My Best Turkey Advice
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Photo by Sarah Plfug
I have been hosting Thanksgiving dinner for 20 years, and I have tried literally everything when it comes to cooking turkey. I’ve brined it, deep-fried it, marinated it, injected it, buttered it, dry-rubbed it, butterflied it, smoked it, and stuffed it. I’ve tried Kosher turkeys, organic turkeys, free-range turkeys, and self-basting turkeys.
A few years ago, I even bought an oil-less outdoor propane turkey fryer called “The Big Easy,” which freed up my oven and actually made a wonderfully crisp-skinned and juicy turkey. (If you want to spend $160 on a large piece of equipment that will likely sit in storage collecting cobwebs 364 days a year, I highly recommend it!)
From all this fussing with turkeys, I’ve come to realize that my turkey will never be perfect.
Let’s face it: turkeys, on their own, just aren’t very good. That’s what gravy and cranberry sauce are for.
As Mary Risley from Tante Marie’s Cooking School humorously points out in the video below (which you should definitely watch, especially if you have any turkey-cooking anxiety), “I have never had an outstanding turkey.”
(Heads up: This video contains some foul language.)
Short of purchasing a special turkey cooker (this is the one I have), it is near impossible to cook a turkey perfectly: the white meat always cooks before the dark meat is done, and the skin on the bottom is never crisp (unless you flip the hot, sputtering bird mid-way through cooking…ummm, no thank you).
So is it really worth it to go to great lengths — brining in big coolers for days in the garage, risking life and limb deep-frying in the driveway, pre-icing the breast of the turkey so it cooks more slowly (I swear, there’s a very respectable cooking magazine that wants you to do this) — to make that be-all-and-end-all turkey?
It’s up to you, but I’m not interested in babysitting my turkey for three days to get only marginally better results at the end.
My advice to you on Thanksgiving is to keep it simple. Make an easy roast turkey recipe (I’m a fan of dry-brined turkey), with an over-the-top delicious gravy, a rich stuffing, and some cranberry sauce to go with it. (Or, if you really don’t want to stress, go ahead and buy your turkey already roasted!) Serve lots of wine (you’ll find this food and wine pairing guide handy for the holidays) and focus your time and creativity on the side dishes and desserts because that’s what everyone really looks forward to anyway.
Wishing you a happy and stress-free Thanksgiving! ❤️
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Hi friends of Jen- Here’s what you DON’T do. Ask adult kids and husband to watch your Great Pyrenees dog while you take a short break to spin on your bike, while the buttered turkey comes to room temperature in the kitchen sink. If you don’t do this, your turkey will be just fine. I tried to upload photo evidence for a seasonal laugh but couldn’t do it. Happy Thanksgiving and may your neighbors cook the bird for you this year. 😘
😂😂😂
Thanks Jenn! I look forward to watching the video every year! I always roast my turkey upside down. Mind you, I don’t have to worry about presentation – I carve and keep warm until dinner is served. The breast meat is always tender and juicy, and the dark meat is always cooked to temperature. If you can get away without showcasing a whole bird, I highly recommend!
Love aunt Mary, she’s hilarious! Good video.
I have found that if I dissect my turkey and separate the breast from the leg quarters my best turkey comes from sewing the entire breast up in a bag of turkey skin (heart shaped), dry brining it, and slow roasting on a bed of mirepoix with an remote thermometer in it so I can pull it out of heat at exactly 150º has always made for the best white meat. Then I freeze the leg quarters to make pot roast later down the road. The rest of the bird gets cooked down until I have jus and fond galore to make the best homemade gravy to go with the breast heart roast. My peeps always want breast, gravy, mushroom stuffing, mashed potatoes, and cranberry relish plus a couple of the usual suspects on the side. Julia was right about cooking turkey.
Amen to that. Happy holiday to you as well. 🙂
Hi Jenn, I’m only having 4 people, including myself. Have a 6# bone in breast. Can I dry brine a breast and approx roasting time?
Thanks!
Yes, you can dry brine a breast and you should allow for about 20 minutes of roasting time per pound. I’d recommend using an instant-read thermometer. It’s ready to pull out when it registers 165°F when inserted into the thickest part of the breast.
This is basically a moan about cooking turkey in general!
The dry brining in Jen’s recipe made a very tasty turkey but I throw my hands up with respect to the challenge of getting the legs done while not drying out the breast meat.
I took the 12 lb turkey out from the 375F oven when the $$ digital thermometer beeped at 165F but we found that the legs were still a bit pink at the joints after it had sat for 30 minutes and we began carving. A granddaughter was kept busy running to the microwave to zap the pink away as her Dad was carving!
I even had notched the skin between the leg and the body as Jacques Pepin recommends! I think that next year I will roast on a rack on a baking tray to expose more of the bird to the direct heat and maybe even spatchcock it to see it that evens up the cooking. The other thing that gets me about cooking turkey is that I find the time it takes to cook so unpredictable which is fine for those living in the house but hard to know when to tell outside visitors to arrive.
But thanks Jen for all your recipes. These are the ones we used in addition to the turkey: the gravy, the sausage stuffing, the creamed spinach and the do ahead mashed potatoes. All were made ahead and reheated except the spinach as I worried the green color would dull (but it hasn’t the next day so I didn’t need to worry).
We used your recipe for our turkey this year. It was fabulous! Thank you!
I made the dry brined Turkey for the very first time. We had 8 people and a 13 lbs fresh Turkey bought at Costco. I removed the package and dry rubbed it very generously with the rub from the recipe 36 hours before cooking . My first thought was too much salt and even the amount of sugar was surprising . Just before putting it in the oven I wiped the rub off and smeared it with the butter. I stuffed some of my often tried stuffing with celery, onions, diced apples, sausage meat and dried cherries. Figuring it would take an additional 20 to 30 minutes to cook. I do have an instant wireless meat thermometer that gives me the cooking time after about 15 minutes in the oven. To my surprise the bird was done in 1 hour and 50 minutes. As usual we let the Roasted Turkey rest before carving. It was without a doubt the tastiest , tender, most juicy bird we have had in a long long time. From now on it will always be the dry rub . Jenn as usual your recipes never disappoint
I’ve tried so may different ways to make turkey better, and as you say, nothing really works. But, to get a faster, more even roast, spatchcock the turkey; that actually makes a difference
Jenn, This video made my day! Absolutely great. I loved it and I feel the same way about turkey. A nice tradition but yuck in the cooking and flavor department.
Happy Thanksgiving
PS We’re having N. Y. strips for Thanksgiving dinner. Just couldn’t take another dried out turkey leg.