Eating turkey and shopping during black Friday are the two most important things you must do during the Thanksgiving holidays. I’ve been keeping this secret for many years, but I think it is time to share with the world two important facts about me:
* I’ve never cooked a turkey
* I’ve never gone shopping during black Friday

I know is hard to believe, but that’s the sad true.

However it is never to late to get back on track, to see the light at the end of the tunnel, to return home like the prodigal son, to glide like the Hidenburg: this year I’m cooking a turkey and I might even go shopping!

The first step was to buy the turkey. Since I was going to spend thanksgiving with only four other friends (Alejandro, Sofia, Esther and Raffaele) I realized that a whole turkey was going to be too much for 5 people. So I bought a 3 lb ‘Boneless Young Turkey Roast’ from Diestel Turkey Ranch for $20 at Whole Foods.

Then I did the broth to marinate the turkey:
4 cups of water
2 packets of chicken broth
1 spoon of brown sugar
1/3 onion
1/2 tbs of ginger
the juice from 1 orange

Mix everything and bring it to boil. Then remove it from heat and let it cool down. Finally put it in the refrigerator for later use.

You don’t want to marinate the turkey for too long. Eight hours seems to be the magic number. I placed the turkey in the broth last night around 2 am. Added ice to the broth and stored it back in the refrigerator. This morning around 10 am I removed the turkey from the broth, washed the turkey with cold water and then dried it with paper towels. Finally I placed the turkey in a glass Pyrex and spread it with a mix of olive oil, salt and paprika as suggested by Diestel’s recipe site.

Here is how the turkey looks at this point:

After preheating the oven at 325, I placed the turkey in the middle and let it cook uncovered for 1 hour. Finally I placed a sheet of aluminum foil on top of it to prevent it from over over-roasting and let it cook for another 20 minutes. Here is the final result: