I know this post probably won’t be quite that helpful since it is AFTER Thanksgiving, but if you have turkey again for Christmas or New Years, maybe it will come in handy! Or if you are anything like us… God provides in amazing ways!

Last week we celebrated Thanksgiving at Hemlock Overlook and made two turkeys-in-the-hole.  The short explanation of turkey-in-the-hole is to have a HUGE bonfire all night and then bury the turkeys in the hot coals all the next day to cook.  Delicious turkey if you’ve had it!  Well, there was one extra turkey that didn’t get cooked that night, and it was given to us! 16lbs!  That was the day before Thanksgiving!  We put it on ice in a cooler outside because I didn’t have room in the fridge and didn’t have time to cook it for the next two days.

The following day we had a fantastic celebration with Brian’s family and had one full leftover cooked turkey that hadn’t been touched!  And guess what… Brian’s mom sent it home with us!  We have turkey coming out our ears!  But we have lots of food in the freezer and I won’t let a bit of it go to waste!  I’m SO thankful!  We are SO blessed!

I picked the cooked turkey clean and froze all the meat and then made stock out of the bones.  The uncooked turkey I decided to make a rub for it with stuff we had in the fridge.  The spices I used aren’t typically Brian’s preference, but it was what I had and I didn’t have plans for them and didn’t want them to go bad.

The experiment was a HUGE success.  I’ve never seen any of my kids go back for seconds and thirds of meat and this they couldn’t get enough of!  In fact, just today they asked for turkey as a morning snack!  SURE!

So I’m going to share our recipe with you in the hopes that it is as much of a hit in your home as it is in ours!

Rosemary Sage Turkey

Ingredients:
16 lbs fresh turkey
1 oz fresh sage
2 TBSP dried rosemary
1 onion
¼ cup celtic sea salt
3 TBSP fresh ginger
6 cloves of garlic
1 orange

Instructions:
Put the sage, rosemary, ½ the onion, salt, ginger and garlic in a [amazon_link id=”B00004S9EM” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Cuisinart[/amazon_link] and pulse until it looks about like pesto.  Then push your hand under the skin of the turkey to separate the skin from the meat.  Do this on the top and bottom of the bird.  Next rub the pureed mixture under the skin.  Spread it out as much as possible.  Cut the orange in 8ths and cut the rest of the onion in 2-4 pieces depending on how big it is and stuff it inside the cavity of the bird. Put about 1 cup of water in the bottom of the pan.  Cook at 350 for 3 ½ to 4 ½ hours for a 16lb bird per the USDA recommendations.

If you give this a try, please let me know how it turns out for you!  I’m now making stock with the bones from this turkey and I’m looking forward to making soup with it that will have the same flavors!  I’ll have to let you know how that turns out as well!

Enjoy!

Photo Credit