Raise your hand if you’ve prepared a lot of turkeys in your life? Now keep your hand up if any of those turkeys were dry, and the only way to get your family to eat it was to disguise it as a platform to hold mashed potatoes and gravy. I have made my share of dry turkey and then spent the good part of a week throwing the turkey in soups and casseroles and then eventually giving it to the dog.
Hellmann’s® is on a mission to help moms re-think main dish meals and leftovers by offering easy, delicious recipes great for the busy holiday season, such as Turkey Casserole and chef Bobby Flay’s “Stuffing” Crusted Turkey Cutlets.
I was assigned to try the Super Moist Roasted Turkey recipe using Hellmann’s® Real Mayonnaise, and at first I thought, “Ew, gross.” But I take it all back; I think this is one of the best turkeys I’ve ever made.
And guess what?
It’s super easy. I made this recipe late at night after we had returned from being out of town for four days. I pulled it out of the oven at exactly 12:35am. So if I can do this while trying to recover from vacation exhaustion, then just think how easy it would be to make during a normal time of day.
How do I know it was good? Because this morning, my kids asked if it was okay to take the turkey for their lunch, and after they were done cutting into it, half of the turkey was gone. My husband also decided he would rather have turkey for breakfast than cereal.
Hellmann’s® transformed a boring turkey into something quite wonderful. This turkey has a crispy skin and juicy meat. The seasonings combined with the Hellmann’s® are used as a rub under the breast skin and over the entire turkey, which gives a subtle flavor without overpowering the taste of turkey.
I will make this turkey for Thanksgiving this year for sure. Here’s the recipe for you to try, I used fresh sage, salt and pepper to season my turkey.
8 servings
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 3 hours
Stand Time: 20 minutes
10- to 12-lb. fresh whole turkey or frozen whole turkey, thawed
1 cup Hellmann’s® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise
1 large shallot or onion, chopped
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh rosemary, sage and/or thyme*
1 envelope Knorr® Roasted Turkey gravy mix, prepared according to package directions
Preheat oven to 425°.
Remove giblets from turkey cavities and rinse turkey inside and out; pat dry with paper towels. Season, if desired, with salt and freshly ground black pepper; set aside.
Combine Hellmann’s® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise, shallot and herbs in medium bowl; set aside.
Starting at neck opening, gently loosen skin on turkey and evenly spread 1/2 of the mayonnaise mixture under skin.
Tie legs together with kitchen string.
Arrange turkey, breast side up, in large shallow roasting pan with rack; rub remaining mayonnaise mixture over outside of turkey.
Tent with heavy-duty aluminum foil.
Decrease oven to 325° and roast turkey 1-1/2 hours.
Remove foil and continue roasting, about 1 hour, basting occasionally with pan juices, until thermometer inserted in thickest part of the thigh reaches 180°.
Let stand covered loosely with foil 20 minutes before carving.
Serve with hot Knorr® Roasted Turkey gravy.
*SUBSTITUTION: Use 1 tsp. dried rosemary, sage and/or thyme, crushed.
Hellmann’s® invites you to visit Hellmanns.com for easy, delicious holiday recipes such as Turkey Casserole. In addition to the giveaway on this blog, you can cast your vote at Hellmanns.com for your favorite recipe and enter their sweepstakes for a chance to win one of four $250 grocery gift cards each week. If there are more than 10,000 entries, the prize value doubles to a $500 grocery gift card.*
For more information about the contest or Hellmann’s® products and recipes, visit Hellmanns.com
*No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. The Hellmann’s Turkey Challenge is sponsored by Conopco, Inc., d/b/a Unilever. Open to legal residents of the 50 U.S. & D.C., 18 & older. Begins 12:00 a.m. ET on 9/12/11 & ends 11:59 p.m. ET on 12/5/11. For official rules, visit Hellmanns.com.
For COAL CREEK FARM readers! Now for all the sweet readers on this blog, you have a chance to win a $100 cooking.com gift card, provided by Hellmann’s® and BlogHer, just by simply following the rules listed below.
Rules:
No duplicate comments.
You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
b) Tweet about this promotion, adding @hellmanns at the end, and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.
This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.
The Official Rules are available here.
For more opportunities to win, visit the Hellmann’s Round-up page on BlogHer.com to read other bloggers’ reviews!
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Looks great, especially for 12:35 a.m.! I don’t think I would have been able to wait until Breakfast. HA!
Looks great! Going to try it soon!
That turkey looks delicious!
Sounds yummy! Can’t wait to try it!
I make chicken with Hellmans and parmesan cheese all of the time, so why didn’t I think of this?
Well I never would have thought of this but I’m going to try it. Mayo can be used in a lotta ways that none of us would ever come up with. Hellmans is my husband’s favorite so we’ll go with this. Thanks!
We grew up eating Hellmann’s Mayonnaise because my daddy is a brand snob.
(Why did I not know that it had two n’s until now?) I’ll have to share this recipe with him after I try it first.
I never would’ve thought of making a turkey this way, but what the heck?
That officially looks delicious!!! I’ve never thought of such an intricate recipe. Hubby usually smokes the turkey, so I get easier jobs.
sounds simple enough…now if you would post how to carve a turkey =o)
Yum! Thanks for making me hungry, April!
wow! Looks great!
Yep – I’m going to give it a try. So looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner!!
Looks good!
This is a great idea that I’ll have to file away in my brain. While I have only ever made one turkey in my life, I plan do make some in the future. Will give this a try!
WEll, picture looks good, but mayo as a turkey rub??? Worth a try, and I LOVE Hellmann’s on cold turkey sandwiches!
Amazing. The many uses of mayo. I just found out last year how much my husband dislikes turkey and all the great dishes I can make with the leftovers. Sigh. So maybe we’ll have bacon this year. Or I’ll ask for the leftovers from others and have my own turkey soup and sandwiches.
Sounds yummy, but don’t know if I can convince the hubby NOT to fry our turkey!!
I love mayo and will definitely try this recipe on my turkey next week!
I never would have thought to use mayo on a turkey. What a fabulous idea!
For leftovers my most favorite is a turkey sandwich with mayo, stuffing and cranberry sauce. yummmmm…
Sounds delicious! I just popped over to their site as I wanted to check out the “leftover casserole” they’ve been advertising on the radio and all. Love Mayo, but when I saw the salt content for one serving on the leftover casserole (turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mayo, cheese): Total Fat 39g, Sodium 1330g. :-O Guess I’ll have to pass . . .and it sounds SO good!
That turkey looks absolutely delicious! I’m willing to try this, but since hubby is co-chef on Thanksgivings, I’m not sure he would let me do it. He’s such a traditionalist, but he also usually lets me have my way!
Hmmm, roasting the turkey using mayo – I guess it’s not much different than rubbing it with butter. I’ll probably try it sometime.
Your turkey looks delicious. I’ve never cooked a turkey, mostly because I am afraid it will turn out like it did on the Griswold Family Christmas.
I would have never thought to try this. I’ve been brining the last few years. I am going to have to give this a try on one of my turkeys this year.
Hmmm looks great, just wondering how the family will respond…
We eat turkey like crazy at my house, definitely will try this!
I first saw mention of mayonnaise turkey on another site and thought “ew, no thanks” but you’ve convinced me it might be worth a try.
Now this I would try, I just wouldn’t be able to tell my husband.
I can see how it would keep it very tender. I think I will try this soon.
BestFoods(as Hellmans is called here in the west) was the ONLY brand mayonnaise Mom bought when I was a kid. After I grew up and got my own home I tried Miracle Whip-that stuff is garbage! No other brand of mayonnaise is nearly as good as Best Foods. Now there is always a bottle of Best Foods mayo in my fridge ready to be used.
That turkey looks good! I cook turkey pretty often, really, throughout the year. I’ll use the Hellmann’s next time and see how it does.
Hellmans is the only mayo I buy,so this turkey recipe has to be fantastic !
Look, look, I’m commenting!
Everybody always commented on how good my grandmother’s potato salad was, and toward the end of her life my mother decided she needed the recipe. It turns out Grandma always used the Hellmann’s recipe.
I’ve never cooked a turkey before, and I doubt I will this year, but I always use their mayo for my tuna salad.
My hubby will never go for mayo on the turkey. My kids, on the other hand, love Hellman’s mayo.
we love Hellman’s and use it all the time
love your recipe can’t wait to try it.
babitababita@hotmail.com
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Bwahahahahaha! I saw this recipe TODAY, and contemplated using it.
Well, if I can’t talk my sister into cooking the turkey, perhaps this will be the one.
It’s good to “see” you back April!!!
Big squeeze!
I’ll have to give that recipe a try. Really does look good!!
https://twitter.com/#!/cjwallace43/status/136682894683942913
What a simple and delicious recipe…now I’m ready for roasting my own turkey.
amy [at] utry [dot] it
Just tweeted about this giveaway: https://twitter.com/#!/uTry_it/status/136741345665626113
amy [at] utry [dot] it
That does sound easy and delicious. Going to try it this year.
Mayonaise, the perfect food?
That turkey looks great! Who knew. Mayo.
https://twitter.com/#!/MamaJennof5/status/136796678123556864
sounds interesting.
Think I will have to givwe this a try.
Mayo really is a miracle food!