Roasted Turkey with Vegetables

This is not your usual turkey recipe. Instead of worrying about a dry turkey and lumpy gravy, you get an extremely moist bird cooked o­n a bed of vegetables that yields not o­nly the best tasting clear gravy, but a vegetable side for your meal as well. The most important direction to this recipe is tenting the bird with foil. ALWAYS place the shiny side out so that the heat is reflected away from the breast meat. That’s the trick to avoiding dry white meat o­n roasted poultry.

Ingredients

• 1 turkey 12-18 pounds
• 5 carrots, coarsely chopped
• 3-4 large o­nions, diced
• 3 stalks of celery, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 pound raw chicken livers, chopped
• 1 28-ounce can crushed peeled tomatoes
• salt, pepper, and paprika to taste
• 2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped or lots of garlic powder to sprinkle over all
• 1 Tablespoon chicken fat or butter

Preparation Instructions

1. Rinse the turkey. Rub a little salt o­n the inside of the turkey cavity.
2. Place the carrots, o­nions, celery, mushrooms, livers and tomatoes in the bottom of a large roasting pan. Season to taste with the seasonings and the garlic being light handed with the salt.
3. Place the turkey breast side up o­n top of the vegetables. Season the turkey lightly with the salt, pepper, and paprika (if you wish, garlic powder can be sprinkled o­n as well.)
4. Rub the Tablespoon of fat all over the turkey skin. Cover with a tent of aluminum foil being sure that the shiny side is facing out.
5. Roast the turkey at 325F for 15-18 minutes per pound or until the internal temperature of the meat is about 180F. Baste often with the juices in the pan. If necessary, you can add some boiling water to the bottom of the pan. Remove from oven and set aside for 15 minutes before carving.
6. Using a slotted spoon, remove the vegetables to a microwave-proof casserole and pour the remaining liquid into a container. If refrigerated for a while, the fat will be easy to skim off the top.
7. Slice the turkey. Reheat the vegetables and the gravy if necessary. Serve.

Additional Notes

The sliced turkey will freeze well if you freeze the meat in airtight freezer bags and freeze the gravy seperately.