Herbed Butter Injected Roast Turkey

Make sure your turkey is fully thawed. 1 hour before cooking, pull your turkey from the fridge and perform steps 2 & 3.

Remove turkey from the packaging, and remove the bag of giblets and neck from the turkey (this may be in the main cavity or under the skin by the neck). Save your giblets to go in your gravy if desired. Do not rinse turkey. Place turkey breast side up in roasting pan and pat skin dry with paper towels. Let sit to come to room temp.

While turkey sits make your herbed butter. Combine parsley, oregano, basil, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper, and grind into a powder using a spice grinder, food processor, or mortar and pestle (this is what I use). Melt 1 stick butter in a small sauce pan, add 2 tbs of herb mixture and cook 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool to room temp. When butter is cooled strain through a cheesecloth to remove herb pieces as to not clog your injector.

When ready to cook place oven rack at lowest level and preheat oven to 475F. Using a food injector, and working in batches, suck up the herbed butter and inject into turkey all over as evenly as possible.

Sprinkle half of the remaining herb powder inside the cavity of the turkey. Add 1/2 tsp salt to the remaining herb mixture, combine with remaining butter, and smear all over the skin. That's right, give it a good massage like you really love that bird.

Pour 2 cups of water in roasting pan (but not over the turkey). Place in oven uncovered and bake at higher heat until skin begins to brown, about 30-40 minutes (it's nowhere near cooked yet do not eat now).

Remove from oven and tent with foil, or if your roasting pan has a lid cover with that. Reduce oven temp to 350F and return bird to oven. Continue roasting, not touching a thing, until internal temp reaches at least 170F in the thighs. About 2 - 2.5 hrs.

Remove from oven. Let rest, covered, 30 minutes to 1 hour before carving. Enjoy!

See notes below

Wanna make giblets gravy? Here's how! Transfer bird to a cutting board to rest. Pour pan drippings into a medium sauce pan with additional chicken stock as needed (generally 2-4 cups). Chop up your raw giblets and place in broth. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat simmer, covered, 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste before thickening. Mix 2 tbs cornstarch with 2 tbs water. Stir into broth to thicken. Add additional slurry as needed until desired thickness is reached.