Amp up your Thanksgiving turkey this year. This Cajun Turkey is no ordinary bird! It’s lathered and injected with the most FLAVORFUL cajun butter for maximum seasoning then oven roasted to perfection. This is by far the BEST turkey recipe you will ever find!

 

Skip the expensive and full of preservatives Popeye’s Cajun Turkey and make it at home! Yes, there is a bit of work involved but, I have the step-by-step recipe and helpful cooking tips to make a “Better Than Popeye’s” Cajun Butter Turkey. Your family and guests are going to never stop talking about this flavorful, juicy, perfectly spiced turkey. They will be requesting this cajun style turkey over and over again.
If you are looking for a traditional thanksgiving turkey, try my Roasted Thanksgiving Turkey.

I made this Cajun Turkey last year after ordering a cajun version from the Honey Baked Ham store a few years back. I personally thought theirs was lacking in cajun flavor. Pretty bland if you ask me. So, I set out to make the BEST Cajun Turkey at home. I noticed the process used by Toni and made a few tweaks to her recipe to make it even better. My family LOVED it and so will yours. Please ignore all of the recipes that say that injection is unnecessary because, it is if you want real cajun flavored turkey.

Typically we only make turkey for the holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas and sometimes Easter. This Cajun Butter Turkey is one that I make throughout the year. Yes, it’s that good! The flavor is out of this world AMAZING which comes from the herbs, cajun spice, smoked paprika and butter. For the holidays, I serve it with traditional sides like Mashed Potatoes, Sweet Potato Casserole and Cranberry Sauce.
The drippings from this turkey are AMAZING! Stay tuned as I will be adding my recipe for Cajun Turkey Gravy with drippings next week here on my blog (I will update this post with a link as soon as it is posted).

I kept it simple and used a dry brine for this turkey, just salt the night before. My recipe uses fresh herbs. If you only have dry herbs, they will work too. Butter is the MAIN ingredient so, I use a high quality butter (less water and more flavor than the generic butters).
Please ignore all of the recipes that say that injection process is unnecessary because, it is! I have tried this turkey both ways. The key to achieving the most cajun flavored turkey is the Cajun Turkey injection. We inject the flavored butter early in the cooking process and then during cooking.
We also use the cheesecloth method for this turkey. If you have never heard of or done this method while cooking a turkey, I highly suggested it with this recipe. This is how the flavor really makes its way into the bird.

Ingredients for our Cajun Turkey Recipe

What’s great about this Cajun Style Turkey is that you don’t need any exotic ingredients to make it. Looking at the ingredients, it might seem like a lot and a bit overwhelming but it’s about the same amount of ingredients you’d need to make any other Thanksgiving turkey dinner. When you run to the grocery store, here’s what you need to grab:

• Turkey – We’ve had a 12-15 pound turkey that we used for this recipe today. Remember to let this defrost in the fridge before you start the recipe: it took us about 3 days for ours to thaw out. Note that you can use a lot of these ingredients to make a Cajun Turkey Breast Roast as well if you’re serving a smaller party.
• Salt – We used kosher salt for our turkey dry brine. You’ll only need about a tablespoon of salt per 5 pounds of turkey.

To whip up the cajun butter, you’ll need:

• Butter – LOTS of it, lol! If you’re making turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, consider splurging for good grass-fed or European butter.
• Rosemary – We used fresh rosemary, fresh thyme, fresh oregano, and fresh sage today for the added flavor. Having the extra herbs is also good for stuffing the bird later on. If you want to sub in dried herbs, use 1 teaspoon dried herbs to 1 tablespoon fresh herbs.
• Thyme
• Oregano
• Sage
• Cajun Seasoning – These cajun spice blends make for a very unique turkey seasoning. If you don’t have any sitting around, see if you’ve got the ingredients for Homemade Cajun Seasoning.
• Smoked Paprika – Normal paprika will work just fine. Smoked will add more flavor.
• Lemon Juice – You’re going to need fresh lemons for the bird anyways so grab an extra lemon for fresh lemon juice.
• Pepper

Finally for stuffing the bird and for the roasting pan, you’re going to need the following:

• Onions – Go with yellow onions here, but white should work in a pinch.
• Carrots
• Lemons
• Celery
• Broth or Stock – Go with a turkey or chicken broth here. If you can’t find either of those, vegetable stock or broth should work too.

See recipe card for quantities.

How to make Cajun Turkey

If looking at our Cajun Turkey ingredients list has you nervous, don’t worry. Even if this is your first time making turkey from scratch, you’ll find that it’s actually really easy and straight-forward. In case you need any help, here’s a step-by-step instructions with plenty of pictures to help you cook a perfect turkey at home:

• To brine the turkey you will need to- Pat turkey dry before seasoning the entire bird liberally with kosher salt. Let refrigerate after seasoning for at least 8 hours– preferably overnight.

• The next day: Remove from the refrigerator. Do not rinse the turkey after dry brine. Carefully slip your fingers and hands underneath the skin to loosen it from the meat.

• Wash hands and let turkey rise to room temperature. In the meanwhile, you can prep your herbs. Cut rosemary leaves– using kitchen scissors made it easier.

• Pluck thyme leaves and finely chop.

• Repeat process with oregano leaves– pluck and chop.

• Do it again with the sage leaves– pluck, roll leaves, and chop.

• Set herbs aside and grab a large mixing bowl. Add room temperature butter– it needs to be room temp to make our whipped cajun butter.

• Use an electric stand or hand mixer to whip butter until fluffy. Add in fresh chopped herbs, cajun seasoning, paprika, pepper and lemon juice.

• Turn mixer back on and whip together for another 5 minutes, scraping down sides of the bowl frequently for thorough mixing.

• After mixing the cajun herb butter, carefully add large spoonfuls (I use a spatula and my hands) under the loosened skin over the turkey breast meat. Try to get the cajun butter mixture underneath as much of the skin as possible.

• Peel onions and quarter 2, quarter lemons, and roughly chop carrots and celery. Stuff inside cavity of turkey with whole onions, 2 lemon quarters, and half of the carrots and celery. Optionally add stems of leftover herbs.

• Add leftover veggies and lemons to the bottom of roasting pan.

• Set tray in roasting pan and set turkey on top. Spread about half of the remaining cajun compound butter to coat the entire bird including the wings, back and legs.

• Add broth to bottom of roasting pan.

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. While oven warms up, melt cajun butter in microwave. Grab meat injector and fill with melted cajun butter.

• Poke meat injector just under the skin on each leg.

• Once oven is up to temp, transfer turkey to oven and let roast. After 45 minutes, melt butter and fill meat injector again. Inject butter into turkey breasts, thighs, legs, and wings. No need to be alarmed if you noticed the turkey getting dark on top. This is the cajun flavor and color is coming through. You will notice the turkey is golden brown in some areas and darker in others.

• Reduce oven to 325 degrees. Cut section of cheesecloth large enough to cover top of turkey and soak in melted cajun butter. This is going to help keep the turkey nice and juicy. Plus… it’s adding tons of cajun flavors to the skin and meat.

• Drape cheesecloth over turkey and tuck tightly around the top.

• Let turkey roast at 325 degrees for the next 2-3 hours. Remember to baste and check internal temperature of breast meat every 30- 45 minutes– it needs to reach 165 degrees (always use a thermometer and check the thickest part of the bird).

• Once your Cajun Roast Turkey is fully cooked, remove from oven, take off cheesecloth, and let rest for at least 45 minutes. Cut, serve, and enjoy- and have a happy Thanksgiving!

Storage / Freezing

Storage: Unless you’re feeding a big family, chances are you’re going to have some leftover turkey to deal with. For best results, cut the turkey down into smaller pieces for easier storage- cut turkey breasts into slices, separate legs, etc. You can expect your cooked Cajun Turkey to last 3-4 days in an airtight container in the fridge.

Freezing: Freezing turkey is your better bet for long term storage. Transfer to a freezer-safe container or freezer bag and let cool completely before storing in your freezer. Frozen turkey will last up to 6 months, but will taste best and have the best texture if enjoyed before 3-4 months.

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