Easy and Healthy Thanksgiving Holiday Turkey Recipe

Healthy Thanksgiving Turkey Recipe

About two thanksgivings ago, I had one of THE juiciest turkeys ever! The outside was so nice and crispy and when you cut into the inside of the turkey, you could just see the juices dripping. It tasted so good, however, I knew it was horrible for me to eat because it was a fried turkey. Although it was so good and I knew I wouldn’t be eating this everyday, I still felt like I needed to find a healthy thanksgiving turkey recipe to make for the next year.

So last year, I scoured the web searching for healthy thanksgiving recipes on Pinterest, and food blogs like allrecipes.com and found a few good ones but also incorporated some of the tricks that I learned from watching “Cook Yourself Thin” on making healthier lower calorie meals with all the taste. The results were AMAZING! (And this was my first time make a turkey EVER! Shhhh, don’t tell anyone) My turkey was a big hit so I wanted to share it with you. Here is my Easy healthy thanksgiving (or Holiday) turkey recipe. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons dried parsley
• 2 tablespoons dried rosemary
• 2 tablespoons dried sage
• 2 tablespoons dried thyme
• 2 tablespoons “I can’t believe it’s not butter” (healthy swap!)
• 1 tablespoon lemon pepper seasoning
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 whole turkey
• 2 stalks celery
• 1 orange
• 1 onion
• 1 carrot
• 1 (32 ounce) container of reduced sodium chicken broth (heathy swap!)
• 1 big disposable aluminum pan to put the turkey in (and for easy clean up.)

Directions:

• Combine parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme, lemon pepper seasoning, and salt into a small bowl and set aside.
• Chop your onion, celery, and carrot. (I used my Ninja Blender which made this so easy!)
• Cut your orange into wedges.
• Open your turkey, remove the neck, giblets, and juice packet from inside the turkey. Just take everything that is inside the turkey out.
• Take your butter and rub the entire outside and inside of the turkey
• Take your seasoning mixture and rub it into the inside cavity of the turkey as well as on top of the turkey.
• Stuff the cavity of the turkey with the celery, onion, orange, and carrot and put the turkey inside the aluminum pan
• Pour the chicken broth over the turkey then loosely cover the turkey with aluminum foil to seal the pan. Try to keep the foil loose so it does not touch the skin of the turkey.
• Put the pan inside your refrigerator and let the turkey marinate over night (About 8-10 hours)
• Preheat the over to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (175 degrees Celsius).
• Put the turkey in the preheated over for 2.5- 3 hours until the turkey is no longer pink at the bone and the juices run clear. Every hour, baste the turkey with the juices. (The aluminum foil should cover the turkey.)
• Uncover the turkey, baste, then continue baking until the skin turns a nice golden brown color. This will take 30 minutes to an hour longer.
• Remove the turkey from the oven, cover it back with the aluminum foil, and allow the turkey to sit on the counter for about 10 to 15 minutes before you cut it.
• Eat, serve, and enjoy.

I hope that you enjoyed this low calorie thanksgiving recipe. Happy holidays! Feel free to use this recipe for other holidays as well. I know I sure will!