I’m not a fan of stuffing the bird (oops that sounds naughty too!), so I bake the dressing separately. You have to cook the bird much longer if you stuff it with something that you plan on eating. The result is a dry bird. I stuff with aromatics for additional flavor. Plus, it makes the drippings, i.e. your gravy base, super yummy. Also, yummy is a technical term this time of year.
That’s exactly what I do, and it is delicious. Rub the bird inside and out with salt and butter. Loosely fill the cavities with cut up union, broken celery, and a few sprigs of parsely. You could also include a sprig of savory. You throw all that away when you carve the bird.
Bake in a throw away foil pan and tent loosely with more foil. Remove foil the last 1/2 hour to brown the bird.
Simmer the neck and the giblets with more onion and celery until the neck meat is falling off the bone. Remove the bones, scoop out the savories, and chop the meat and the giblets in your food processor Set aside to use in your dressing and in your gavy. Reserve the broth and split between the dressing (which you bake separately) and the gravy. The other vital ingredient for the gravy is the drippings from the pan which you remove when you turn the turkey near the end.
All that said, we are going out for dinner tomorrow.