Sydney Hoffman: Friendsgiving with Butterball

Happy Friendsgiving!!

This if my first time hosting a friendsgiving celebration and my first time cooking a turkey by myself. I'm so proud of how it turned out. Cooking a turkey always intimidated me, but it's way easier than I thought. At the start I had my mom help me to make sure I was doing everything right, but she kept saying "there's no right or wrong" just do your own thing and don't freak out if the recipe isn't spot on.

I was nervous at first but I quickly realized anyone can cook a turkey. I'm sure the more I cook I will add some more things to the recipe, but for now here is my simple fool proof recipe.

Turkey, Stuffing & Gravy Recipe

I bought a frozen whole Butterball turkey and let it thaw for just over 48 hours. Once removing the neck and giblets, I drained juices and blotted with paper towel.

Preheat oven to 325°F. Place turkey in shallow baking pan.

I added some butter and salt & pepper to the skin. I know a lot of people can add amazing rubs, but I went simple for my first time. Find some amazing recipes on the Butterball website (here).

Then I went on to make my stuffing because its the best to cook the stuffing in the turkey! I ripped apart half a loaf of bread into tiny pieces. I sprinkled in poultry seasoning all over the bread (this is the best). In a separate pan I cooked 3 chopped yellow onions, two cups of chopped up celery and 3/4 unsalted butter.

Let that sautée until onions & celery are soft. Poor that yummy mixture into your bowl of bread and stuff into your turkey.

I cooked my turkey for about 3 - 3 1/2 hours. However, when you start to see the skin turn golden brown that's when you will want to cover it lightly with some tin foil. If you have a cooking thermometer place that deep into the thickest part of the thigh and cook until it reads about 180°F

Let it cool for about 15 minutes before carving.

While turkey is cooling it's time to make your gravy. Add the remaining juices in your turkey pan to a stovetop pan & turn on medium heat. Add about 4 tablespoons of flour or until it starts to thicken.

Unfortunately, I ran out of flour so I just used the turkey juices and fat as my gravy and it still tasted delicious!!