‘A-mayo-zing’ way to cook a turkey

My church - St. Luke's Episcopal in Prescott, Arizona - annually serves a home-cooked turkey dinner with all the trimmings on Christmas day. It's called Don't Spend Christmas Alone and is open to anyone. And it's free!
Word got out that I had worked at TV and radio stations and newspapers for 20 years, so I was asked to be (roped in to be?) Publicity Chairman.
The minister's wife manages the kitchen at Tim's Toyota Center sports arena in Prescott Valley. She arranged for the turkeys to be prepared and cooked by the kitchen's executive chefs. The following is an article I sent to the local newspaper to promote Don't Spend Christmas Alone. For those cooking this Christmas, maybe you'll want to try this.

Condiment makes Christmas turkeys golden

By Scott W.L. Daravanis

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church

Sous-chef Robert Lucero

For the past 30 years, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church members have baked and served beautiful golden brown turkeys during the annual Don’t Spend Christmas Alone dinner. This year, the centerpiece item will be more beautiful and more golden than ever.

The key ingredient is a simple condiment found in most everyone’s refrigerator.

The chefs at Tim’s Toyota Center have been preparing 100 donated turkeys since mid-November. Centerplate manages and operates the kitchen at Tim’s.

“We’re averaging 16 turkeys a day,” Executive Chef Michael A. Niemela said. “We’re carving turkeys while we’re cooking others.”

The process begins with a good, brisk rubdown with Montreal steak seasoning and mayonnaise.

“We sprinkle the seasoning over the entire turkey and rub it in,” Sous-chef Robert Lucero said. “We then rub on mayonnaise, followed by another sprinkle of seasoning and put it in the oven.”

“The mayonnaise holds in the moisture and gives the turkey this beautiful brown color,” Niemela added.

In the large convection ovens at Tim’s Toyota Center, the 20 to 24 pound turkeys cook for three hours. The chefs and other kitchen staff carve the turkeys and separate the white meat from the dark. Cooking stock made from the turkey carcass is poured over the meat, then flash frozen. Niemela said on Christmas Eve, he will pull the pans out of the freezer to thaw, and bright and early on Christmas morning he will re-heat the turkey, place them in rolling heat lockers and truck them to St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on Ruger Road just off Highway 89 north of the Prescott Airport.

Lucero and assistant Roberto Lopez

“In the past, the members of the church cooked the turkeys in their own kitchens with their own spices and recipes,” Niemela said. “By doing them all here in a controlled environment, we can serve the most consistent looking turkeys in the cleanest and safest way possible.”

Don’t Spend Christmas Alone organizers are expecting nearly 1,000 meals will be served at the church or delivered to the homebound throughout the Prescott area. Quite a change from the first Don’t Spend Christmas Alone dinner in 1980.

“I recall we had 45 to 50 people that first year and maybe 65 the second,” parishioner Barbara Harber said. “We served mainly the homeless, but we always invited those who are alone. They feel just as bad on Christmas day as the homeless.”

From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., hundreds of volunteers from St. Luke’s Episcopal and other churches and organizations will serve complete turkey dinners with all the trimmings, various flavors of pie and homemade fudge for dessert, and coffee and other drinks. Holsom Bread Company, once again, will supply the rolls.

And the dinner is free.

St. Luke’s members and personnel from the Prescott Fire Department will deliver meals to the homebound, and shuttle busses between the church and the Prescott Albertson’s will transport those without their own transportation.

For more information, to schedule a meal delivery or to volunteer, call St. Luke’s Episcopal Church at 778-4499.