Roasted Turkey and Gravy

So, turkeys were on sale the other day (weird huh? wrong time of year!) and we figured it would be great to roast a turkey and use the left overs for lunches! so we did :) this was one of the best turkeys I've ever had too! It was so moist and yummy!  It was just a little guy, just under 12 lbs (biggest that would fit in our oven though haha!)  Here's what you'll need:

1 Turkey
1 onion - cut into chunks
2-3 Carrots -  cut into chunks
2-3 stocks of celery - cut into chunks
1 stick of butter
Dried Thyme
Dried Basil
Dried Oregano
Salt and Pepper

Gravy:
Giblets and Neck from the turkey
drippings from the turkey
Flour


Make sure the turkey is completely thawed, remove the giblets and neck (safe for the gravy!)

Rinse thoroughly and pat dry with a paper towel.  Stuff the inside of the bird with the onion/celery/carrots (leave the remainder to place around the pan). 

Take your hand and run it under the skin to loosen it.  Using 1-2 tablespoons of the butter, rub it under the skin you just loosened.  Take the rest of the butter rub it over the entire bird.  Then season with salt, pepper, thyme, basil and oregano.

Put it in a roasting pan (which it just so happens I do NOT have - nor would it fit in my tiny oven :)  i actually used my pampered chef roaster stoneware that worked PERFECT).  Bake at 350 until the red thingy pops and voila!

If you notice before the bird is done that the skin is beginning to crisp too much, cover with foil.  Towards the end of the baking time, remove foil and spread a little more butter on top. 

Gravy:
I cheated and used the pampered chef gravy separator (you'd think this is a commercial for pampered chef by now huh?  :) )  It's a really handy contraption if you plan to roast turkeys/chickens/roasts often and want to make gravy with the drippings tho, I love it!

Boil the giblets and neck in salty water for about an hour (if you are up to it, eat the giblets!  I do enjoy the neck tho, its quite tasty!) Reserve the broth for later use.

After removing the turkey from the pan when its finished, reserve all of the liquid in the pan.  In my case I used the gravy separator... If you don't have one, you can put a hand full of ice cubes in the pan and most of the fat will stick to the to cubes.  Swirl around a few times with a slotted spoon to collect the fat and discard the ice cubes before they melt.

If using the separator, poor the liquid from the roasting pan into the separator.  Let sit for a couple minutes and the fat will float to the top.  Add the juices (keeping the fat in the gravy separator) to the broth you reserved from the giblets to equal about 4 cups.

Discard all but about 1/4 cup of the remaining fat.  If there are still drippings in the pan, place over the front and back burners of the stove.  Add the fat to the roasting pan and whisk in 1/2 cup of all purpose flour over med-low heat until smooth (in my case, with the pan I used, everything came out, so I just did this in a separate pan).  Slowly add in the juices and broth mixture, stirring with the whisk constantly to keep smooth.  Stir constantly until it boils.  Season with salt and pepper, cook for a few minutes until it thickens up.

YUMMY!!!! Next... the Turkey Noodle Soup I made with the left overs!