+1 on the water bath. Get a rubbermaid container, put the turkey in it and let it soak in ice water for a few hours to pull excess salt out. Repeat if needed. Then prop the bird up and let it drip dry, help it along in the interior with a few paper towels.

Also +1 on eliminating the salt completely from your rub.

If you can, mix some of the rub with a bit of butter and insert it between the skin and the meat in the breast area. This helps the turkey absorb more flavour. Also put the rub inside the bird if you are not stuffing it.

Alternatively, if possible, convert your recipe into corned version? Same soak as above in ice but brew your spices and soak-marinate in saltless spice mixture. Cook under foil and crisp the skin with a culinary torch prior to serving.

It was fine. I rinsed it a bit, but not too much. The rub is ancho chile, salt, and sugar. So I used just enough salt to get the rub working. The bird is stuffed with citrus, so that acid helps cut the salt. Then it gets a maple/molasses/Worcestershire glaze, and roasts on a rack over 2 cups of bourbon. Saltiness was perfect, but I stupidly overroasted it up to about 175, still ok, but a bit dry.

Omni Turkey cooking clinic
 

Ok, I've never cooked a turkey but a last minute change has me well cooking a turkey

I'm not too thrilled about it as I'd much rather have made a ham or roast but kids wanted turkey so turkey it is

I bought a small turkey last night at Safeway.

I'm not even sure where to start.

I'm not looking for anything that will make this turn out glamorous nor anything difficult. I just don't want it to be dry.

So where do I start.

Yes I can google it and I will tonight but I thought I'd start with the experts here :D

Oh yeah, what else do I need besides the turkey (not as in food to go with it) to cook it. I can make another Safeway run later if need be

The grill is the place to start, like to smoke mine.

Cook it breast down. Then it never dries out and tastes great. We turn it over midway to get the breast skin crispy but you don't need to. Jus the upside down top gives you a turkey tha t is ,ugh much better. We have a decent thermometer and cook to 160 or so then take it our to rest.

Is it fresh or frozen?
I know that there there some already stuffed , frozen ones that you can just put in the oven but I am just asking.

What kind of stuffing your kids would like ?
You will need the ingredients to get it going to day so that you can stuff the bird tomorrow morning ( if that's how you are proceeding)
Otherwise, that's how to go about it (from my early days of learning how to cook :) ) :
Step 1: Thaw it. If using a frozen turkey, thaw in its original plastic wrapper in the fridge. Allow for five hours per pound, or per 500 g.

Quicker method: Cover the turkey with cold water (the sink is a good place for this), and change with fresh cold water every 30 minutes; allow one hour per pound (500 g).

Step 2: Season it. Prepare the turkey by removing giblets and neck. Rinse and wipe the cavity; sprinkle with salt and pepper or stuff lightly using skewers to fasten skin over the cavity.

Step 3: Roast it. Place turkey, breast side up, on rack in roasting pan. Brush with melted butter or oil. Tent loosely with foil. Roast in 325ºF (160ºC) oven for about 20 minutes per pound (500 g) or until juices run clear when turkey is pierced and when thermometer inserted into thickest part of thigh registers 180ºF (82ºC) for a stuffed turkey or 170ºF (77ºC) for an unstuffed turkey. Remove tent for last hour of roasting.

Step 4: Cover and leave it. When turkey is done, transfer to warm platter. Tent with foil and let stand for 20 to 30 minutes. This allows time for juices at the surface of the bird to distribute evenly throughout the meat.

Step 5: Carve turkey. Eat and enjoy!

These days, instead of cooking it in the oven, hubby is brave enough to use the BBQ ( we have a KEG one) - slow cooking even when it is -10C outside

Do as dodo recomended, BUT here is where I differ:


I put lots and lots of butter under the skin (only time ever that you find butter in my house) salt pepper of course.

In a pot I keep (simmering) chicken stock (prefer it to turkey it has more taste) maybe 3-4 of those cartons (already made) with butter. Then once the turkey is 30 minutes cooking, I take cheese cloth (buy them at the market) cut it in 2. Put them in the stock. I cover the turkey with one, (the other half is in the pot) 20 min later I change them put the dried on in the pot and use the one in the pot to cover the turkey, of course basting the turkey whey I do that. So on until turkey is done, of course all the while there is a foil to cover the bird. I take everything off and let it brown.

it sounds complicated but really it isn't. You'll get a very moist bird.


Not doing one this yr :( but going to a few of them all through the wknd.

Love cooking the little bird.

:eek: Please don't cook it until the temperature is that high--it will be dried out. The thigh temperature of an unstuffed bird should be 160ºF when you take it out; then let it sit on the carving board for 30-45 minutes (covered with foil, and maybe even a towel on top of that, if it is a smaller bird), during which time the interior will continue to rise in temperature.

Since you still have a full day before you roast it, you can do a dry brine to make the turkey more juicy.

Try using a roasting bag in the microwave.

Remember to remove the neck and giblets. I did the cheesecloth once, did the upside down trick once. Basting is good, tenting helps. Agree with lower temperature. Turkey gravy is a good antidote for dry white meat.

And finally, heat up a ham for backup.

Happy Turkey Day😀

I brine and spatchcock my turkey. Easy Peasy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2Lie172c3Y

The quickest and easiest way!

I buy a brined-in-the-bag fresh turkey from Trader Joe's.

I just brush the skin with olive oil and then hit it with a dry poultry rub...same recipe I use when I do beer-butt chickens...and indirect grill it at 325 for 15 minutes per pound. Start it with a mild wood smoker pouch (usually apple)...gives the skin a great color and mild smoke flavor, but not quite as strong as fully smoking the bird. (Smoking would require me to wake up too early. :))

Tent it, let it rest for 30-45 minutes, carve, and serve. Always comes out flavorful and juicy. Thank you, TJ's. I'll never brine a turkey myself again.

I pay about double the price of a Costco frozen turkey...$1.99/lb vs. 89 cents or whatever...totally worth every penny.

The only potential modification I'm considering this year is removing the bird from the brine tonight. There's some discussion that this will allow the skin to get crispier, but won't affect the meat. I need to do some googling...I've had 3 perfect turkeys in a row so I'm hesitant to change the process.

upside down...upside down...no bags, nothing else needed, it is amazing. I don't know why people don't use this method more...I use it for all poultry. The juices flow from the dark meat to the breast and keep it moist...

We have some silicon oven mitts and we turn it over so that the breast browns into the second half of cooking, but this is purely optional. Every turkey done this way comes out more awesome than anything and you don't need to brine it...

I will try your upside down method next time I roast a chicken in the oven ( My TG is long gone up in the white north).

Ultimately, a small turkey is pretty much like a big chicken - when people grasp that, the whole 'ohmygodihavetocookaturkey' panic tends to subside :D

There are tons of ways to do it, but since you just want it to be 'good enough' I would skip the complicated methods, and KISS.

Remove anything inside the turkey (giblets, etc). If you are having a Delia moment you can make gravy, if not, feed them to the dogs or toss in the bin!

Stuffing tends to be where people eff up a turkey - especially meat stuffing, it can stay raw / undercooked even when the turkey is a perfect temperature. So cook the stuffing separately (as a bonus, you can cook as much as you like, since there isn't all that much space in a small turkey, and people tend to like stuffing (at least my friends and family do!) I make sage and onion stuffing, since it works for both the meat eaters and vegetarians but whatever takes your fancy. Instead, you can put seasonings in the cavity to 'scent' the meat (a peeled onion cut in half, a lemon and some whole peeled garlic cloves are my preference, but part of it depends on what you do with the butter (next) just match up the flavours.

To keep it moist, and make a nice crispy skin make a herb butter (mix butter, not margarine, with herbs of your choosing - crushed garlic, some flat leaf parsley, and a little lemon juice would be one option, others would include lemon & thyme, rosemary, or anything else you fancy). Rub half of the butter mix under the skin (wiggle your fingers under to create a space, careful not to rip) and then smear the rest over the top on the skin.

Pop into a hot pre-heated oven (gas mark 7 or 8) for 10-15 mins, then take it out, and cover the breast with strips of bacon (with some fat on, not totally lean) This will help keep the breast moist and, bonus, it is bacon (which I am told makes everything better...) Then turn the oven down to around gas mark 4, and cook for ~ 15 minutes / lb until the juices from the thigh run clear (old school method, no meat thermometer) or it is around 160C (make sure the thermometer doesn't hit the bone as you measure the temperature).

Take out of the oven, cover with foil, and leave to rest for at least 15 minutes before carving (this brings the juices back into the meat). Again, if Delia takes over your body, you can use the pan juices to make a quick gravy - this is the way I almost always do it, as the process takes about the same amount of time as the turkey needs to rest, so may as well use the time!

After dinner, take the rest of the meat off the carcass and refrigerate. Should you have a spare grandmother lying around, she can make soup from the bones or, if you are like me, it goes in a sealed bin bag, on the basis life is too short for skimming the scum off simmering stock during the holidays!

Stuffing recipe I tend to use in theory (I am not terribly good at recipes, I 'eyeball' it!) A large loaf of slightly stale white bread - if you have a 'end of day' section in your supermarket, this works well! - cut into cubes around the size of a dice, and toast in a low oven (you can do this before you cook the turkey until the point it is in the dish before cooking) until lightly brown and slightly crisp - crouton like. Meanwhile gently fry onions and garlic in some butter until soft then add freshly chopped sage and some pepper and cook for a minute more. Then in a large bowl mix with the toasted bread cubes, and enough stock (veggie or chicken, depending on your audience) to just moisten it. Pop in a buttered oven dish, and cook until it starts to brown on top).