I’ve got your Thanksgiving turkey all lined up!

butter and wine roasted turkey with gravy I howsweeteats.com

Welcome back to our ultimate Friendsgiving 2017 menu! As you can see, we had to take a little detour yesterday, but I have the rest of these amazing recipes loaded and ready to go for you! Whether we’re talking Friendsgiving or Thanksgiving turkey right now, I have a recipe that you do NOT want to miss!

butter and wine roasted turkey with gravy I howsweeteats.com

Now this is one of the very traditional Friendsgiving recipes I’m sharing this year – I KNOW – after going on and on and on about how I love untraditional dishes at Friendsgiving.

But this turkey is too amazing NOT to share. It is the best turkey I have ever made but also ever eaten. It’s mostly based off of Martha Stewart’s recipe and it is truly drenched in wine and butter.

HELLO BEST IDEA EVER.

butter and wine roasted turkey with gravy I howsweeteats.com

I wanted to share this recipe as it’s what I made for Thanksgiving last year and was the ultimate hit. Super flavorful and just unreal. And I’m not a huge turkey person. I’m a super huge stuffing and gravy person, so there’s that. With the turkey, I sort of just go for it for the tradition.

I’m telling you though, with this recipe? You cannot go wrong. I promise. I swear! I’m even making it again this year. With a two week old. It’s not that difficult!

butter and wine roasted turkey with gravy I howsweeteats.com

What I love about this is that the flavors are rich and intense but not weird or too off that they conflict with other flavors. The leftovers are perfection and even if you’ve never roasted a turkey before, it’s going to be perfect. If you feel like brining the turkey beforehand, I have a recipe here but have also used this awesome one from Williams Sonoma before.

Otherwise, all you need is some cheesecloth (let’s enlist amazon please), lots of butter and wine. And herbs!

butter and wine roasted turkey with gravy I howsweeteats.com

And you may recognize this gravy recipe that is my mom’s and works like a charm every time. Our secret is stirring the gravy for a looooong time and having patience. Not my strong suit, but when it comes to incredible gravy? I can get behind patience.

Especially when it comes out like this!

butter and wine roasted turkey with gravy I howsweeteats.com

Butter and White Wine Roasted Turkey with Gravy

5 from 78 votes
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Ingredients

perfect gravy

  • the drippings from the turkey be sure to add extra stock BEFORE roasting if desired
  • 16 ounces cold water
  • 3 heaping tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • salt and pepper!!!

Instructions 

  • If you want to brine your turkey, this is my favorite brine! I brine for about 24 hours.
  • The night before roasting your turkey, remove any giblets and the neck and pat the turkey dry with paper towels. Place the turkey in a large baking dish. At this point, I stick it in the fridge overnight, uncovered – away from anything that it could touch. I’ve been doing this for a few years and it makes for amazing crispy turkey skin!
  • Remove the turkey from the fridge one hour or so before roasting.
  • Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Place the turkey in a roasting pan, breast-side up. At this point, you can fill the cavity with stuffing if desired (my favorite part!). If you choose not to do stuffing, you can add a mixture of fresh herbs, like sage, thyme and rosemary. Tie the legs loosely together with kitchen twine. Tuck the wings under the turkey.
  • In a large bowl, whisk together the white wine and the melted butter. Take a piece of cheesecloth and fold it until you have a 4-layer, 12-inch square. Submerge it in the wine and butter and let it soak for 10 minutes.
  • Rub the turkey all over with the softened butter. Sprinkle it with the salt and the pepper.  Remove the cheesecloth from the wine butter and barely wring it out. Cover the turkey bread with the 4 layer cheesecloth. Roast for 30 minutes. Baste the turkey with the remaining butter and wine mixture in the bowl.
  • Reduce the heat to 350 degrees F. Roast the turkey for 1 hour 45 minutes or about 2 hours, basting every 30 minutes with the butter and wine in the bowl, or the drippings from the bottom of the roasting pan.
  • After 2 hours, gently remove the cheesecloth. Continue to baste the turkey liberally with the drippings or the butter and wine. Roast it for about 60 more minutes, until the temperature taken in the thigh reaches 180 degrees F.
  • Once the turkey is finished, let it rest for 30 to 60 minutes before slicing.

perfect gravy

  • Strain the drippings from the roasting pan into a large pot or saucepan and set it over medium heat. You can also make this gravy directly in the roasting pan, which is what we often do! Add the cold water to a shaker bottle (or water bottle/mason jar) and add the flour on top. Shake the heck out of it for 30 to 60 seconds, until the flour seems completely incorporated and creates a slurry. With a whisk or fork in one hand, pour the slurry into the drippings, sitting constantly with the other hand. Continue to stir to avoid any lumps and stir until the gravy has thickened, anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes. Make sure you are scraping the bottom of the pan. We stir out gravy for a LONG time.
  • Taste the gravy and season it to your liking. Set it over low heat for serving. My mom stores her extra gravy in the fridge for about a week. To reheat it, she places it in a saucepan (it will look gelatinous and disgusting) and adds a touch of water or stock. She heats it over low heat, stirring occasionally, until it’s back to it’s original consistency. Like soups and sauces, it often tastes better the next day!

Notes

You can easily make this with a smaller or larger turkey, just by adjusting the amounts of butter and wine!
turkey mostly from martha
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butter and wine roasted turkey with gravy I howsweeteats.com

Now just trust me, I know you can do it!