Oven Roasted Turkey

best roast turkey recipe 1 for holidays or a dinner just because

An easy baked turkey recipe seasoned with the best homemade turkey rub, citrus and fresh herbs! Slightly sweet with a little kick gives your holiday roast turkey TONS of flavor. Even better, there's no need to brine or baste the turkey during baking!

5 from 1 vote

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Equipment

1 roasting pan with rack
1 digital meat thermometer

Ingredients

Turkey

12-18 lb whole turkey defrosted, see note below on weight
2 oranges
2 onions
2 spring each fresh herbs rosemary, thyme, parsley, sage

Turkey Rub

½ tablespoon garlic powder
½ tablespoon ground onion powder
½ tablespoon smoked paprika
½ tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon fine sea salt
½ tablespoon course ground black pepper
1 tablespoon brown sugar or for sugar-free skip this or use golden monkfruit
1 pinch cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon minced dried rosemary
½ teaspoon dried thyme
¼ teaspoon dried sage
4 tablespoon olive oil extra virgin, or use softened unsalted butter

Instructions

1. Bring your turkey to room temperature by removing it from the fridge 1 hour before baking. Remove the neck and giblets.
Preheat the oven to 325F and pat the outside of the turkey dry with paper towels.
Combine the dry turkey rub ingredients (the garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, chili powder, salt, pepper, sweetener, cayenne, rosemary, thyme, and sage) in a small bowl and add the extra virgin olive oil. Stir together to make a paste.
Fill the inside of the turkey cavity with orange slices, lemon, onion, and fresh herbs. Don't over stuff the cavity since you want still have airflow on the inside of the turkey.
Loosen the turkey skin over the top of the turkey by gently sliding your fingers underneath. Spread some of rub under the skin and direcly on onto turkey meat.
Spread the rub mix over the turkey body, there could be some left over depending on how large your turkey is.
Place the turkey on a rack inside of a roasting pan. Tuck the wings under the body of the turkey to keep them from burning.
Roast the turkey in the oven for about 15 minutes per pound, or until the internal temperature of the turkey reaches 160 F when checked in the thickest part of the thigh or breast. If your turkey is browning too quickly, loosely cover it with foil .
Let the turkey rest for 30 minutes before carving it. The turkey will continue cooking during the rest period and should be at 165 F. Carve the turkey, place on a platter decorated with more fresh citrus slices and fresh herbs. Enjoy!

Notes

You can really bake any weight of turkey you'd like. To cook an unstuffed turkey:

10-14 pound turkey: 2 ½ hrs to 3 ½ hrs
14-18 pound turkey: 3 ½ hrs to 4 ½ hrs
18-22 pound turkey: 4 ½ hrs to 5 ½ hrs

We use about 3 tablespoon rub + 3 tablespoon olive oil for a 10 lb turkey, about 4 tablespoon of each for a 14 lb turkey, and 5 tablespoon each for an 18+ lb turkey. The recipe above will season a small to medium turkey, you'll need to make extra rub if you have a very large turkey. Leftover rub is delicious on chicken and pork too and will keep for up to 6 months when stored in an airtight container in the cupboard.

There's no need to brine or baste this turkey during cooking. Opening the oven to baste it actually slows down the cooking time but you of course can baste the turkey juices over the turkey periodically during cooking. If you like to brine your turkey, we do have a super simple turkey brine recipe.

If you don't have a rack for the roasting pan, place the turkey on a bed of whole carrots, sliced onions, and celery.

You can tie the drumsticks together if you want to serve a whole turkey on your holiday table, but we usually skip this and serve the turkey carved into slices.

Interior oven temperatures can really vary, by up to 25 F! We recommend using an inexpensive oven thermometer and know how hot or cold your oven is cooking before turkey day.

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