Cooking a Turkey 101

Everything You Need to Know to Prep and Cook a Turkey

With Thanksgiving coming up, now is the time to get confident about how to handle the centerpiece of this festive meal: the turkey. Getting the bird right is almost always the biggest stressor for the holiday cook, but it isn’t as complicated as you might think. In fact, advances in thinking about how to prep and cook turkeys has actually made the process both easier and faster for the home cook. Here is the Food & Wine Turkey 101, so you feel confident and have great results every time.

Buy the Right Size Turkey

When ordering your turkey, plan on 1 1/2 pounds per person. After you account for the weight of the bones and the loss after cooking the bird, you’ll still have plenty of turkey for the holiday dinner and leftovers the next day.

Properly Thaw the Turkey

Turkeys take a long time to thaw, much longer than many people realize. Don’t try to cut this short; starting to cook your bird when it is partially frozen is not a good idea.

Turkeys should be thawed in the refrigerator and not at room temperature (or in a cooler outside); refrigeration is key to avoiding food-borne illness. For birds up to 18 pounds, plan on getting it in the fridge by Monday morning to cook on Thursday. For birds larger than 18 pounds, add a day or two to the schedule. If you cannot lose that much fridge space for that long, consider ordering your turkey from a local butcher and ask to pick it up already thawed on Tuesday.

After your turkey thaws, you can spatchcock it if you like. Spatchcocking means removing the backbone from the turkey and flattening it so it roasts evenly and quickly.

For the Juiciest Turkey, Make a Brine

Brining is a method of seasoning your turkey before cooking, for flavor and to retain moisture. There are both wet and dry-brining methods. For either method, first remove the giblets and reserve those for your gravy.

To wet-brine your turkey, mix a brine bath, which can be as simple as salt and water or have other ingredients and seasonings, and submerge the whole turkey in it. You will want to wet-brine your turkey for 12 to 24 hours before cooking so the brine has time to do its job. Be sure you have a giant stock pot or other container that is large enough to fully submerge the turkey and still fit it in your refrigerator.

Dry-brining has gained popularity over the past few years, as it is easier to manage and results in an extra crispy skin. Rub the turkey all over with salt or a seasoned salt mixture with bay leaves, thyme sprigs, and/or swaths of citrus zest. Place the turkey in a brining bag or roasting pan, then let it rest in the refrigerator for up to three days before cooking. Proponents of dry-brining often say the results are more genuinely “juicy” than wet-brined birds, and the flavor is more turkey-forward.

Regardless of which type of brine you choose, you will want to remove the bird from the brine or brining bag the night before you roast, wipe away or remove any excess aromatics, pat dry, place on a wire rack over a sheet pan then return to the fridge uncovered to fully dry out the skin. Fully drying the skin before roasting helps ensure you get perfect golden brown crispy skin when it cooks. Keep in mind that brined birds will need much less salt than birds that have not been brined; a very light sprinkle on the skin and inside the cavity should suffice.

Temper the Turkey For Quicker, Even Roasting

As with most proteins, you want to pull the turkey out of the fridge to start to come to room temperature before roasting. This tempering will help it cook more evenly and reduce the overall cooking time. These large birds need some quality time — between 90 minutes and 2 hours — at cool room temperature to make a difference. If you live in a hot climate or keep your room temperature higher than 74 degrees, reduce this time to 60 to 75 minutes so you don’t risk a food-borne illness.

Butter That Bird

In general, most turkeys will need only a bit of fat to get them started browning. Rub the turkey all over with either softened butter or brush it with oil or melted butter, and top with whatever seasonings you choose. Ground spices will work better than dried or fresh herbs, which can burn during the long roasting process. If you want to use herbs, add them later in the cooking process, about 45 minutes before the end of the cooking time.

How Long to Cook Your Turkey

Time to cook your turkey. We recommend you do not stuff your turkey. Stuffed turkeys risk food-borne illness, and require longer cooking times, which means you are more likely to end up with overcooked, dry meat.

If you make a spatchcocked turkey, you have the option of roasting it on top of a bed of stuffing. Start the turkey at a higher temp of 450°F for the first 30 minutes, and then reduce the oven temperature to 350°F for the rest of the cooking time. For this method, you will be looking for a temperature of 160°F in the breast meat and 165°F in the thigh before resting.

Depending on your oven, the temperature of the turkey when you put it in, and how often you open the oven door, your turkey will take about 15 to 20 minutes per pound for a whole bird, and 9 to 11 minutes per pound for a spatchcocked turkey. Be sure to check the internal temperature at least 75 minutes before you think the bird should be done, and once it is 140°F, check it every 8 to 10 minutes.

To Baste or Not To Baste?

There is some dispute around basting. Pro-basters say that nothing will get the same level of perfect skin, and swear by that constant anointment with pan juices. Anti-basters say that since basting has been scientifically proven to not make any difference in the meat itself, the continual opening of the oven and letting the temperature drop just adds to the overall cooking time and can dry out the meat. We are not going to be prescriptive about this — if you love to baste, go for it. We just caution against basting in the first hour of cooking, and any more often than once every 35 to 40 minutes. When you baste, do so as quickly as possible to retain your oven temperature.

Rest Your Turkey

Resting the turkey, preferably tented with foil, allows the juices to redistribute throughout the meat. A whole bird should rest about 45 minutes before carving; a spatchcocked bird should rest about 30 minutes. If your bird is extra-large — over 18 pounds — add 15 minutes to the rest time. While your turkey rests, you can make the gravy, finish baking your stuffing, pour yourself a drink, and get ready for the most epic meal of the year.

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