Roast Turkey with Pomegranate-Orange Glaze

Let me tell you about how cold it is.  Negative twenty wind chill.  A full week of single digit highs.  Time to hunker down with some comfort foods and pretend that at some point, your car will heat up.  Let me tell you about my accidental turkey.

The grocery store was having a sale on turkey breasts.  I figured a turkey breast would be sold just like chicken breasts.  Well, I know turkey breasts are a sizable cut of meat, but the frozen breast I bought seemed extraneously large (am I saying 'breast' too much?).  Turns out, it was the entire chest cavity.  Basically the whole birds sans arms or legs. Wings or legs.  I mean, why not just sell me the whole bird?  So this is what I discovered at 6pm on a weeknight when I intended to roast it.  Surprise late night.  Who needs sleep.

I juiced two oranges and one pomegranate and mixed the juices with some honey, garlic, dried basil and oregano, S&P.  I was supposed to marinate the turkey, but I couldn't fit it in any containers so...I just let them rest in the baking dish for a while.

Loosen the skin by hand, then place small slices of butter under the skin.  Add some water so the turkey is sitting in 1/2 to 3/4 inch of liquid.  Roast!  350 for 2+ hours (until a meat thermometer reads at least 170* in the thickest part of the breast).  Baste every 20 minutes.  If turkey gets too dark, cover loosely with tin foil.

Oh, I roasted it with one onion (cut into large chunks) and one sweet potato.

When out of the oven, let the turkey rest to soak up the juices.  Then put the turkey on a separate platter and scoop the solids out into a separate container.  Save the liquid to make a fantastic pomegranate-orange gravy.

Succulent, moist sliced turkey...it's like a little taste of Thanksgiving to help get you through those cold winter months.

Roast Turkey with Pomegranate-Orange Glaze
Ingredients:

• 1 thawed turkey "breast"- entire chest cavity
• 1 pomegranate
• 2 oranges
• 3 cloves of garlic, flattened
• 1/4 c. honey
• 1 tbs dried basil
• 1/2 tbs dried oregano
• S&P
• 1/2 stick of butter (1/4 cup)
• 1 onion
• 1 sweet potato
• water

Instructions:
1.  Juice the pomegranate and oranges.  Mix with garlic, honey, basil, oregano and S&P to taste.
2.  Rinse turkey and pat dry.  Marinate the turkey in juice mixture for 1 to 3 hours.
3.  Preheat the oven to 350*.  Loosen the skin of the turkey from the meat.  Slice up the butter and place pieces between skin and meat.
4.  Put turkey and marinade in roasting pan.  Chop the onion and sweet potato into large chunks and place around the turkey.  Add water to the pan so the liquid is 1/2 go 3/4 inch deep.
5.  Roast the turkey for 2 to 2.5 hours (until meat thermometer reads 170* in the thickest part of the breast).  Baste every 20 minutes.  If turkey starts to brown too fast, cover loosely with foil.
6.  When the turkey is done roasting, let it rest for ten minutes to soak up some juices.

I recommend reserving the pan liquids to make gravy.  Turkeys aren't scary!  You can totally do this.

In addition, let me tell you about how difficult it was to type this all out with a faulty spacebar.  Possibly my most-used key whilst typing...