Cooking turkey doesn't have to be hard. Whether you go fresh or frozen, organic or Butterball, it's easy if you follow these simple steps.
For me, November is "Practice Turkey Season," the time when I cook several turkeys a week, using various methods and tricks, in vain attempt to get the perfect juicy, roast bird for the holidays.
Does it help? Not usually.
But I keep trying anyway. And this year was no different. Except I started the season a bit early. Like last summer. I was doing some research for a new book and had the opportunity to interview a number of celebrity chefs. At the end of every interview, I'd ask, "So how do you cook a turkey?"
Not surprisingly, each chef had a different method and, for me, none worked particularly better than any of the others.
But I did learn a few tricks, which I'm happy to share with you:
Choosing Your Thanksgiving Turkey
If you're primarily concerned with taste (rather than the environment, cost or other factors), it doesn't make a huge difference whether you go with a conventional or organic turkey, a locally-grown or frozen one.
In fact, The Washington Post just conducted a taste test with several local chefs, and while they picked the local free-range turkey as the best overall, the frozen Butterball came in a close second.
The New York Times did a similar taste test. And even though they found the considerably more expensive heritage turkeys to be the best tasting, they acknowledged that cooking the turkey properly was the most important factor. (See Cooking It Just Right below).
Thawing the Turkey
If you get a frozen turkey, you'll need to thaw it in the coldest part of your refrigerator in its original wrapper with a tray resting underneath. You'll need to allow 24 hours for every 5 pounds of turkey.
Preparing Your Turkey
Be sure to pull out the neck and giblets from the body and neck cavity of the turkey.
Don't laugh. More experienced cooks than I have made the mistake of leaving these parts in, only to find the house warmed by the smell of burning plastic an hour later.
Other important prep factors include the size and shape of the pan and the way the turkey rests in the pan.
When I called the Butterball help line -- a useful resource if there ever was one -- I discussed this issue at length with them. And they convinced me that putting the turkey in a pan no deeper than 2 to 2-1/2 inches is ideal and resting it on a flat rack is key.
The flat rack ensures the breast isn't sitting higher than the thighs, and therefore, cooking faster. If you don't have a flat rack, the Butterball representative recommended just rolling up a piece of aluminum foil into a snake and coiling it into a circle shape. This allows some air to get around and under the turkey.
Brush the turkey with oil or a homemade glaze to give it a nice color and keep the skin from drying out. And when the turkey is about two-thirds done, cover the breast with a tent of foil to keep it from getting overdone.
To Brine or Not to Brine
No doubt, one of the reasons the Butterball is the bestselling turkey in America is because it already comes bathed in a salty broth solution. This keeps the breast meat moist, even if you were to overcook it.
Other methods for achieving this result are brining the turkey (putting it an salt water bath) or slathering butter or vegetable oil under the skin.
Frankly, brining is a real pain. And slathering butter or oil under the skin didn't produce enough moistness to compensate for overcooking. So the New York Times is right -- cooking a turkey properly is really the most important thing.
Cooking It Just Right
The problem is home cooks almost always overcook turkey. We're too freaked out to remove the turkey from the oven at 155 degrees and let it rest until it reaches 165 degrees. And most of us don't want to bother removing the thighs and finishing them off separately until they are thoroughly cooked.
So we overcook the whole thing in an effort to avert disaster.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a turkey is done when all parts are cooked to 165 degrees, as measured by a meat thermometer.
Most professional chefs agree. The question is when to take the turkey out of the oven. Professional chefs take the turkey out when the temperature (at the thickest part of the breast and innermost part of the thigh) reaches 150 or 155 degrees. Then they let it rest for 20 minutes. Food safety experts warn that a turkey may not reach 165 degrees this way.
I compromise by taking the turkey out when it reaches 160 degrees and leaving the thermometer in while it rests another 15-20 minutes.
Then again, you could just overcook it and make lots of gravy and side dishes.
Click here for great Thanksgiving recipes and more turkey tips.
