BBQ Recipes: Smoked or Oven Roasted Turkey with Browned Garlic Gravy - Your Choice!

This recipe is adapted from The El Paso Chile Company's Texas Border Cookbook by W. Park Kerr and Norma Kerr. This recipe works equally as well in the smoker or in the oven. If you do smoke your bird, be sure to use a light wood such as apple in the fire. If you're not sure what wood to use look here.

This recipe produces a wonderfully moist bird and a complex garlic flavored gravy. It's one of my go to recipes when I don't have the time to brine the bird. While 12 cloves may seem like a lot, the slow roasting or smoking of the garlic mellows its flavor. Don't skimp on the garlic!

For the Turkey:

• 1 - 12 lb turkey, preferably fresh, including the neck and giblets except the liver (If you're not using a fresh turkey, or a turkey that has been "enhanced" use a very light touch on the salt in this recipe.)
  
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onion
• 3 large carrots, peeled and chopped
• 3 stalks of celery chopped
  
• 12 un-peeled whole garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 lb thick sliced bacon or fat back. I prefer apple smoked bacon for this.
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
  
• 2 Tbs ground poultry seasoning. I prefer Bell's salt free poultry seasoning.
  
• 1/2 cup turkey broth, homemade or canned. Chicken broth can be substituted.
• 1/2 cup dry white wine.

For the Gravy:

• 3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter
• 6 tablespoons unbleached all purpose flour
• Degreased pan juices from the turkey roasting pan
• 5 cups, more or less, turkey broth, homemade or canned. Chicken broth can be substituted.
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Cooking Instructions:
Position a rack in the bottom third of your oven, so that the breast of the turkey will be in the middle of the oven. Preheat your oven or bring your smoker to 325 degrees.

Rinse the turkey inside and out. Pull any visible fat from the cavity and discard. Scatter the vegetables, turkey neck, giblets, garlic in the base of a low sided roasting pan. Lightly sprinkle the vegetable etc, with a little olive oil. Rub one tablespoon of the olive oil into the skin of the turkey. Season the turkey generously, on all sides - including the bottom with the salt, pepper and poultry seasoning. Place the turkey on top of the vegetables in the roasting pan. Drape the bacon or fat back over the top of the turkey. Combine the remaining olive oil, chicken broth and wine in a bowl.

Place the turkey in your oven or smoker and roast for 30 to 45 minutes. Baste the turkey with about 1/2 of the olive oil/broth/wine mixture. Baste the turkey again after 15 minutes with the remaining olive oil/broth/wine mixture. After this time, baste the turkey every 20 minutes in the oven or every 30 minutes in the smoker, using the accumulated pan juices. Total roasting time for this bird will vary, but after about 1 1/2 hours, remove the bacon or fat back from the turkey. Crumble it up and place in the roasting pan. Continue to cook until the turkey reads 165 degrees in the thickest part of the breast.

Remove the turkey from the pan, place on a carving board, tent with tinfoil and let it rest.

Run the pan drippings and roasted vegetables through a mesh strainer, placed over a large mixing bowl, saving the juices. Be sure to press hard with the back of a spoon on the vegetables and garlic so that all juices are released into the bowl. Discard the solids. Discard the turkey neck and giblets. (Some people will chop these and add it to the gravy, but my family doesn't like it that way.) Degrease the broth.

For the gravy:
Deglaze the roasting pan over a low flame on the stove top with a little bit of white wine or broth. In the roasting pan, melt the butter. When it foams, whisk in the flour and cook, stirring often with allowing the flour to brown, for about 5 minutes. combine the pan juices with enough of the chicken broth to equal about 6 cups. Slowly whisk the broth mixture into the flour and butter. Bring the gravy to a simmer and cook, partially covered, stirring occasionally for about 20 minutes, or until the gravy is thickened slightly. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

This gravy will have some bits of vegetables in it. You may want to strain it one more time before serving, but I personally like it that way. Carve the turkey and serve it accompanied by the gravy. Enjoy.