Paper Bag Turkey Recipes

Steps:

• At least one night or up to two nights before cooking, season turkey inside and out with salt, garlic powder and poultry seasoning.
• Place in a plastic bag and refrigerate until day of cooking. This ensures that the bird is seasoned all the way through, like brining does, only better.
• On Turkey day, stuff turkey with your favorite stuffing recipe. Tie legs together and fold wings back behind themselves.
• Pat turkey dry, and rub olive oil all over bird. Sprinkle skin with Montreal Grill seasoning.
• Open up a large paper bag so the opening is facing you, and rub the inside bottom of the bag with a generous coating of butter.
• Turn bag over so butter is on top, and place bag in a pan on a rack.
• Cut a piece of aluminum foil to line the bottom of the bag. Crinkle it ip then spread it flat and spray with cooking spray to keep bird from sticking.
• Place turkey into the bag, fold opening of bag closed and staple shut.
• Place turkey into a COLD oven. (DO NOT PREHEAT!).
• Turn the heat to 500 degrees. and roast for exactly one hour.
• Tuen heat down to 400 Degrees, toast one hour longer.
• Turn heat down to 300 degrees and roast one additional hour.
• Remove turkey from oven. Total cooking time is 3 hours regardless of the size of the turkey.
• The bag will look and smell charred, but the butter keeps the bag from burning and the bird will be perfect.
• Tear away paper bag in pieces and let turkey rest for at least 20 minutes before carving. But the longer rest, the better.

Steps:

• 1. Remove neck and giblets from cavities. Rinse the turkey and pat dry with paper towels. Stuff, if desired. Thoroughly coat the turkey with butter using your fingers or a paper towel. Season generously. Place the turkey in the paper bag. Seal the bag with staples, paper clips or a needle and thread. (Use 2 bags if 1 is too small.) Place the turkey on a sturdy shallow baking pan. Bake at 325° for about 5 hours. Reduce the cooking time to 4-4 1/2 hours for an unstuffed or smaller turkey.

Steps:

• Take everything out of the turkey. There will be a giblet bag and some other stuff.
• Next add vegetables to the inside of the turkey. You dont even have to peel anything. This is easy because the veggies are just for flavor -- you are going to throw them away later.
• Take the onion and cut it into quarters.
• Chop a nice long carrot.
• Do the same with a couple stalks of celery.
• Add several cloves of garlic that you mash between a broad kitchen knife and the kitchen counter.
• Throw it all inside the turkey.
• Then rub the turkey all over with olive oil -- not butter because butter usually has salt in it and salt is the enemy of a moist turkey. Make sure the whole bird is covered in olive oil.
• Put the turkey in a roasting pan and cover it with a large brown paper bag.
• Staple shut. If you have a huge turkey use two paper bags at each end. It wont stick to the bird because of the olive oil.
• Sprinkle the bag all over with water.
• Place into pre-heated 375 F oven. ON THE MIDDLE RACK.
• The bag wont burn because paper burns at 451 and we're at 375 degrees.
• The advantage of the brown paper bag over the reynolds cooking bag is that the paper breathes so the turkey ROASTS. In the reynolds bag the turkey STEAMS, giving it a different taste.
• Roast for 13-15 minutes per pound.
• When you think it's ready, shove a meat thermometer through the bag and into the turkey and give it a minute to register. Make sure it doesnt touch the bone.
• The thermometer should register between 163-170 degrees.
• Remove from oven, cut away the bag and remove the basting pan.
• Do not throw out the drippings!
• To make the gravy, strain the pan juices into a really big pot. Any juices that accumulate on the turkey platter get poured into the pot.
• Add six oz. of boiling chicken broth and 1/8 cup of corn starch to the gravy to thicken it up. Cook on low heat and stir and cook and stir.
• If it seems it isnt going to be thick enough, add a little more corn starch.
• What about the talk that brown paper bags are unsafe for cooking?.
• If you mean unsafe because of fire, it is important that the bag doesnt make contact with the heating element of the oven. If you mean because of the recycled paper bag releasing toxins into the turkey, all we can say is that this recipe has been around for over 30 years. We,ve been postonmg this recipe for over 10 years and never had a single complaint that anyone got sick. We've had hundreds of emails that this is the best turkey they've ever tasted and the perfect recipe for first time chefs!