Jennie-O Oven Ready Premium Turkey - Food Review

One of my favorite meals is a roasted turkey with all the trimmings. I thoroughly enjoy everything about this meal, including the preparation, the cooking process, the delicious aroma of a whole turkey roasting in the oven, and ultimately, the wonderful taste of the meal. The reality of the situation, though, is that in order to get a really moist and tasty turkey, it requires all day for the cleaning, seasoning, and sporadic basting of the meat. Jennie-O Oven Ready Premium Turkey seems like a good alternative to the normal amount of attention required to get a tasty and moist bird for a family dinner. I paid twenty dollars for a twelve pound bird at my local grocery store. Does this product live up to it's claims? Let's take a look.

Jennie-O Oven Ready Premium Turkey advertises on it's package that the turkey is ready to cook right it's own bag, and requires little more than a few minutes of effort to yield a delicious turkey dinner. It's directions state that the turkey can go right from the freezer to the oven, with just a few minutes of prep work. That was definitely true. As soon as I arrived home from the store with my turkey, I preheated the oven to three hundred and seventy five degrees and within minutes my turkey was roasting in the oven.

I removed the frozen turkey from the white outer packaging and left it in the cooking bag, as per the instructions. I placed it in a roasting pan and cut six half inch slits on the top of the cooking bag and pulled the bag in an upwards motion to move it away from the bird. This releases the vacuum and allows air to circulated during the cooking process. I placed the pan into the oven, being careful to leave room for the bag to expand without touching the walls or racks of the oven. That was it. There was no basting, no repositioning of the aluminum foil tent I use to cook a whole turkey the traditional way, and no additional seasoning during the cooking process. The back of the package states that the turkey should take approximately three and a half to four hours for a bird that weighs between eleven and thirteen pounds. The temperature should reach a temperature of one hundred and seventy degrees in the breast and one hundred and eighty degrees in the thigh before removing from the oven. The turkey should then be allowed to rest for approximately fifteen minutes after removing from the oven. After the rest period, the carving can begin!

One four ounce serving of this turkey contains one hundred and forty calories. There is fifty calories from Fat, with a total of six Fat grams and two grams of Saturated Fat. There is four hundred and sixty milligrams of Sodium and one gram of Total Carbohydrate per serving. There is also twenty grams of Protein, two percent of Vitamin C, two percent of Calcium and four percent of Iron in each serving.

Although my Jennie-O Turkey took some extra cooking time than what was stated on the package, I was extremely pleased with the outcome. The meat was juicy and flavorful and definitely satisfied my hungry family. The package also contained a gravy packet that was very easy to whip up, after adding one and a quarter cups of water to the contents and whisking it in a saucepan for just a few minutes. The package also offered a great little insert that reiterated the package directions, offered carving techniques, and supplied some great recipes for leftovers. While I am too old fashioned to consider roasting a turkey any other way but the traditional for Thanksgiving dinner, I would certainly purchase this turkey for a weekend dinner during Fall and Winter.