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Citrus Butter Roast Turkey with Baby Potatoes

Counter 03 · Poultry

Citrus Butter Roast Turkey with Baby Potatoes

A dry-brined whole turkey roasted with orange and lemon butter under the skin, finished on a bed of baby potatoes that soak up every drop of drippings.

4.8 642 cooks rated this
Prep
45 min
Cook
3 hr 30 min
Serves
12
Level
Hard
Free recipe Jump to method

The holiday bird fails for one reason: the breast cooks faster than the legs. A two-day dry brine seasons the meat deep and dries the skin so it bronzes instead of steams. Citrus zest and garlic butter pushed under the skin bastes the breast from the inside, and a high-heat start sets the color. Pull the turkey when the breast reads 155 F; carryover heat takes it to a safe 165 F while it rests, and the thighs will already be well past done.

Method

  1. Two days ahead, mix the kosher salt, brown sugar and pepper and rub it all over the turkey, inside the cavity and under the breast skin. Refrigerate uncovered on a rack set in a sheet pan.

  2. Take the bird out 1 hour before roasting and heat the oven to 450 F. Mash the butter with the orange and lemon zest, garlic and chopped thyme.

  3. Loosen the skin over the breast and thighs with your fingers and push two-thirds of the butter underneath, smoothing it flat from the outside. Rub the remaining butter over the skin and stuff the cavity with the citrus halves and thyme sprigs.

  4. Toss the potatoes with olive oil and scatter them in a large roasting pan. Set a rack over them, place the turkey breast side up and pour the stock into the pan.

  5. Roast at 450 F for 30 minutes, then lower the oven to 325 F. Continue roasting about 2 1/2 to 3 hours, tenting the breast with foil once it is deep golden.

  6. Start checking at the 2 hour mark. The turkey is ready when the thickest part of the breast reads 155 F and the inner thigh reads at least 170 F.

  7. Move the turkey to a carving board and rest it loosely tented for 40 minutes. Meanwhile toss the potatoes in the pan drippings and return them to a 425 F oven for 20 minutes to crisp.

  8. Carve the breast off the bone in whole lobes before slicing crosswise, and serve on a platter with the potatoes and the roasted citrus squeezed over the top.

Hand sprinkling salt over raw chicken tenders in a black pan
Salting chicken tenders before they hit the heat
Hands trimming a whole raw chicken beside a cleaver and fresh greens
Trimming a whole chicken beside the cleaver

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