• Note: Make sure your oven is clean before roasting turkey to prevent any smoking.

MAKE THE BRINE:

• The day before you want to cook your turkey (or earlier) make your brine.
• Combine the stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, bay leaves, lemon zest, lemon quarters, garlic, rosemary, thyme and sage in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring just to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.
• You want to brine your turkey for approx. 8-16 hours. So you’ll want to count back from when you need to put your turkey in the oven. I put mine in the brine in the evening before the day I want to cook it, it brines all night. I take it out of the brine and put my turkey in the oven the next day.

BRINE THE TURKEY:

• If you have tons of room in your refrigerator you can brine in a large container or brining bag in your refrigerator. I brine 2 turkeys each year in a cooler in the garage. Each turkey gets placed in a 5-gallon paint bucket liner. You can buy them at the paint store for a few dollars. If you want, you can line the paint bucket liners with large brine/oven bags.
• Make sure to remove any innards from the inside of the turkey and give it a rinse. Then place turkey in your brining container.
• Pour the cooled brine over the turkey and immediately follow with the gallon of ice water.
• If using a cooler, I add ice on top of the turkey and all around the bucket in the cooler. Cover with plastic wrap or foil and close lid of cooler. I sometimes have to put something on top to weigh the lid down.
• Refrigerate or keep in iced cooler for 8 to 16 hours.

ROASTING:

• Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F. Remove the bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard the brine. If cooler was used, you will need to rinse and disinfect cooler and any buckets used. I recycle the bucket liners.
• Place the bird on roasting rack inside roasting pan and pat dry with paper towels. If any part of the turkey overhangs the pan, tuck some foil around the overhanging part so it doesn’t drip onto oven floor and cause smoking.
• Combine the lemon quarters, onion quarters and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe dish, cover with plastic wrap or waxed paper and microwave on high for 3 minutes. Add the warmed onion, lemon and herbs to the turkey cavity.
• Optional garnish: If you want to, use your hands to gently loosen the skin from the turkey breasts, slip a sprig of sage between the skin and the turkey breast on each side.
• Tuck the wings underneath the turkey and tie the legs with cotton kitchen string. Coat the skin with canola oil. (If the wings are too hard to tuck, wrap the tips in foil so they don't burn.)
• Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 475 degrees F for 30 minutes.
• Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F.
• Roast for approx. 10 - 15 minutes per pound. You can baste every 30 minutes if you like. (Basting can help give you that all-over browned color.)
• If the turkey skin becomes too dark, you can cover loosely with foil.
• Roast until the thickest part of the breast is 161-165 degrees F. I usually double check by wiggling the legs, they should be very loose and wiggly. It's a good idea to double check the temperature occasionally with an instant read thermometer.
• My 17-19 pound turkeys take approx. 4 - 4 1/2 hours including resting time. Count on about 15 minutes per pound for roasting.
• When the turkey is done, remove from oven, tent with foil and rest 20-30 minutes before carving.