As I mentioned a few days ago, this year, the Alex and I set out to create our first Thanksgiving dinner at home.  I put the Alex in charge of the shopping and selection of the bird.

He returned with a massive 22 pound bird!

For our first time cooking a turkey, we thought we would play it safe so we decided to season the bird with salt and pepper inside and out, stuff with aromatics ( we used 2 large sliced Braeburn apples, 5 small yellow onions quartered, 1/2 lb. carrots, and threw in some sage, tarragon and rosemary) and tied it up. Once the turkey was all tied and situated, we brushed it with lots and lots of butter! From there we covered it with tin foil and baked it in the oven at 350* for 4.5 hours.

And then off to the oven for 4.5 hours.

After baking for 4.5 hours at 350* we basted the turkey with more butter and pan drippings and then put it back in the oven for 45 minutes at 425*

And then we pulled out the most beautiful and juiciest bird EVER!

We let the turkey rest for about 30 minutes after pulling it from the oven and finished off the other dishes for our dinner and then the Alex carved his first turkey!

We had MORE than enough turkey!
This is what came from one breast of our massive bird and we didn’t even devour half of it!

So yes, we have a TON of leftover turkey and I will be busy the rest of the weekend creating meals from it, including soup!  Wish me luck!

Be sure to watch for the recipes for all of our side dishes as well!

Hope you had a great turkey day!

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