Best Turkey Ever (part 1)

The best turkey ever starts the day before. I make a brine for the turkey to soak in. I use the ingredients above plus 2 or 3 gallons of water to make the brine. Mixing until the salt and brown sugar are dissolved. I also like to squeeze the juice out of the orange pieces to add more flavor.

I don't have a bowl large enough to hold a turkey, so I bought a large plastic bin with a lid. It's the perfect size and still fits easily into my fridge.

Slowly, add the turkey to the brine.

Pushing it down, until the brine covers the bird completely.

Stick in the refrigerator until bake time. I like to brine mine for about 24 hours.

Scroll down to find out how to bake the best turkey ever. (In my opinion, of course)

Best Turkey Ever! (part 2)

The next day, I drained the brine from the turkey.

Discarding all fruit and herbs. I then rinsed off the bird.

After rinsing the turkey, I stuffed it with fresh rosemary, thyme, sage...

apples, oranges, and onions...

The next thing I did is make a butter compote with butter and fresh (or dried) herbs. Once the butter and herbs were mixed together, I shoved it under the skin of the bird, on top of the breasts. Sorry, no picture of this.. Butter and camera do not get along very well.

Then, I added cut up apples, oranges, celery, onions and carrots to the bottom of the roaster.

I prefer to use my Rival roaster oven to my oven. It keeps all the heat right next to the bird and it keeps all the moisture in. No need for basting, and it is still super moist and fall off the bone tender.

This is what it looks like after cooking for four hours. It is so moist it is falling off the bones. I am telling you, this turkey is to die for! It is so good, I hardly ever have leftovers.