Tis the season for Turkey, I make several every year for family, my VFW post or office parties.

I have a system that yields moist meat and plenty of drippings for gravy and I have all this time behind a keyboard available to share it.

Bottom Line Up Front:
I brine the bird overnight in a lukewarm brine with equal amounts of kosher or sea salt, white sugar plus some spices.

Here's how.

1st of all, do not use iodized table salt, it'll make the turkey bitter. That is very important, your turkey will absolutely suck if you use iodized table salt

For an18-ish pound bird I use a medium sized Igloo cooler that is scrupulously clean, (a 5 gallon bucket would also work for a bird up to 20-ish pounds).
All my amounts are tailored to that size container. Use your judgment on amounts needed for your bird, but you don't need to be super precise, the process is pretty forgiving.

You can't really over season unless you soak the bird in a severely salted brine, or leave it soak for more than 12 hours.

Here we go:

In a stock pot combine 1 cup each kosher salt and white sugar
1 generous tablespoon of whole peppercorns (I use black only, I tried the medley and couldn't taste a difference)
2 large bay leaves
4 medium cloves garlic peeled and cracked - not smashed or minced - just pressed enough to break open. This makes it easier to remove before baking. Burnt garlic bits stuck to the turkey is no bueno.
In a linen spice bag, a piece of cheesecloth or any such like, put generous pinches of Rosemary, Savory Leaves and Sage or any other herb of your choosing
Fill stock pot to 75% full with water and bring to a boil - stirring until salt and sugar are fully dissolved
reduce heat and simmer for 10 - 15 minutes

Check your defrosted (!!!!Fully Thawed!!!) turkey for pin feathers and remove giblet bag and neck.

Add the brine to enough COLD water to completely submerge the bird. Do not put the bird in hot brine. That will mess up the skin.

Put the turkey into the brine making sure the cavity fills up

Leave submerged at least 6 hours, though I usually leave it overnight.

The chemical process of brining pushes liquid into the meat as long as the sodium level is significantly different between the meat and the brine, as they approach equilibrium it stops. So you can't really over brine it, within reason, and since salt and sugar are both antimicrobial, spoilage isn't an issue either (again, within reason - don't leave it for days or anything)

When cooking the turkey, I always use a covered roaster in an oven preheated to 350.

I just put the bird in the oven, covered and leave it for 75% of the recommended cooking time, basting 2 or 3 times.

Then I uncover the roaster and raise the temp to 380.

After 45 minutes (or so) uncovered, I mix melted butter with a splash of soy sauce and paint the bird with it – this is for looks, the butter crisps it up and the soy sauce makes it look browner…

Leave uncovered and let cook an additional 10-20 minutes to set the color and crisp the skin

Pull the bird and let rest in a serving tray, tented with foil

For gravy, place roaster full of drippings on the stove top and bring to a boil - When the drippings in the roaster have reduced by half combine with roux.

In a separate pan make a simple roux with butter and flour and when the roux is the color you want your gravy to be, thin with drippings in stages while whisking until it's pourable.

There were already herbs, salt and pepper in the drippings so check 1st before seasoning, but I add savory, white pepper and a pinch of MSG to the gravy to boost the flavor.

Last side note, Ajinomoto (available at asian groceries) is absolutely 100 per cent better than Accent.
Buy that.
If all you have is Accent, skip the MSG all together