Hey Everybody – look at what I did today!

Turkey Roast

This was pretty simple, really.

1. Get a hunk of thawed meat (this was a turkey roast, but I’ve also done it with a pork roast) and put it in a roaster (or roaster bag, or slow cooker). If you are using a roaster bag, put a teaspoon of flour in the roaster bag first (a tip from my mom) and shake it up to “dust” the inside of the bag. This will prevent the meat from sticking to the bag when it’s time to take it out.
2. Cover the meat in grapefruit juice – grapefruit juice is what makes the meat flavorful and tender! Again, if you’re using a roaster bag, put the bag with the meat inside the roaster pan BEFORE you cover the meat with juice. There are tiny holes in the bag to release steam and when you pour fluids into the bag, it will leak. This is how it is designed to work. Some of the juice will stay in the bag and some of the juice will end up sitting outside the bag.
3. Place the pineapple rings on top of the meat and along the sides of it.
4. While you’re at it, you might as well dump the pineapple juice in there too.
5. If you want to add any other seasonings (garlic, salt, pepper) now is the time. I just added a few cloves of fresh garlic to mine and that was all the seasoning it needed.
6. Tie that roaster bag (if you’re using one) and put the cover on the roaster. The roaster cover will prevent evaporation of the moisture from the juices that will seep out of the bag due to the little ventilation holes.
7. Bake  at 250 degrees for 12 hours – in this instance, I let it cook overnight.
8. When you’re done cooking it, don’t take it out of the oven right away. Just turn the oven off and let it cool in the oven – I left mine in there for 1-2 hours to cool. If you need to eat sooner, let it sit on your countertop with the lid ON for 15-30 minutes. The meat will soak up the juice as it cools. If you take it out and carve it up right away, the meat can dry out.
9. Demand that your husband/your partner/your cat take a picture with their phone and post it to Facebook. You just spent twelve hours (never mind that you were sleeping for most of it) preparing a fantastic meal for your family – you deserve to be bragged about!

* Note: I strongly recommend  using a roaster bag – they help keep moisture in, which makes the meat extra tender! If you elect not to use a roaster bag, you will need to baste the meet about every hour – and who wants to baste meat for twelve hours?!?

** I served this on a bed of rice with some asparagus on the side. Another serving suggestion I would recommend is baked potatoes and green beans.

*** SAVE THE BROTH! – When I served this up, I put one ladle of broth over the meat and rice and then topped it with a pineapple ring. If there is leftover broth after all (or most of) the meat is gone, you can use it to make a delectable soup.

**** You could also probably do this in a slow-cooker – but since I don’t have a slow cooker, I used the roaster my siblings gave me for a gift a few years back 🙂