1. Get a turkey. If you can afford it, buy a really good one. A sixty dollar turkey is three times better than a twenty dollar one.
2. Dry it out with paper towels, rub oil on it like it's your lover, put some salt on and in it it, stick in the fridge overnight or up to three days. On a rack. Don't get that turkey bottom all wet. (optional but encouraged)
3. Oven at 450 F.
4. Put it over a container with a rack in it. Open to the air, something that will catch the drippings.
5. Blast it at 450 for half an hour, then the heat down to 325.
6. USE A THERMOMETER.
7. An hour and a half total will get you 12 pound turkey. 15 minutes ap ound after that.
8. The thickest part of the thigh should register 165 F.
9. Let it sit uncovered for at LEAST half an hour.
Don't stuff it. Don't baste it. Don't cover it. Just open air, roast it good, and it will be crispy, flavourful, and juicy. Put the stuffing in a separate container and douse it with the juice from the turkey. Just as good.
@DrWatson See the problem is modern turkeys cook ludicrously fast, the older turkeys you could cook slower. So when you stuff a turkey, you've got dry breast meat by the time the stuffing is a food safe temperature.
@CountScrofula Even still the quality of the stuffing is more important. It's the showcase dish. The turkey is good but it's really there for the stuffing.
@CountScrofula I once cooked a goose for Christmas. I followed the following advice: cook it for a while without stuffing, and then put the stuffing into the partially cooked bird partway through. (After draining the grease out.)
@CountScrofula and also to be honest I kinda think juicy poultry is over-rated. I don't like it tough or parched but when it just oozes liquid it's kinda gross and that is what gravy is for.
It's like saying boiled hot dogs are better than grilled but it's juice replacing flavor
@MethDozer Yeah I go hard with the herbs a lot I was just keeping it super simple.
That said I like a wet brine, gotta do it right though people can create a garbage bird if the brine has the wrong percentage. Salting it and sticking in the fridge just works.
@CountScrofula Salting and brining are different thought. I don't know where this myth of dry brining started. Brining salt water by definition and it just makes the turkey lose it's flavor and have a processed textured.
I totally agree though salting it over night adds a lot to it.
