished product is a juicy and tender turkey breast. You do want to get injection all over, this will add flavor to the turkey meat.

After you use most of the liquid butter of your injection mix, you will have the seasonings leftover. Take the leftover butter injection and rub over the skin and inside the cavity.

Stuff the turkey cavity with the aromatics

Truss the turkey, in the video above I show you how to truss the turkey.

Place in a roasting rack and add a little water to the bottom of the pan. This will prevent the drippings to burn.

I like to use thermometer probes to monitor the temperature of the turkey breast as it cooks. I like to have the internal part of the breast near the stuffing to cook to exactly 165 degrees. With a probe like the Weber I-grill mini, you can ensure a fully cooked turkey every time.

Place your turkey in the oven that is preheated to 325 degrees until the Turkey breast reaches a temperature of 165 degrees internally.

Every hour, spray the skin of the turkey with chicken broth or turkey broth.

If you do not have thermometer probe, (which you should get one) go by the cooking instructions of your turkey package. It’s about 18 - 22 minutes per pound, so calculate the pounds of your turkey to the time you will need. 18 minutes un-stuffed and 22 for a stuffed turkey. Be sure to check with a thermometer towards the end of the cook.

Let the turkey rest covered with aluminum foil for 30 mins.

Carve and enjoy!