Herb Smothered Roasted Turkey

*The herb butter should be prepared the day prior to cooking your turkey

Begin by softening the butter. Chop half the rosemary, sage, basil, parsley, and thyme and mix it into the butter. Add the garlic, salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning and continue mixing well. Put butter mixture into a Ziplock bag and push butter to the bottom of the bag and store in the freezer to re-solidify.

The next day… Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Remove the butter from the freezer and let it stand out till room temperature.

Prepare turkey by carefully pulling the skin away from the meat making sure not to tear the skin. Cut off the top of the Ziplock bag and remove butter log. Cut discs of butter off the log and insert between the skin and the meat. Smear the rest of the butter all over the turkey skin; the breast, the legs, the wings, underneath. This will help the skin become that beautiful golden brown color.

Cut the lemon and onion in half. Stuff both into the center cavity of the turkey along with the remaining herbs.

Cut carrots and celery into 4 inch pieces and place at bottom of a large roasting pan. Pour chicken broth into roasting pan. This will help create enough drippings for basting throughout the cooking process and ensure enough drippings to make gravy later on.

Put the turkey in the roasting pan on top of the carrots and celery and put the pan in the preheated oven. Cook for 4.5 hours or till the interior temperature of the turkey reaches 165 degrees F. Make sure to baste your turkey every 20 minutes after the first 45 minutes. If your turkey skin begins to burn, lower oven temperature and cook lower and slower.

Once done slice and serve. Reserve drippings from the bottom of the roasting pan to make gravy.