Roasted Wild Turkey - Harry E. Moran II

A wild turkey is much more flavorful than a domestic turkey purchased from your local grocer.  This basic recipe will allow you to enjoy this great flavor, without covering it up with a lot of seasoning.

After cleaning the turkey and rinsing the cavity out, set it aside and prepare the stuffing as follows:

Stuffing Ingredients:

1 Cup of fried loose sausage. (Just barely brown it, since it will cook in the turkey)

1 Cup of chopped sweet apple

1/4 cup of chopped sweet onion

2 Cups of dried bread crumbs

2/3 cup of hot low-fat or non-fat chicken broth (hot water can be substituted)

Directions:

Start pre-heating oven to 450 degrees.

Mix stuffing ingredients by hand.

Apply a little salt to the inside of the turkey.

Place stuffing in turkey.

Place turkey in roasting pan and cover with lid or heavy foil.

When oven is 450 degrees, place turkey in oven and cook for 15 minutes. Baste turkey with very light olive oil or butter, lower oven temperature to 325 degrees, and continue cooking.

Baste turkey twice more at 20 minute intervals. A cup of oil or butter will be plenty for basting.

Cook turkey 20 minutes for each pound in weight from the time the temperature was set at 325 degrees. An average turkey takes between 3 to 4 hours to roast. Make sure the turkey is fully cooked before removing it from the oven. Using a meat thermometer, make sure the turkey has reached 180 degrees on the innermost part of the thigh (do not touch the bone for this measurement). The stuffing must also reach 165 degrees to be safe.