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Roasting A Moist Turkey (with cornbread stuffing)

Yield: 1 moist turkey, up to around 15 pounds, plus stuffing and veggies for 4-6 people.

Total Time: 3 Days total, if turkey is frozen; About 2 hours of active time. Final turkey roasting time, about 2.25 hours.

You’d like moist turkey, you say? Turkey that doesn't desiccate the mouth, that is full of flavor, that cooks faster, and keeps all of its juices, saturated to the bone?

Try roasting it in a covered roasting pan!

Granite•Ware, the makers of most of our ever-present speckled canning pots, hired us to make a video about their roasters for promotion. In the process of creating the video, we roasted several turkeys and I, honestly, have been personally convinced about their quality and design.

When moisture rises inside a covered pan, it tends to condense on the lid. Most lids bow upwards towards the middle, so those droplets of moisture are carried, by gravity, out towards the edges of the vessel.

The difference here is that the lid does NOT bow towards the edge. Instead, moisture travels towards the middle of the pan (where the turkey is), collects around the dimples in the lid, and drips back down onto the turkey. That means the bird (or whatever you're cooking) bastes continuously.

Now, while the fats in the pan (butter, oil, turkey fat) aren't circulating like the water-based liquids, that constant circulation of moisture does end up keeping the bird from drying out.

Not only that, the roaster itself becomes its own little oven, so the bird does brown while it's in there. We found that removing the lid for about 15-20 minutes at the end of cooking really crisped the skin up.

When we carved the turkey we were left with a juicy pile of vegetables underneath it. We ate them as a side, but you could also throw those super-soft carrots and onions in a blender with the liquid to make an amazing gravy!

At 400 degrees Fahrenheit, our 15-pound turkey only took 2 hours with the lid on, plus 15 minutes with the cover removed.

Here’s the recipe we used:

Materials Needed:

Knife and cutting surface
Covered Roasting Pan (we are featuring Granite•Ware's oval 18" roasting pan)
Pan to make cornbread

Ingredients for Sour Cream Cornbread, to be used in stuffing (optional):

1.5 cups Cornmeal
1.5 cups All Purpose Flour
2.5 tsp Baking Powder
.5 tsp Baking Soda
1 cup Sour Cream
.25 cup Water
.5 cup Canola Oil or similar
⅓ cup Sugar
2 ea Eggs

Directions for Cornbread:

Mix the dry together in a bowl
Mix the wet together in a larger bowl
Stir the dry into the wet ingredients
Butter an 8” cast iron pan or an 8x8 square pan
Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 25 minutes
Set this aside until the next day, or after it cools.

Ingredients for Stuffing(optional):

1 batch Cornbread (above)
8 Tbs Butter, melted (one stick)
2 ea Red Bell Peppers, small dice
1 ea Green Bell Pepper, small dice
2 bunches Green Onion, sliced thin
1.5 cups Shallots, copped fine
1.5 cups Celery, small dice
4 cloves Garlic, minced
1 Tbs Dry Thyme
2 tsp Dry Sage
2 tsp Clove, ground
1 tsp Cayenne
4 eggs, beaten
1.5 cups Chicken Stock or other liquid

Directions for Stuffing:

Crumble up that beautiful cornbread!
Melt the butter in a large pan or Dutch oven.
Sauté the vegetables until they begin to caramelize.
Add spices and herbs.
Add cornbread and stir until hot.
Let cool.
Mix in beaten eggs.
When ready to stuff turkey, add chicken stock or other flavorful liquid (we like dark beer in there!), to moisten.

Prepare the veggies to go under the turkey:

A couple of onions
A few carrots
Some celery
Maybe potatoes!

Rough chop the veggies and put them in the bottom of the pan. They will help keep the turkey elevated from the bottom of the pan, will impart flavor, AND will take up flavor from the turkey.

Prepare the turkey:

Remove the turkey from the fridge about an hour before you're ready to stuff it.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Melt a stick of butter with some herbs (optional) for an initial baste.
Remove the neck and giblets from the turkey cavity. Set aside for stock or other projects.
If using a stuffing, loosely pack the turkey with it; alternatively, you can use some sliced onions, fruit, or herbs.
Place the turkey on top of those veggies in your pan.
Brush with butter or oil.
Place the lid on, keeping a little space between the turkey and the lid so that it doesn't burn.
Roast! Timing will depend on the turkey size, but 15-pound turkey took us about 2 hours.
When it's almost ready, remove the lid, and roast another 15-20 minutes.
Remove from the oven.
Let it rest about 20 minutes
Carve it up!
Serve the veggies from underneath as a side, or purée them to make a nice rich gravy.