summary

There’s no denying the star of the meal at Thanksgiving is the turkey. We all want that perfectly browned skin with juicy and tender meat for a showstopping centerpiece. Enter the butter-basted turkey! This butter-basted roast turkey recipe is so easy and so delicious, especially with a dreamy white wine pan gravy.

ingredients

Turkey Ingredients:
1 (10–12 pound) turkey
1 lemon, halved
1 bunch of thyme sprigs
12 tablespoons (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 rounded teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
White Wine Pan Gravy Ingredients:
½ cup white wine
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3-4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Remove the turkey neck and giblets from the cavity of the turkey. Rinse the turkey, inside and out, and then, using paper towels, pat it very dry. Place the turkey in a roasting pan on a rack and, using your fingers, loosen the skin around the breasts and the meaty part of the legs. Stuff the cavity of the bird with the lemon and thyme sprigs.
In a small bowl, stir together the butter, chopped thyme, parsley, ½ teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper. Using your hands, slather the butter all over the bird, and under the loosened skin. You will have a lot of butter left in the bowl—this will be for basting.
Using kitchen string, tie the legs together and tip the wings under the bird. Loosely tent the bird with aluminum foil and transfer to the lower third of the oven. Roast, basting the turkey every 30 minutes with the reserved butter. Remove the foil for the last hour of cooking time, and roast until an instant-read thermometer registers 165°F in the thickest part of the breast, 2½–3 hours in total.
To make the gravy, remove the turkey from the pan and set on a cutting board. Tent the bird with aluminum foil to rest. Take the rack out of the pan and then remove all but ¼ cup of fat from the pan. Set the pan over medium heat on the stove. Add the wine and deglaze the pan, using a wooden spoon to scrape up all the brown bits on the bottom. Allow the wine to cook for 5 minutes.
In a jar with a tight-fitting lid, combine the flour with 1 cup of broth and shake it to create a slurry. Pour this into the pan and whisk, cooking for 4 minutes. Add 2 more cups of broth, season with salt and pepper and cook, allowing the gravy to thicken, about 15 minutes. Use the extra cup of broth if you want to thin out your gravy, to taste. Strain the gravy and pour into a clean pan to keep warm over low heat.
When you are ready to serve, carve the turkey and serve with the warmed gravy on the side at once.

notes

The reason to tent the bird with foil is that butter turns brown quickly. You don’t want the bird to get too browned before it’s fully cooked.

Remove the pan completely from the oven and close the oven door when you baste so oven temp stays the same. A dip in oven temperature will affect the bird's crispy skin.

It is imperative that you fully dry the bird, inside and out. Otherwise, the bird will steam and will not achieve a crispy skin.

If you are cooking more than one thing in your oven at the same time (for example, the stuffing), the cooking time will take longer. Plan to have your butter-basted roast turkey come out of the oven at least an hour before you plan to eat.

Generally, cooking time for a turkey is about 13 minutes per pound, but this varies by oven.

Tying the legs together and tucking the wings ensures even cooking.