Anxiety Turkey

How we make it.

A 14-pound turkey
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1 bunch fresh sage
1 onion, quartered
1 head garlic, sliced in half crosswise
1 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup Port
Kosher salt, to taste
Black pepper, to taste

Prepare your turkey for the roasting dish. Make sure and remove giblets and neck from inside the bird, they usually come with that. Make sure the turkey is thawed fully. Dry the outside well with paper towels and let sit at room temperature for 20 minutes while your oven preheats to 450 degrees. 

Place onion, garlic and sage in the turkey cavity. Tie legs together if you like with some twine, it is a little prettier that way. Pour melted butter over the skin. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Pour chicken stock and Port into the roasting pan around the bird, not on the bird. 

Place turkey in the oven and immediately turn oven to 350 degrees. Roast for 13 minutes per pound. For a 14-pound turkey, that's about 3 hours. Baste the turkey once an hour. This means taking the turkey out of the oven and using a baster or a spoon to pour the pan juices over top of the turkey. This is what makes the skin brown, don't miss this step. Once turkey is 165 degrees internally, if you're a thermometer person, it's finished cooking. But I'd just trust the 13 minutes per pound calculation, I don't do thermometers. Either way, once the turkey is finished cooking, remove it from the oven and let it sit on the stove top for 20 minutes before carving. Save the pan juices for soup and the legs for me.

Why we make it.

I make this turkey weeks before Thanksgiving because I'm so scared that on Thanksgiving Day I won't get a turkey leg. That's why I make it. 

Extended version: 

My family has grown, and there are in-laws, and in-laws of in-laws, who also like turkey legs. My father-in-law. My sister-in-law's Greek grandfather-in-law. I heard maybe my nephews this year. Maybe even my kids at this point, everyone's always changing. What doesn't change is that there are only two legs on a turkey, and I've been waiting all year for one of them. My immediate family knows the legs are mine, but I have to use "social skills" with the extended family. To guard against the despair of not getting a drumstick on Thanksgiving, I roast a turkey for myself in late October. I eat both legs, hot off the bird. I know this will make Thanksgiving Day easier. My breath will still catch in my chest, watching the poultry selections in the dinner line ahead of me. I'll stand at a polite distance as the old ladies go first, hoping they lift the serving fork to choose the white meat, but ready to accept it if they don't. I've had my legs this month, alone in my kitchen sanctuary, where I gnawed them to the bone. But honestly, I also carve the turkey, so I know at least I can get one little pinch off that leg before any of them get there.