Brown Sugar-Cured Turkey with Wild Mushroom-Shallot Gravy

Only make this turkey if you want to be asked to make it again and again and again. :-) I made this a few weeks ago for a family Fakesgiving and was called last Friday to make it again for the main event! Great turkey recipe.

• VMVD76

• 11/22/2016

Have also made (almost!) every year since 1997. It was the first turkey I ever made. We somehow started a fire with it, and made it only for the two of us on New Year's Day (because when we picked up the turkey my husband ordered on December 23, it was frozen solid) - we had a lot of leftovers! One year I thought I'd try a different recipe from the same issue...everyone said it was good, but not AS GOOD. I've never looked back since. We look forward to this every year, along with the gravy, cranberry sauce and balsamic roasted veg that go with it. I usually make a different stuffing though.

• neatnik

• Edmonton, Alberta

• 12/24/2015

This was delicious and what a great way to get a moist and perfectly spiced/seasoned turkey. I used a 17lb for 6 people and didn't adjust the amount of seasonings and i had some leftover. Also it only needed just under three hours in a convection oven so keep that in mind if you convect. It didn't affect the moisture but it was ready a lot sooner that I thought. Produced a gorgeous brown skin color. I felt like the gravy was a little too rich with the cream and would have been great with a regular turkey gravy.

• Anonymous

• Long Beach, CA

• 11/26/2010

This is hands down the BEST turkey recipe ever. I am making it for my daughter's first grade Thanksgiving feast and can't wait for the oohs and aahs when they see how fabulous it looks - just like a cover of a magazine.

• carolyngwh

• 11/23/2009

我一直在做这个土耳其10年。我甲肝病毒e never had any turkey that touches the flavor and juiciness of this recipe. I am about to make it again to serve as cold sliced turkey for sandwiches at an afternoon party. My husband insisted!

• Anonymous

• Albany, NY

• 5/20/2009

I agree with the previous review! I have made this every year since Nov of 1997. It turns out perfect just like the cover photo! My 8 year old loves to prepare the turkey with the rub etc. The wild mushroom gravy is out of this world and so good it could be eaten like a soup. The pear salad that goes with this recipe is a perfect match. Word of advice: Men don't let your wives toss out your spices during spring cleaning, they can get quite expensive!

• linquist

• Chicago, IL

• 12/30/2008

Every turkey I have made since 1997 has been based upon this recipe. Even the "turkey haters" love this! It's the only turkey my husband likes to eat. I have never had a single guest not ask for the secret. :) Some have compared the flavor to a Honey Baked Ham. One of the best things about this turkey is how amazing the house smells when it's cooking! Heavenly. It smells like the quintesential Thanksviging - turkey and spices. Yum. I sometimes up the garlic and cloves. Don't go too heavy on the cloves or your guests will find their mouths to be numb. I don't always make the gravy as directed. However, the pan drippings are so incredible they only need a little extra broth, a thickener, and a little salt and pepper to make an amazing gravy that tastes good on the turkey as well as stuffing and mashed potatoes. It's about 2 weeks until Thanksgiving and I'm tempted to make this now and not wait.

• amyopera123

• Mechanicsburg, PA

• 11/17/2008

I made this for New Year's Day with my extra free turkey- day bird. The best gravy I have ever tasted!!! There were 3 of us and barely any gravy leftover, will have to double it next time. Bird was so juicy the thermometer caused a geyser! I look forward to making this again and again.

• deelusion66

• Poughkeepsie, NY

• 1/5/2008

I've made this recipe every Thanksgiving since 1993. It is fool proof. It is always rich and succulent. A no fail Thanksgiving approach.

• sseybert

• Spring City, PA

• 10/30/2006

I thought the gravy recipe was wonderful! It is now the most requested item on every holiday menu among my family. It is a little pricy and I had to use botton mushrooms instead of wild mushrooms (couldn't find them). But, it still comes out great each time I make it. The turkey recipe was so-so. My family and I did not like the sweetness of the turkey, but it was moist and tender. The mushroom gravy goes very well with traditional roast turkey and that's how I make it very year. 4 forks way up on the gravy!

• nadyia staples

• Columbia, SC

• 9/20/2006

Every fall I check with the friends I celebrate Thanksgiving with to inform them of the new turkey recipes that appear in the cooking magazines. It's a simple ritual to prepare us to gush about how it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without the brown sugar cure. It produces the best turkey that any of us have ever tasted, from the most sophisticated foodies to the ones who don't normally care. We make gravy from the drippings, which makes for a succulent, sweet gravy that goes perfectly on the sourdough-apple-almond stuffing that you can find on this site.

• SauteLA

• 9/10/2006

我甲肝病毒e used this turkey recipe every Thanksgiving since it appeared in Bon Appetit, and every year it has been so delicious and moist. This year, cooking for 28, I decided to get 2 smaller turkeys (about 12 lbs. each) instead of a 20+ lb. one, figuring that they would cook in less time & give me more use of my oven. Big mistake-I shortened the cooking time because of the smaller birds and gauged the doneness by the little pop-up thermometers. This year, the turkey was SO dry and because of the smaller surface area of the turkeys, the flavor was too intensified. A friend also uses the same recipe, and did so this year with a smaller turkey, too - she had the same disappointing results that I had. Obviously, the cooking temperature & timing is designed for a big bird. I'll use this recipe again, but with a big turkey in the future.

• Anonymous

• Tyaskin, MD

• 12/3/2004

I prefer a maple syrup glaze from an earlier year in Bon Appetit Thanksgiving history, but this is my back-up turkey when I can't get everything I normally make for Thanksgiving (such as this year living off the road system in Alaska). And despite MY personal preference, this is the one everybody raves about.. oh so tender, oh so juicy, oh so everything -- and it's the one I should make if I ever DONT want the leftovers as everyone seems to keep picking at it for the next several hours (leaving more pie for me -- YAY!). The sugar does a better job than maple syrup at holding in the moisture and is a bit more flavorful than olive oil (although I used bacon when I lived in Ireland and that worked well, too), and with a proper balance with the onion and garlic powders and the salt nobody has ever complained of it being overly sweet -- but we also compliment it with a less sweet cranberry relish and no candied yams or anything like that. Okay so you have to baste it... but most turkey roasting recipes call for that, and if you like something different or your guests aren't the sort of carnivores who enjoy a chunk of meat for its own sake and need something to carry it, then this is the one that has satisfied even my most persnickety guests. I'm so glad it's online since I haven't had all my recipes shipped in here yet... Epicurious saved Thanksgiving :-)

• illiterate_poet

• a bush town in Alaska

• 11/26/2004

I've had to serve this a couple of hours late and it was still very moist. I've made this for 6 years now and no other recipe compares!!!

• coach1

• Farmington Hills, MI

• 11/24/2004

Sorry to be the loan decenter, but...everything on my table tasted sweet with this sugar cured turkey. Wine, turkey, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes - there just wasn't enough savory food on the table since I rubbed sugar into the main course. Gotta to back to my standard olive oil rub! (Which, by the way doesn't need basting.)

• juliec0211

• Big D

• 11/15/2004