Bring On The Coma, It's Turkey Time!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!  Christmas dinner at our house always meant turkey, and for as long as I can remember, I've been in charge of cooking the turkey dinner...going back at least 20 years or so.  Needless to say, over the years I have picked up a few tips to make cooking dinner a little less stressful, more relaxing, and tasty as well.  

For the last few years, I've been doing a bacon wrapped turkey.  Yes, you read it, turkey wrapped in bacon.  It's as tasty as it sounds, and along with it being tasty, it also eliminates the annoying need to baste your turkey every half hour, as the bacon takes care of that for you, which leaves you with more time to sit around in your pyjamas and enjoy the presents that Santa left for you.

Keeping with tradition, aside from my pimped out turkey, stuffing is bread based (AND put into the actual turkey and not cooked on the side), and the sides are simple-mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables, cranberry sauce and homemade bread.  

The secret to having a stress-free dinner is to plan ahead, and time everything accordingly.  Your turkey, depending on the size, can take upwards of 5 hours or longer.  Going on the principal of 20 minutes per pound of bird, you want to gauge your meal prep accordingly.  For this, you start with your stuffing.  Enough with the turkey talk, here's the recipe:

For the turkey:

• 1 15lb turkey, thawed, rinsed, with giblets and neck removed.  Make sure you pat your turkey dry.
• 1lb of bacon (I like maple smoke bacon, but you can use whatever you prefer)
• 2 large carrots, and two celery stalks.

Using a large roasting pan, place the carrots and celery in the bottom of the roaster.  Rest the turkey, breast side up, on the vegetables.  This gives a good flavour base for your gravy, and a nice barrier between the turkey and the bottom of the roasting pan, which will help make clean up easier, and you won't have your turkey sticking to the bottom of your roaster.  

For the bacon weave, I start with placing the bacon slices lengthwise down the turkey, approximately five slices should do the trick.  Using the remaining bacon, I like to weave it in a basket weave pattern on the turkey.  You can opt to wrap the turkey legs with bacon as well, but it's not necessary.  Stuff your turkey with your favourite dressing, cover your turkey with foil and place in a preheated 350F oven, and cook accordingly.

During the last 30-45 minutes of cooking, remove the foil, and let turkey cook until golden brown.  Remove from oven and tent with foil.  You want to let the turkey rest before you carve.  I prefer to remove the entire turkey breast and the drumstick from the bird and slice it up on the platter.  Serve along with your favourite sides, and enjoy!