This came from the Chicago Trib years ago...It's a good one. Citrus baked turkey 1 whole turkey breast about 4 1/2 pounds Marinade: 2 oranges, grated rind and juice 1/2 cup corn oil 1/2 cup honey 1 red bell pepper seeded and diced 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced ( I like 2....maybe 3!) 1/2 tsp salt. Marinate in a plastic bag at least 2 hours or all day. Bake 375 in a covered roasting pan with the marinade poured over it. Bake an hour, remove lid and continue to cook until thermometer reads 165 ( about 1/2 an hour more). Remove from oven, let stand 20 minutes, skim fat from sauce, slice turkey and serve with the sauce. Linda C

FWIW - I think most people cook it upside down and I never understood that. Chickens, turkeys, all those birds, people put on their backs breast side up and then stick them in the oven. The back is always the juiciest and best part, but there's almost no meat there at all. Cook it breast down for heaven's sake. And don't overcook. If you have a pop-up timer stuck into it, take it out and throw it away. Don't forget - the meat will still cook for a few minutes when it's out of the oven. Who cares what it looks like coming out of the oven??? Do you want it to look like a Norman Rockwell painting AND taste like one? That picture with Grandma taking the bird out of the oven with everyone looking on and imagining the dried out and tasteless dinner that awaits them - I think he was taking artistic license because a turkey butt side up just doesn't look as nice. But it tastes better.

LOL Nancy, I'm sure those puppies just can't wait for holidays! They'll probably leave hints about Thanksgiving is year round and Christmas in July! Doing gravy in an electric roaster is kind of a personal preference. I think you'd be better off to take the cookwell and put on the stove. A lot depends on the roaster. Nesco does NOT heat from the bottom. They call it the "circle of heat" since it's in all the sides of the unit which helps keep things from burning on the bottom and the heat is more even. My mother used to make the gravy in the roaster. (I don't remember the brand but it was not Nesco) She'd crank it up full blast but as I recall hers had a heating element in the bottom. A cousin takes the cookwell and puts on the stove. Neither of her roasters are Nesco brand. I have the Roast Air attachment that fits my 6 qt. Now THAT will give you nice crispy skin! I used to just cock the top and let a lot of the moisture out and frequently take a baster and pull the juices out to help dry and crisp the skin, which did work. Now I let it cook and then about the last 1/2 hour or so I turn on the fan and even turn up the heat a bit and the convection action will crisp and brown things up. Be warned though, when the fan goes on, it will blast the juices around so you might want to pull some of them out just in case. The convection action also evaporates it more too. I never thought about the gluten issue on prebasted meats. I usually prefer to get a non-basted if I have a choice but the cheap ones usually are injected. Maybe look at organic or something? I'm not sure about that. Should ask my sister about that since she's Celiac but I know she's still confused on a lot of the things related to it.

Thanks everyone. Yes, I used an oven thermometer. It's an old one (the standard metal frame) and I have no reason to think it's off, since setting the oven 25 degrees lower seems to work almost all the time.... and NOT setting it lower tends to burn/brown the food too much (though I haven't tried that for a long while....). In addition, I always put the rack in the middle of the oven (unless the recipe says to do otherwise), then put the thermometer in the middle of the rack on which I'll put the pan, and wait until it registers at (or very close to) the temp I want. And, yes, the breast was cold when it went into the oven -- I made the herb paste in the morning, spread it on, covered with foil, and put it in the fridge. I wanted to go for a bike ride and didn't want to cut that short to come back and prepare the turkey; all I'd need to do is stick it in the oven. No doubt, letting it sit at room temp for about an hour would have made a difference in cooking time. I bought it fresh, not frozen, and kept it in the fridge until cooking time. (I removed the foil except for the last 30 minutes.) So, next time I'll let it sit for about an hour at room temp before cooking, then let it reach 165 degrees before removing it from the oven. This was Ina's recipe and tried and true so I'm going on the assumption I did something differently. It wasn't overly dry.... a little on the dry side. The flavor is great and I would definitely make it again, but not for company until I get this right! I also made the dill potatoes (posted here before), and brussel sprouts blanched then tossed w/ EVOO and drizzled with finely chopped walnuts then roasted in the oven. Hubby (who does most of the cooking since he's retired and I am still working) said "This is really good, Hon." .... then, after dinner, "Good job!" All's well that ends well! :-) Thank you all so much!! What a great forum.