Roast Turkey and Gravy

When buying a turkey, buy at least a pound per guest and ideally a bit more so you will have leftovers. Unless you are stuffing your turkey, count on roasting about 8 minutes per pound. This is faster than most recipes recommend, but keep in mind this is based on the turkey being at room temperature before it goes in the oven.
The amount of juices you get for making gravy will depend on how long you cook the turkey and whether or not it is stuffed. If you don’t overcook the turkey, you may find yourself with relatively few juices with which to make a jus or gravy, giving you two options: If you have few juices to work with, you will need to caramelize the juices in the way described here and shown here before you make the gravy. If the bird has been cooked longer and released more juices, you can pour the hot juices and fat into a glass pitcher or degreaser, spoon or pour off the fat, and then make the gravy as shown.

MAKES 12 MAIN-COURSE SERVINGS WITH LEFTOVERS

One 20-pound turkey with giblets rinsed under cold running water and patted dry
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons butter
Turkey Gravy
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups chicken broth or more as needed
Salt
Pepper

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Season the turkey on the inside and outside with salt and pepper. Place the giblets in a roasting pan just large enough to hold the turkey and set the turkey, breast side up, on top of the giblets in the pan. Take a sheet of aluminum foil about 24 inches long and fold it to create a triple thickness. It will need to be vaguely trapezoidal to cover the breast and not the thighs. Smear one side with the butter and place it, buttered side down, over the turkey breast. Tie the drumsticks together tightly with kitchen string.
Put the turkey in the oven and roast until well browned, about 1 hour. Remove the foil. Roast the turkey until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the meat between the thigh and the breast reads about 147°F. Remove the turkey from the oven, lift it out of the roasting pan, cover loosely with aluminum foil, and let rest in a warm place for at least 20 minutes before carving.

While the turkey is resting, make the gravy. Remove the giblets from the roasting pan and set aside. Look in the roasting pan to see if the juices have caramelized. If they have, the bottom of the pan will be coated with brown and a layer of clear fat will be floating on top. If they haven’t caramelized, you will see brown liquid combined with the fat. The mixture of fat and juices may even be cloudy, meaning the juices have emulsified with the fat, which you want to avoid. If the juices haven’t caramelized, put the roasting pan on the stovetop and boil the juices until they caramelize on the bottom and separate from the fat, and then pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the fat. You now have a roasting pan with a layer of caramelized juices and a little fat. Sprinkle in the flour over medium heat and stir in for 1 minute. Whisk in the chicken broth, stirring over medium or medium-high heat until the gravy thickens as much as you like. Strain the gravy into a new saucepan and set over low heat. If using the giblets, strip the meat from the neck and chop it along with the heart, gizzard, and liver. Add the chopped giblets to the gravy, and transfer the gravy to a sauceboat.