Start with a 12-16 pound turkey. It can be a little larger but you'll need to alter the cooking technique a bit if it's too much larger. If you've got a frozen turkey, thaw it in the refrigerator for 4 days or so. NOTE: You should try to find one that is not "basted," "self-basting" or "pre-brined." These birds are injected with a brine that will just make the turkey absorb less of your carefully prepared brine. Plus you're paying for a bunch of liquid that you don't want/need.
The brine consists of only a few ingredients. Most you probably already have in your kitchen... water, kosher salt, sugar, bay leaves, thyme, garlic, allspice berries & juniper berries.
Start with the water in a large pot or other container.
Add the kosher salt.
Gather remaining ingredients.
Tear the bay leaves into pieces.
Coarsely smash the allspice berries and juniper berries before adding them. I prefer to use my mortar and pestle, but you could give them a smack with the side of your knife on a cutting board.
Add the remaining ingredients to the pot and stir until the sugar and salt have dissolved. You now have your brine.
Line a clean 5-gallon bucket (you can pick one up at your local home improvement store) with a turkey brining bag or a Ziploc XXL bag.
Unwrap your turkey and remove the organs that are likely packaged inside. (Save these for other uses or discard.) Yes, this particular turkey came with a chunk of breast skin missing.
Place the turkey in the bucket.
Carefully pour the brine into the bucket with the turkey.
Seal the bag, squeezing all air out of it in the process. (I use a straw to suck out the last little bit.)
Place the bucket in a refrigerator overnight. You might need to remove some shelving. A refrigerator with a split shelf like mine is handy. Alternately, if you live someplace cold enough, you could put it in your garage, shed, etc.
When it's time to cook the turkey, remove it from the brine, rinse it thoroughly and pat dry. Also, coarsely cut up the onion and celery.
Place the turkey in a roasting pan with a v-shaped rack. Stuff the onion and carrot into the cavity of the bird with some salt and pepper. Tuck the wings under it as if it were laying back relaxing and truss the legs together with butcher’s twine.
Rub the skin with softened butter. A pair of food-safe disposable rubber or plastic gloves will be a huge help with this task. Washing butter from your hands is more hassle than you need on Thanksgiving. Then salt and pepper the skin.
Tent the breast with foil. This prevents the breast from burning. The foil gets removed after one hour and you’ll need to baste the turkey with pan drippings and stock every 20 mins or so once the foil is off. NOTE: You will not be paying attention to the pop-up doneness indicator that is probably stuck in the breast of your turkey, but do not remove it because you will leave a hole through which juices can escape.
Roast at 400 degrees until the the thigh temperature is 165 degrees (about 1 3/4 to 2 1/4 hours). Your roasted turkey should hopefully look something like this. I'll just assume you know how to carve it. Perhaps that will be a future tutorial. NOTE: You probably won't want to use the drippings to make gravy because they could be salty.
