[blhmabbott]

Mr. Dot,
We always cook our turkey the night before because we eat in middle of the afternoon on Thanksgiving. We drape the entire turkey in bacon and attach the bacon to the bird with toothpicks to hold the pieces in place. Then put in the oven about 6:00pm or so, covered with foil, with the oven set at 250 degrees and forget about it until the next morning. When you wake up, the turkey should be done, or at least mostly done, and this is when we take the foil off so the bird can brown. Continue cooking at 250 until about noon, at which time you can remove the bird to make room for the pies, etc. If you won't be eating until the evening of Thanksgiving, you can always warm the bird back up in the oven. The bacon pieces keep the turkey extremely moist...we've never had to baste it. And it gives it a slightly smoked flavor. This works for a stuffed bird, or an unstuffed bird..we've done it both ways. Enjoy!
Heather

 

[blhmabbott]

Mr. Dot: Your welcome. Hope you enjoy!

j.r.: We've done the same thing with the "drunken chicken", except we call it "beer butt chicken" :haha: . A very good friend of mine was explaining to me day before yesterday how to do a similar thing with a turkey. He said cover the ground with foil, place a spit of some sort in the ground in the middle of the foil with the turkey on one end, set a big metal coffee can full of water under the bird and then cover it with a large METAL trash can. Then build up a ring of charcoal around the base of the trash can (about 6" high) on the foil and light it. He said the turkey will be done in about an hour and a half. I think it was his Dad that used to do this. Anyway, he swears by it but I've never tried it yet.
Heather

 

[blhmabbott]

Glad to hear it....now you'll have to refrain yourself from snitching some during the day. Course, what nobody knows won't hurt you heheeh.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Heather