How to Make Thanksgiving Dinner Part 1 - Thanksgiving Turkey

By MandyG | Los Angeles

Part 2: http://www.ranker.com/list/how-to-make-thanksgiving-dinner-part-2-make-turkey-gravy/mandyg
Ah, Thanksgiving dinner. Family, friends, leftover Thanksgiving dinner. All memories worth remembering, whoever you may be. Maybe it's your first time living away from the homestead and you feel that familiar nostalgia of autumn calling you to create that home feeling in your new place. Perhaps it's your first time making having the annual Thanksgiving feast at your house for the in-laws and just don't know where to begin. Whatever your reason for undertaking a preparative role in this time honored tradition, I know it can be an overwhelming and frightening task first time around. To help you along, just as mom did for me, I'm passing on a fully tested and random consumer approved batch of recipes that will help make a surprisingly delicious dinner. You can even gloat about it till next year. I won't tell.

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Category: All Foods

Modified: 2009-11-20 14:48:56.0

So....Turkey

Of course this staple of the season should be part of your holiday feast. However, few things about preparations intimidated me more. Let's face facts...that thing in it's pre-cooked state is HORRIBLE to look at, cold and slimy to touch and heavy as a rock to maneuver. Rest easy brave culinary adventurer! Where there's a will, there's a way. So what will you need? Let's have a look.

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Get a turkey

1) A turkey that will feed the amount of people you are expecting to serve. Your butcher will be happy to advise you, but the info is generally right on the turkey's packaging.

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Get a pan

2) A pan that will accommodate the bulk of the turkey you choose to roast. There is nothing fun about being all ready to go and finding out that tiny pan will MAYBE fit a drumstick.

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Get a turkey bag

8) A turkey bag. These are specially designed to be used in the oven and are actually CALLED oven bags, so make sure you get the right kind from the grocery store. This is NOT the same thing as a freezer bag and if you try to cook your turkey in that bag you will be a douchebag.

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Get ingredients

3) 4 stalks of chopped celery 4) 2 onions, brown or white 5) 6 cloves of fresh, peeled garlic 6) 2 sticks of butter 7) Poultry seasoning And prepare yourself to take the steps that will land you in gastronomical history!

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Prep Step 1

Thaw the turkey. Typically they come frozen so you can just stick it in your CLEAN kitchen sink and run warm water over it until it's no longer a meatsicle.

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Prep Step 2

Remove the giblets and wash inside and out with warm water. I know this sounds revolting...sticking your hand INSIDE the carcass of a naked bird, but you'll survive. Oh, you don't know what a giblet is? Fortunately for you, the packers have thoughtfully stuffed those and the other consumable internal organs in a little bag inside the turkey so you don't have to touch them directly. They keep them with the bird, because SOME people enjoy eating guts with their bountiful meal. Yes that's right, internal organs.

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Prep Step 3

Dry the outside of the turkey. No you don't have to use your best guest bath towel. It will never notice and think you're rude. A paper towel will do just fine.

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Prep Step 4

Rub it down with two sticks of butter. This is what's going to give the outside it's golden brown crackle and helps seal in the juices. Think of it as lotion. It puts the butter on it's skin or else dries out in the oven. Give me my puppy!

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Prep Step 5

Sprinkle your bird with poultry seasoning, also available at your local grocer. This is for flavor and makes things a whole lot easier than trying to figure out what could make the turkey taste nice.

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Prep Step 6

Place the pampered beast in the turkey bag. Careful, it's slippery. Turkey down! If it slips, just wash it off and go back to step 2. I told you to be careful.

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Prep Step 7

Add your chopped celery, onions and fresh garlic inside the bag along with your turkey. This will further add to the moisture and also the flavor.

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Prep Step 8

Great! So now we're all ready to go and all that's left is to roast the thing. Oh saving grace! All turkeys these days come packed with instructions on how long to cook the turkey and at what temperature. Another benefit is a red plastic button that will pop up when the turkey is juuuust right. Don't eat that. Just make sure if it says to pre-heat the oven that you actually do that. It's an important step or they wouldn't have told you to do it in the first place. Get it Einstein?

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Prep Step 9

Not sure if I NEED to tell you this or not, but you should also use specially made, state of the art gloves when navigating your bird in pan. These are called O-VEN MITTS. Bare hands on hot oven items BURN. Now go get the neosporin since you didn't read all the directions first. And take that as a lesson.

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Next up:

Perfect Turkey Gravy... I'll show you how to use the juice of this succulent turkey to make the staple accent for your mashed potatoes and serve it up with another healthy helping of good humored condescension. See you then!

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