Brine your turkey! Since I came to Cherry Point, my mom has brought the turkey from Pittsburgh* (yes, in a cooler), and I brine it the night before cooking. It imparts a lot of flavor and keeps the meat very moist.
My typical brine looks like this:
1-2 Tbsp of whole black peppercorns
3-4 Bay leaves
1 Tbsp dried thyme (use about 6 sprigs if you use fresh)
2 Cups of Kosher salt
1 Gal water
1 Gal ice water
Put everything but the ice water in a big ass pot, bring to a simmer, and wait for all the salt to dissolve. Turn off the heat, and let it cool for a while. This will let the ingredients steep a while. Once everything has cooled to about room temperature, add the ice water. Put the bird in an insulated cooler (I have a water cooler that I use just for brining meat), add the cold brine solution, and close it all up until the next day.
I don't stuff turkey. Hygienic reasons aside, I think it just takes too damn long to cook a stuffed bird, and I have too much shit to make in the oven. I do include some aromatics in the roasting pan, though. I typically use something like:
2 medium yellow onions, cut into chunks
3-4 cloves of garlic, crushed
2-3 carrots, cut into large pieces
2-3 celery stalks, cut into large pieces
2 shallots, quartered
2 bay leaves
3-4 sprigs of thyme
Dry the bird, rub with canola or peanut oil, and lightly salt and pepper it. Start the turkey at 500 deg for the first half hour or so, which will begin to crisp the skin nicely. Turn the oven down to 350 deg and continue to roast until the bird hits an internal temp of 160 (carryover will take it over the safe point, but check both the breast and thigh temperature, just to be sure). I use an instant-read, remote probe thermometer with a temp alarm on it. Once done, remove the bird, cover loosely with foil for at least 15 minutes, and you can make gravy from what's left in the pan.
If it looks like the recipe from Good Eats, that's because it's close.
*--Due to a sacred oath, sworn by me to my mother, I cannot reveal the source of the bird. They recently began shipping birds, and there's stiff competition to get one every year. Aside from killing your own, these are the best birds I've found.
