Have qa little trouble cooking a good turkey? My professional secrets...

For those of you who have a little trouble cooking a good turkey dinner, I offer the following. I am a professional chef in a Midwest restaurant and we serve several turkeys for Thanksgiving Dinner.

Here is my foolproof way to prepare a splendid bird.
The night before (tonight) I will put the turkeys in a brine. You can do this at home in your kitchen sink. Fill the sink 1/2 way with cold water. Add 1 cup of Kosher salt and 1 cup of Brown sugar. Do not use table salt.

Remove the giblet pack from the bird and save for stuffing if you wish.

Put the raw turkey in the water and add as much ice as you can. Then fill the sink until the bird is fully submerged. Place aluminum foil over the sink to hold in the coldness.

The brine will add moisture to the turkey and the salt/brown sugar will flavor it a little.

In the morning preheat your oven to 325 deg.
Remove the turkey from the brine and pat dry inside and out. I slice onions, oranges and celery sticks and fill the body cavity with them. I do not fill the bird with stuffing because it is hard to achieve the safe food temperature of the stuffing without over cooking the bird.

Rub the bird outside with either olive oil, corn oil or canola oil. If you wish to add seasonings now is the time. Place the bird on the wire rack of your roasting pan so it is elevated above the bottom. Put aluminum foil loosely over the breast and drumsticks. Tuck the wings under or remove them.

If the bird has one of them pop up timers pull it out and throw it away.
Everyone should have a cheap instant read thermometer in the kitchen...they cost $5.00

Put about 1-2 inches of chicken broth into the bottom of the pan with some aromatic vegetables like carrots, celery, onions.
Place on lower rack in the oven and your are done. The lower temp will not allow the bird to burn and rubbing it with oil crisps the skin and helps it to brown evenly.

Every so often you should baste the bird with the pan juices. Keep you eye on the browning and adjust the foil accordingly. The bird will be done when the thermometer reads 155 deg. in the thickest part of the thigh...that's ten degrees earlier than recommended but the bird will keep on cooking and increase in temp for a while out of the oven.

Let the bird rest (covered) for about 15 minutes after you take it out so the juices can redistribute. Do not cut it until the 15 minutes are up. After that you can do whatever you wish.

Enjoy.