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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I must try your recipe. I love Hellmann’s Mayonnaise and your recipe is simple and delicious.
ctong2[AT]gmail[DOT]com
I love your Turkey, juicy and delicious, exactly what I love. I much prefer this than dry ones.
http://twitter.com/#!/tcarolinep/status/138855329822806016
Turkey for breakfast…WOW, it must be good!
You had me at “easy”.
This is an interesting recipe. I only use Hellman’s mayo on my sandwiches and salads. Never thought of using it this way before!
This looks delicious – turkey and mayo and the best combo!
tweeted: http://twitter.com/#!/KerryBishop/status/139552377903652865
That looks mouth watering good. I am off to try it being it is Turkey Day!
gmissycat at yahoo dot com
Tweeted here too
https://twitter.com/#!/gmissycat/status/139644829259923456
gmissycat at yahoo dot com
This sounds great!
https://twitter.com/#!/susan1215/status/139860820602523648
hmmm.. who knew? Not a big fan of turkey, but ya never know.. maybe this would reform me.
Turkey pot pie is our go to recipe for Thanksgiving leftovers…it is a perfect way to use almost all of them!
i have never even thought about using hellmans on my turkey. i usually put butter under the skin. that is very interesting. i have a turkey in my freezer still, i just may have to try that!
Thanks for sharing the recipe, I’d try a hellman’s recipe too. I’ve already snacked away all the turkey, wish I made sandwitches to make them last longer.
songyueyu at gmail
tweet: https://twitter.com/#!/syytta/status/141456392270782464
Yum that sounds like a delicious turkey. Mine always turns out dry and goes primarily to the dogs. We did one on the BBQ this year and it was delicious and tender. I like to do a simple sandwich the next day, toasted sourdough with mashed potatoes and then the turkey. Yum!
MY TURKEYS LOOK PRETTY SIMILAR TO YOURS. IT’S A SMALL WORLD ISN’T IT? LOL
2ND ENTRY TWEET https://twitter.com/#!/kytah00/status/141965139707564032
OH my that looks FAR better than mine did….so moist! I am the big turkey eater in the family so I will be eating small portions frozen now for weeks. And what a great lean meat to eat healthy for after all those holiday celebrations coming up. I cube up a few cups and put in freezer for a good hot turkey and veggie pot pie on a cold Wisconsin day!
thanks for the great recipe
tweeted too
https://twitter.com/#!/2sic2mooov/status/142012582457384960
thanks!
Looks really good and super moist!
That looks yummy!
This recipe really piqued my interest. This is definitely blog-worthy and I’m gonna blog about it on mine.
here’s my 2nd entry:
http://survivingmiddleage.wordpress.com/2011/12/02/cook-a-turkey-with-mayo/
What a delicious sounding turkey! Yum!
coriwestphal at msn dot com
Tweet: http://twitter.com/coriwestphal/statuses/142833836546457600
coriwestphal at msn dot com
i love turkey in any form
https://twitter.com/#!/purplelover04/status/142867330723086336
That looks good!
http://twitter.com/#!/HappyTina0115/status/143019249198309376
WOW I knew Hellmann’s had great recipes on their site because I often go there for them but this turkey looks so juicy and moist I really want to try this recipe. Thanks for sharing.
I tweeted about your giveaway.
https://twitter.com/#!/aqualina56/status/143207744390959104
Never heard of using they mayo this way.. will have to give it a try on the baked chickens we make.
karenmed409 at comcast dot net
Your turkey looks moist and yummy.
this turkey looks good. Very moist
Delicious looking turkey!!
my mom taught me hellmans on the turkey
nannypanpan at gmail.com
I made turkey bbq with my leftovers
tbarrettno1 at gmail dot com
tweet
https://twitter.com/#!/ChelleB36/status/143568716301467648
tbarrettno1 at gmail dot com
This turkey looks great!
That sounds delicious! What we had for leftovers either went home with people or we made sandwiches.
I do not see an actual sweepstakes prompt anywhere on your post, so I will just comment on the post itself. I hope this is OK! I am a vegetarian, but I think that this recipe would be great to use on some of the fake turkeys out there for my own holiday meals. I am betting if it keeps a turkey this moist, it will do the same thing for the fake ones! Def going to try it out! Thanks!
I tweeted here: https://twitter.com/#!/FotoMacro/status/143777898837446656
oops! I messed up my tweet! Here is the redo…please delete the last one! Sorry! https://twitter.com/#!/FotoMacro/status/143783638578900993
My Mom puts Hellmanns in her mashed potatoes every year and they are delicious!
Looks yummy! Have used Hellman’s on grilled fish steaks but never thought of it for a turkey!
Sounds yummy! I do something similar to cook a chicken- using butter instead of mayo.
Thanks for sharing the recipe and for the giveaway!