1. Thawing
• First, make sure the bird is completely thawed, so it will cook properly. You can thaw the bird in the refrigerator, but it takes about 24 hours for every four pounds of turkey, so it could take most of a week to thaw a 20-pounder! Or you can speed the process by thawing the turkey in the kitchen sink, in a bath of cold water. If it's a very large turkey and frozen solid, this will take at least two days in the sink and a third in the fridge. For a smaller turkey, allow one day in the sink and another in the fridge.
2. Advance Preparation
• Release the legs of the thawed turkey from under that little wire thingy, but leave it attached. (it's useful for lifting the cooked bird out of the pan.)
• Once the bird is thoroughly thawed, reach into the body cavity and pull out the neck, then look for the big flap of skin in front, at the base of the breast. Reach under that into the neck cavity, and you'll find a squishy little paper bag that you do NOT want to leave in the turkey while it cooks!
They call the stuff in the little bag "giblets", but it's a heart, liver and gizzard. Some people like to cook up this stuff, cut it into little pieces and put it into their gravy. You can cover them with water and boil them with the neck to make extra broth for gravy--which is what I do. (Then I chop up the innards and pull the meat off the neck to make a Thanksgiving treat for my miniature dachshunds. They seem to like it quite a bit more than I would if it was lurking in the depths of the gravy!)
• Wash the turkey inside and out. Dump all the bloody liquid out of the cavity and wash it thoroughly with your kitchen sink sprayer, then drain it. Wash the outside all over with running water and pat dry with paper towels.
• Rub salt all over the outside and inside the cavity. You could add a little garlic or onion salt, maybe some black pepper if you like, but I wouldn't add too much--maybe 1/2 teaspoon. garlic or onion salt and 1/4 teaspoon black or lemon pepper. For a tasty and different variation, see our Herbed-Lemon Roasted Turkey Recipe
• Brush butter or olive oil all over the bird. Be especially sure you thoroughly coat the drumsticks, thighs and wings so they will brown nicely and not dry out during cooking.
• Pre-heat the oven to 325. Put the bird into a large open roasting pan, but one with fairly deep walls. Most turkeys are injected with salted water so they'll cook up "moist", and quite a bit of liquid cooks out while roasting. That's OK. It's good for gravy, but you don't want it to overflow the pan and run all over the oven.
• Form a foil "tent" by folding a large sheet of foil half. Place this tent of foil loosely over the turkey. Don't cover the top of the pan or seal the edges, unless you want a steamed turkey. Just lay the foil loosely on top of the turkey--this helps prevent overcooking and you'll end up with an attractive, golden-brown turkey when it's done.
3. Roasting
There is nothing worse than having a whole houseful of people waiting around for the turkey to get done while everything else slowly congeals or bakes into inedibility. Talk about stress! Fortunately, there is a simple way to avoid this nightmare scenario:
• Cook the turkey overnight on Wednesday night--especially if it's a large bird (20+ pounds). This eliminates the whole "waiting for the turkey to be done" thing. Trust me, they NEVER seem to cook in the time the wrapper and other "experts" say they will, when you're waiting for the turkey to be done to serve the meal on Thanksgiving! And you really can't rush the process, either--unless you enjoy your turkey pleasingly pink or bloody raw in the middle. We like ours cooked all the way through, thanks very much. We're funny that way.
Aside from the timing factor--which is the trickiest part of preparing any meal--trying to cook the bird on Thursday with all the other stuff you have to get done is a bad idea, not to mention tying up the oven all day when you're going to need it for other stuff. There are a couple of other advantages to the overnight method:
(1) With the turkey already done, you can concentrate on the rest of the meal on Thursday.
(2) Your entire house will be filled with the heavenly aroma of roast turkey when you get up on Thanksgiving morning.
• If you feel you must, you can put the stuffing into the cavity of the turkey before you roast it, but I never do, for a number of reasons:
(A) it greatly increases the cooking time and makes it harder to get the bird done all the way through. For example, a mere 10-pound turkey needs about 4 hours cooking time, if stuffed.
(B) It increases the risk of food poisoning. You've got to be careful about stuffing the turkey too soon before putting in the oven, or leaving it sit too long with stuffing inside after you take it out of the oven, or you could end up with a nasty case of food poisoning for the holidays!
(C) It requires more basting, which you won't be able to do if you're going to cook it overnight, unless you plan to stay up all night.
(D) Finally, and most importantly, it soaks up too much of the drippings you'll want for gravy!
However, if you're really set on cooking the stuffing IN the bird, like all those traditional Thanksgiving pictures show, then check out our feature on how to do it at 6 Easy Steps to Stuffing A Turkey.
But for now, we'll assume that you're going to cook the turkey overnight, and unstuffed. There are a couple of extra steps you'll want to take if roasting the turkey overnight:
• Wrap pieces of foil around the wings and drumsticks, shiny side out. This keeps them from getting overdone when cooking overnight. I wrap the drumsticks all the way down to where they join with the thigh.
• Put 1 to 1-1/2 cups of water in the bottom of the pan, depending on the size of the pan and the turkey. This is to prevent the pan from cooking dry and burning up all the liquid as it drips onto the hot pan overnight. You want to wake up to the aroma of roast turkey on Thanksgiving morning, not a house full of smoke and a screaming smoke alarm! As an alternative, you can cook your bird in one of those portable roaster ovens. That's actually better than an oven, because it's not such a dry heat. If you go this route, though, you'll need very little (if any) water in the bottom of the roaster, because it's covered by a lid--and even then, it may not brown as nicely as you like, because of steam from the bird's own broth. If it doesn't, just pop it in the oven at 325 for a half hour the next morning to brown the skin
• Set the oven on 300. Since it's going to cook all night, you'll want the temperature lower. (if you're going to try cooking the bird on Thursday, against all advice, set the oven for 350. Caution: never cook a turkey below 275, as the temperature won't be sufficient to cook the meat all the way through--it simply warms it up enough to create a breeding ground for food poisoning bacteria beneath the surface.
• Put the bird in at least a couple of hours before you plan to retire on Wednesday night, so it will be well started before you go to bed. By letting it cook awhile before leaving it on its own for the night, you can baste it with pan liquid a couple of times, make sure it hasn't cooked dry and better judge how much water you'll need in the pan to prevent it cooking dry after you retire for the night.
• In the morning, take the turkey out of the oven, remove from pan and pour the broth into a large pan for making gravy. If the wire thingy is still firmly attached, you can grasp that on one end, and insert a big grilling fork under the breast bone on the other end to lift it out of the pan.
• For lower-fat gravy, cool the broth in the refrigerator until the fat congeals on top and skim it off. Now the broth is ready for gravy. Let the turkey sit and cool awhile--it'll slice a lot better. If you're eating later in the day, you may want to put the slices on a microwave-safe plate, cover with wax paper and heat for 45 seconds to one minute just prior to serving.
• First, make sure the bird is completely thawed, so it will cook properly. You can thaw the bird in the refrigerator, but it takes about 24 hours for every four pounds of turkey, so it could take most of a week to thaw a 20-pounder! Or you can speed the process by thawing the turkey in the kitchen sink, in a bath of cold water. If it's a very large turkey and frozen solid, this will take at least two days in the sink and a third in the fridge. For a smaller turkey, allow one day in the sink and another in the fridge.
2. Advance Preparation
• Release the legs of the thawed turkey from under that little wire thingy, but leave it attached. (it's useful for lifting the cooked bird out of the pan.)
• Once the bird is thoroughly thawed, reach into the body cavity and pull out the neck, then look for the big flap of skin in front, at the base of the breast. Reach under that into the neck cavity, and you'll find a squishy little paper bag that you do NOT want to leave in the turkey while it cooks!
They call the stuff in the little bag "giblets", but it's a heart, liver and gizzard. Some people like to cook up this stuff, cut it into little pieces and put it into their gravy. You can cover them with water and boil them with the neck to make extra broth for gravy--which is what I do. (Then I chop up the innards and pull the meat off the neck to make a Thanksgiving treat for my miniature dachshunds. They seem to like it quite a bit more than I would if it was lurking in the depths of the gravy!)
• Wash the turkey inside and out. Dump all the bloody liquid out of the cavity and wash it thoroughly with your kitchen sink sprayer, then drain it. Wash the outside all over with running water and pat dry with paper towels.
• Rub salt all over the outside and inside the cavity. You could add a little garlic or onion salt, maybe some black pepper if you like, but I wouldn't add too much--maybe 1/2 teaspoon. garlic or onion salt and 1/4 teaspoon black or lemon pepper. For a tasty and different variation, see our Herbed-Lemon Roasted Turkey Recipe
• Brush butter or olive oil all over the bird. Be especially sure you thoroughly coat the drumsticks, thighs and wings so they will brown nicely and not dry out during cooking.
• Pre-heat the oven to 325. Put the bird into a large open roasting pan, but one with fairly deep walls. Most turkeys are injected with salted water so they'll cook up "moist", and quite a bit of liquid cooks out while roasting. That's OK. It's good for gravy, but you don't want it to overflow the pan and run all over the oven.
• Form a foil "tent" by folding a large sheet of foil half. Place this tent of foil loosely over the turkey. Don't cover the top of the pan or seal the edges, unless you want a steamed turkey. Just lay the foil loosely on top of the turkey--this helps prevent overcooking and you'll end up with an attractive, golden-brown turkey when it's done.
3. Roasting
There is nothing worse than having a whole houseful of people waiting around for the turkey to get done while everything else slowly congeals or bakes into inedibility. Talk about stress! Fortunately, there is a simple way to avoid this nightmare scenario:
• Cook the turkey overnight on Wednesday night--especially if it's a large bird (20+ pounds). This eliminates the whole "waiting for the turkey to be done" thing. Trust me, they NEVER seem to cook in the time the wrapper and other "experts" say they will, when you're waiting for the turkey to be done to serve the meal on Thanksgiving! And you really can't rush the process, either--unless you enjoy your turkey pleasingly pink or bloody raw in the middle. We like ours cooked all the way through, thanks very much. We're funny that way.
Aside from the timing factor--which is the trickiest part of preparing any meal--trying to cook the bird on Thursday with all the other stuff you have to get done is a bad idea, not to mention tying up the oven all day when you're going to need it for other stuff. There are a couple of other advantages to the overnight method:
(1) With the turkey already done, you can concentrate on the rest of the meal on Thursday.
(2) Your entire house will be filled with the heavenly aroma of roast turkey when you get up on Thanksgiving morning.
• If you feel you must, you can put the stuffing into the cavity of the turkey before you roast it, but I never do, for a number of reasons:
(A) it greatly increases the cooking time and makes it harder to get the bird done all the way through. For example, a mere 10-pound turkey needs about 4 hours cooking time, if stuffed.
(B) It increases the risk of food poisoning. You've got to be careful about stuffing the turkey too soon before putting in the oven, or leaving it sit too long with stuffing inside after you take it out of the oven, or you could end up with a nasty case of food poisoning for the holidays!
(C) It requires more basting, which you won't be able to do if you're going to cook it overnight, unless you plan to stay up all night.
(D) Finally, and most importantly, it soaks up too much of the drippings you'll want for gravy!
However, if you're really set on cooking the stuffing IN the bird, like all those traditional Thanksgiving pictures show, then check out our feature on how to do it at 6 Easy Steps to Stuffing A Turkey.
But for now, we'll assume that you're going to cook the turkey overnight, and unstuffed. There are a couple of extra steps you'll want to take if roasting the turkey overnight:
• Wrap pieces of foil around the wings and drumsticks, shiny side out. This keeps them from getting overdone when cooking overnight. I wrap the drumsticks all the way down to where they join with the thigh.
• Put 1 to 1-1/2 cups of water in the bottom of the pan, depending on the size of the pan and the turkey. This is to prevent the pan from cooking dry and burning up all the liquid as it drips onto the hot pan overnight. You want to wake up to the aroma of roast turkey on Thanksgiving morning, not a house full of smoke and a screaming smoke alarm! As an alternative, you can cook your bird in one of those portable roaster ovens. That's actually better than an oven, because it's not such a dry heat. If you go this route, though, you'll need very little (if any) water in the bottom of the roaster, because it's covered by a lid--and even then, it may not brown as nicely as you like, because of steam from the bird's own broth. If it doesn't, just pop it in the oven at 325 for a half hour the next morning to brown the skin
• Set the oven on 300. Since it's going to cook all night, you'll want the temperature lower. (if you're going to try cooking the bird on Thursday, against all advice, set the oven for 350. Caution: never cook a turkey below 275, as the temperature won't be sufficient to cook the meat all the way through--it simply warms it up enough to create a breeding ground for food poisoning bacteria beneath the surface.
• Put the bird in at least a couple of hours before you plan to retire on Wednesday night, so it will be well started before you go to bed. By letting it cook awhile before leaving it on its own for the night, you can baste it with pan liquid a couple of times, make sure it hasn't cooked dry and better judge how much water you'll need in the pan to prevent it cooking dry after you retire for the night.
• In the morning, take the turkey out of the oven, remove from pan and pour the broth into a large pan for making gravy. If the wire thingy is still firmly attached, you can grasp that on one end, and insert a big grilling fork under the breast bone on the other end to lift it out of the pan.
• For lower-fat gravy, cool the broth in the refrigerator until the fat congeals on top and skim it off. Now the broth is ready for gravy. Let the turkey sit and cool awhile--it'll slice a lot better. If you're eating later in the day, you may want to put the slices on a microwave-safe plate, cover with wax paper and heat for 45 seconds to one minute just prior to serving.
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