How To Roast a Perfect Turkey

The Perfect Bird

How to Cook the Perfect Holiday Turkey

Greetings All!


This is a blog about food.... simple, perfect, and delicious. My inspiration to begin blogging came from something near and dear to almost every American, that hallowed centerpiece of holiday gatherings, the turkey. How often have you been at a family holiday sitting at the table quaffing beverages to get the dry, overcooked turkey down, or been the bewildered cook staring questionably at a frozen bird? All too often at my own holiday gatherings I have fallen victim to awful turkey; a pale skin, dry breasts, and legs cooked to death... It is this experience which has led me tap into my wealth of food knowledge to help the every day cooks at home to prepare wonderful, perfect feasts with the least amount of hassle.

"Who IS this pompous ass?" you may ask yourself as you read. Well, let me tell you! I am an ex-chef, who after 15 or so years in the business of running big kitchens, decided to change careers a few years back. Now, I am an engineer with a 9-5 job who LOVES to come home and cook for my family and friends. I guess you can always take the chef out of the kitchen, but can never take the kitchen out of the chef.... During my cooking career, I have run several large restaurants with the premise that quality should never take a back seat, because it is just as easy to make something great as it is to make something horrible.... it is just a matter of how much you know.

My short term goal for this blog is to help all of you survive the holidays with beautiful, delicious food that can be easily prepared and turned out when your family is eagerly awaiting their feast. I would like to help you make YOUR house the place your friends and relatives can't wait to get to for supper. Additionally, I hope to be able to give some pointers for entertaining, to help make your event special while helping you keep your sanity. After we tackle the holidays (with at least a few nice fall/winter dishes sprinkled in there) we will set our sights on weeknight meals and weekend feasts.

So, without further adieu, here is how to roast a perfect turkey.....

The perfect bird should be golden brown, moist, and delicious, and should be pretty painless to do. As with anything worth doing, the most work is in the preparation, before you get down to the brass tacks of actually roasting the turkey.

Preparing the turkey:

1. Thawing – Most of us will be getting a frozen turkey through work or from the grocery store. In order to avoid food poisoning, it is critical to thaw it correctly in the refrigerator. Just place it on a tray still in its original wrapper, and let it sit in the fridge for 3-4 days.
1. Another technique is to brine the turkey during the thawing process. It is still done in the fridge, except you will soak the turkey in salt water. Brining will help to speed up the thawing process while concentrating the flavors of your bird while seasoning it. A 20 lb turkey thawed in 5 gallons of brine will take about 24 hours to thaw.  A proper brine solution should be about 2 pounds of salt to 5 gallons of water. Simply start off with tap water, (cold, but not ice cold) add the salt, and stir it until the salt is dissolved. Place the turkey into the solution and put it in the fridge. It is that simple. Once thawed, dry the turkey inside and out with paper towels.
2. Once thawed, the first thing to do is find the pop up timer in the breast of the turkey. Once you found it, THROW IT OUT. Using these will almost guarantee your bird will be overcooked and will most likely suck. The reason is that these timers are based upon temperature, and pop when the temperature of the breast reaches 160 – 170 degrees, well past tasty and into the “Why Am I So Thirsty Turkey Zone.” To cook a good bird, invest in a good stick thermometer. You can get one here for under $10:

3. After removing the timer, reach into the cavity in between the legs and remove the neck. Go to the front of the turkey near the wings and remove the organ bag. Save these parts for your gravy, they will make it amazing.


4. Seasoning – This is the part of the process that is open to interpretation. Season your turkey with things you like. However, no matter what spices you use, you will need a decent quality Olive Oil. Typically I use the “Pure Olive Oil” which is a third pressing of the olives, and thus is not as rich (or as expensive) as Extra Virgin. For my turkey, I use freshly cracked pepper, sea salt, and garlic. I take about 2 cups of oil and a few tablespoons of garlic and run it through the blender to make a smooth garlic oil (do this a day ahead so the flavors have time to marry) Sprinkle the salt and pepper all over your bird, inside and out, carefully minding the “armpits” under the legs and wings. Then brush or pour some of the oil over the bird, taking care to evenly distribute the oil and garlic. Make sure to get some in the cavity as well. Once seasoned, let it sit for an hour or so before you plan to cook it. You can also do this the night before if you plan to eat early.

1. If you are feeling frisky, get some of that oil, salt, and pepper UNDER the skin to season the meat directly. While not critical, it will make it taste a little better. However, you run the risk of your skin shrinking and your turkey looking like a leper… your call…..

5. Stuffing The Bird- Over the past few years, stuffing the bird has been considered blasé or even dangerous. The problem is, when grandma made her stuffing, she usually did it the day before so it was nice and cool to handle when she stuffed the bird. I ALWAYS stuff my turkey; it makes the stuffing better and evens out the cooking of the bird. The secret is to stuff your bird while the stuffing is still HOT. Just use a spoon, then you don’t get burned. Using the hot stuffing will not add significantly to the cooking time of the turkey, and will keep it out of the “temperature danger zone” during roasting when the nasty little buggies try to poison you. 

6. The Roasting Pan – This is probably the most important consideration to make when making your bird. Personally, I have a nice Caphalon roasting pan with a rack that I use. However, since this is something that most people will only use once or twice a year, it may be better for you to use a disposable pan. Just make sure that the sides are not too high (2-3 inches is perfect) so the heat can reach all of the bird evenly. If your pan is too deep, it will not heat the bird evenly. It doesn’t really matter what you prefer to do, just make sure you do something to get the turkey off the floor of the pan above the juices. You can put a few stalks of whole celery and a few whole carrots in the bottom to do this. The reason for getting the turkey in the air a bit is to get the juices (the water that comes out of the turkey) to evaporate rather than have the bird sit in it. If you have the bird on the floor of the pan, you lose critical surface area to get those juices evaporating, and it will just cause your turkey to cook unevenly and taste boiled on the bottom portions, which you don’t want. So, in short, get that bird out of the juice! Below is a link to the kind of pan you should look for if you don't have one.

1. ***** UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU COVER THE TURKEY WITH A LID OR FOIL****** covering the bird turns your roaster into a steamer, and your turkey will be pale and nasty looking, and probably will be dry as well. 

Now, onto the roasting of the bird!

Roasting The Turkey

1. OK, so you have your prepped turkey all seasoned, stuffed, racked, and ready to go into the oven. So now what?!?!?! OK, remember that oil we put on the turkey? We need to get that oil hot enough so that it can crisp the skin. So, to do that, preheat your oven to 450 degrees (if you have a convection oven, reduce temp by 15-20 degrees). Let your oven reach the temperature before you put the bird in, otherwise you may as well just go to Chinese Buffet. Preheating the oven is key to cooking with it, but many people simply DON’T.
2. Once your oven is hot, put your turkey in. You will cook the bird at 450 until the skin begins browning, which will take about an hour or so depending on how big it is.
3. After the skin begins browning, back the oven off to 325. No, you don’t have to take the turkey out. This is where the art of roasting begins. Typically a stuffed 20 lb bird will take about 4 hours. (This is a guideline, your turkey will be done when it is done, sometimes 3.5 hours, sometimes longer, just depends)
4. Basting- Basting the turkey is a must. I usually baste mine every 30-45 minutes with the oil and garlic mixture until it is gone, then I switch to melted butter. Use a pastry or grilling brush to baste, and be quick about it. An open oven door loses about 1 degree of temperature every 7 seconds, so don’t lollygag. Get in there, baste, and get out, otherwise your oven will cool off and your bird will cook unevenly.
1. *** Don’t use the juices in the bottom of the pan, as they will contain water. If you want crisp skin, you don’t put water on it. Water makes things soggy.
5. When is it done?- OK, remember that thermometer I told you to buy? Make sure you read the directions and calibrate it correctly. Assuming you did that, simply stick the thermometer into the breast of the turkey until it gets close to the bone, but not touching bone. You want to stick it in the breast and again in the leg area. You are shooting for 150 -155 degrees, no more…. Typically I pull my turkey out of the oven at 150, then let it sit for 30 minutes. It is hot enough, and it will keep on cooking to finish itself with the residual heat.
1. Light meat and dark meat are different densities and moisture content, so they will cook differently, which is why you need to check the temperature of both. Usually they will stay fairly close to each other if you use hot stuffing, but you may have a problem where the breast is done, but the legs are not. If you have this case, you have a couple of options.

                                               i.     Invert the turkey – If your bird is cooking unevenly, flip it so the breast is on the bottom. If your skin is crisp enough, it wont hurt anything, and will get your dark meat into the direct heat of the oven.

                                             ii.     Turkey en Salmis – OK fancy French term for cutting the breast off when it is done, and then finishing the dark meat on it’s own terms. Since I slice my turkey before I take it to the table, this works well. Using tongs and a boning knife, simply slide the knife along the breast cage until the breast comes off. Cut the skin by the leg and the breast should come off. Set aside, and place the carcass with the dark meat back into the over. Lay some foil over the breasts and let them sit, they will be fine.

6. Carving the Turkey -  This is a subject that I can speak reams about, but since some people are so particular about it, I am going to make a basic recommendation and just leave it at that. Usually, I take the breasts off the carcass and slice then about ¼” thick. You will get a higher yield from your turkey if you do this, and you don’t have to worry as much about giving grandma a Harry Potter scar at the table. I lay the sliced breast (Keeping it all together when I move it) on a serving tray, and then place the legs, thighs, and other dark meat in between the two breasts. But, do what you like. There are plenty of ways to do it, look online for videos on the subject.