Basic Braised Turkey Recipe (2024)

I made this recipe twice in the last week - and my party guests gobbled up every morsel of it, said they never had turkey as delicious and as moist. I simplified the process a bit: cooked the vegetables as directed, then divided them between two roasting pans. Nestled dark meat in one pan, put in the oven for 90 min, then added the second pan with white meat nestled in veggies for additional 40 min. In 130 min both dark meat pan and white meat pan were perfectly done. Perfection!

I use a stick blender to blend the vegetable with the drippings and extra stock if necessary. Make a luscious gravy and everyone eats the vegetables knowingly or unknowingly. I make a similar gravy for brisket roasted atop vegetables. sometimes use a diced rutabaga with the rest of the vegetables.

This recipe makes Thanksgiving very easy & delicious. I have had the butcher cut up the turkey & package the breast (off the bone) & thighs together, the bones separately, & giblets separately. Picking it up on Monday allows me to make the stock on Tuesday & then do the rest Thursday morning. Braising it in wine makes it particularly tasty.

I used a mixture of stock, vermouth and water and yum. We used rosemary, which was aromatic as heck but a touch overpowering -- thyme might have been better bet. Fabulous with a bottle of '05 Chinon.

I use this recipe often in the colder months, not just Thanksgiving. You can play around with the veg ( diced turnips and parsnips are nice) an the liquid (stock and wine). You can do just thighs this way and roast the breast separately on top of some dressing. You can also brown everything on the the stove and then put it into one of the electric tabletop ovens (aka a 'Nesco roaster') and have the big oven available for all your sides.

Look no further: This is the perfect way to cook turkey. We make two turkeys per Thanksgiving, roasting both breasts in one pan and the dark meat in another. We add mushrooms to the braising base. We add the braising ingredients to cooked wild rice to make an instant side dish. We use leftover braising ingredients as a base for ragus by mixing them with sausage, duck or other proteins. The braise ingredients could be used in a soup or - what the heck? - be gobbled up by the spoonful.

Made a boneless, skinless turkey breast version of this after coating with lots of salt, pepper & full-fat yogurt x 6 hours. Wiped off the marinade then braised in white wine, veg stock, + carrots, celery, fresh sage leaves, & reconstituted dried mushrooms. Baked at 350º instead of 300º - oops, so it was (over)done in 30 minutes, but still really tender & moist, thanks to the marinade. Removed the veg, & used the strained mushroom liquid + giblets & veg stock for gravy - leaf lard for the fat).

They key really is to take it off at 155ish and let it come up to temp. Also, I'd recommend adding a few whole garlic gloves and when it's all done, use them like as a delicious spread on your meat.

correction to my note. Sorry. This recipe calls for four times as much for the braising vegetables, not 8 times as much. Still overwhelming amount, I think.

I haveBitttman's original recipe from the Times. It calls for 1/2 lb carrots, 1/2 lb celery and one onion for one turkey, 1/2 lb shiitake mushrooms and 1/2 ounce dried porcinis. This recipe calls for 8 times each vegetable. I've made the original since it was first published; the amount of vegetables is perfect. it seems to me that 2 lbs of carrots and 1 whole bunch of celery would overwhelm everything else. Obviously, it's not chemistry, and those amounts could easily vary, but not by that much

I think the reason for the variety of results has to do with the size of your turkey! I made a 15 lb bird, leg/thigh sections in for an hour, added the breasts and wings, and cooked another 50 minutes. The dark meat was a touch dry - next time I'll do 45 for the dark meat 50 for the white. Also, keep in mind that dark meat is best at 175-180 degrees. It's technically "done" at 165, but for max tenderness, you want your dark meat a little hotter than your white. Excellent recipe!!

Tried with Turkey legs only, and they cooked very fast and got overdone. Part of the issue may be the long (10 min) browning time. I’d try it again, perhaps at a lower roast temp and not do as hard of a brown. Think thighs would be a better choice for cut, too, if they are available.

This was the gift that kept on giving. I used just turkey thighs and added some boneless, skinless chicken breasts halfway in. Not only was it delicious, the leftovers work as a soup (add more broth) and I’ve also used the veggies without the liquid in scrambled eggs. This is a keeper!

I did not find the turkey legs continued cooking after I took them out of the oven. I had to cook to the temperature needed. Possibly a large turkey, which people usually cover after cooking for some time might continue increasing in temperature.

Look no further: This is the perfect way to cook turkey. We make two turkeys per Thanksgiving, roasting both breasts in one pan and the dark meat in another. We add mushrooms to the braising base. We add the braising ingredients to cooked wild rice to make an instant side dish. We use leftover braising ingredients as a base for ragus by mixing them with sausage, duck or other proteins. The braise ingredients could be used in a soup or - what the heck? - be gobbled up by the spoonful.

I am not a huge turkey fan so this recipe appealed to me as a minimal effort way to satisfy the turkey loving family members. It was so delicious, easily the best turkey I've ever had. I'm planning to make it again for Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend and craving it already. I will make the dark & light meat separately as recommended by another reader. This way I can use my cast iron Dutch oven for the thighs and big deep skillet for the breasts. I might add a third breast since we will be 8.

I left the celery and carrots mostly whole (cut in half) and quartered the onion. I also used a single bone in breast half so I added it in after 60 minutes on the thighs and then did another hour and a half for the whole thing. Everything was well flavored and the meat wasn't dry. The gravy from the broth turned out wonderful!

I made this in an instant pot. I had to do two batches with the amount of ingredients listed in this recipe. For the first batch I put in two cups of water and poured in white wine until it covered everything. Instead of putting in more water and wine for the second batch I used the liquid from the first batch. The gravy afterwards from this was amazing.

There is something wrong with this recipe. I made the recipe faithfully, except I used all turkey thighs. As another reviewer noted, I expected a quicker cooking time than 120/165 minutes per recipe. BUT at 60 minutes in they were 175 degrees. The timing made the rest of the preparation chaotic at best. We got through it, but, why the huge discrepancy in time. And these were huge thighs. Do the thighs come out as breasts go in or in some universe does it take 120 minutes to cook thighs???

Thanksgiving 2020, just the two of us. Ordered a fresh 11 lb. turkey. Cut it apart and made turkey stock from the backbone and wings. I made this recipe with the thighs and drumsticks. Used the stock and half cup of vermouth with the vegetables. Lots more stock left for soup. The meat was delicious and I thickened the vegetable sauce with some flour and water. It was delicious, too.

I made this once with one thigh which was overdone at 45 minutes, and with two things which were done at 60 minutes. Both times I used the left-over braising liquid and veggies to make a pureed soup. The next time I make it -- and it is delicious, so there will be a next time -- I'm going to reduce the amount of veggies and slightly reduce the amount of broth so as to have a more concentrated broth for sauce. I'm also going to leave the veggies larger to serve with the turkey.