How to Roast a Turkey
With the holidays coming up, it’s time to talk turkey and learn how to roast a turkey! Whether you’re a turkey roastin’ newbie or a veteran with many birds under his/her belt, these tips today will either get you started or serve as a refresher!
Turkey is almost always the standard dish at any Thanksgiving celebration, but it also carries over into many Christmas dinner traditions too. We celebrate our Thanksgiving in October in Canada and yes, turkey was on the menu. My American friends have their Thanksgiving in November so you’ll be set to prep a delicious meal.
In our family, turkey is only served a few times a year – Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter (sometimes). The first time I made a turkey was overwhelmed and a little grossed out stuffing the bird. Thankfully, with practice, my turkey isn’t as dry as it used to be and having my hand in the turkey doesn’t even phase me.
This year, let’s all enjoy a succulent turkey that cooks beautifully with no stress.
How to Roast a Turkey
Thaw safely and properly ahead of time. The biggest issue many have when roasting a turkey is either getting it too dry and overcooked or undercooked in the middle. To cook a bird properly, first you need to understand how important it is for the turkey to be completely thawed before going into the oven. If it’s still frozen, you will end up with either a bird that is undercooked inside or over done and dry in parts.
To safely thaw your turkey, place it in the refrigerator for the number of days indicated on the chart below:
- 4-12 pound turkey 2-3 days
- 12-16 pound turkey 3-4 days
- 16-20 pound turkey 4-5 days
- 20-24 pound turkey 5-6 days
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To safely cook your turkey to temperature (165 degrees F internally), these are approximate cook times. Remember to check the inside of your bird with a meat thermometer.
Coat your bird in butter. Do not use margarine. Use softened butter to coat the outside of bird as well as under the skin. As the bird cooks, this will melt and drip down along with the fats and juices to create a delicious flavour and help make the skin crispy.
Use a wire rack in your roasting pan. One big thing is to allow those juices to drip from the bird without having the bird sit in the drippings. You want the skin to crisp, and adding a wire rack into your large roasting pan will make this easier.
Cook covered for the bulk of cook time. Aluminum foil is your friend when learning how to roast a turkey. Not only can you line your roasting pan to keep it cleaner in the cooking process, you can build a tent around it so it keeps the moisture in during cooking. You will uncover later to crisp the skin.
Baste hourly. It may be a lot of work, but the end result is worth opening that oven approximately ever 1-1 ½ hours to baste your turkey. A turkey baster or large ladle or spoon will make this easy to manage. You may also want to use a fork to hold up the skin so you can pour some of those drippings under the skin and directly onto the turkey.
Cook uncovered for last hour of cook time. Everyone asks about how to roast a turkey, but mostly they want to know how to get that delicious crispy skin. After your final basting, remove the aluminum foil tent you had in place and allow your turkey to cook uncovered for the last hour. This will crisp the skin and make it perfect for slicing and serving.
Knowing how to roast a turkey is simple. Add your favorite spices, some real butter (no margarine), cover and baste regularly. Cooking according to the safety instructions above will keep your bird moist, delicious and safe for everyone to enjoy this holiday season.
Got leftover turkey? Try these Thanksgiving Sliders or Leftover Turkey Soup.
Do you have any turkey roasting tips?
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You are so knowledgeable! This looks delicious!!
All great tips! Nothing like a yummy roasted turkey!
Everyone has “their way”. But I always love to know how people cook a turkey!
I really needed to read this post. I need to make sure that I cook the bird for the recommend time. But I cook my bird in a plastic bag and it really helps to keep it moist. I always make sure to check the temperature and I am paranoid to making sure that my burn is cooked. Not good to get sick from eating raw turkey.
Thank you for the tips! This may be the year I finally acquire an actual roasting pan with a rack, as I host Thanksgiving dinner every year. To help keep the white meat moist and tender, I add a bit of butter between the skin and breast meat before putting in the oven to roast.
It ages since I last cooked a turkey but it was our regular Christmas dinner and I do love turkey. Now my son cooks all our festive meals and he always brines his turkey and it really does taste good, I was worried it would taste salty the first time I ate it but it doesn’t much to my surprise. 🙂
I normally didn’t have problems roasting my turkey, but these are awesome tips, this year my daughter is hosting Christmas and this is her very first time doing dinner, shall be interesting as she does not cook!!
I don’t have any tips, however, I tried brining my turkey this Thanksgiving and it certainly made for a tasy, moist bird.
i do not have any pointers as to how to roast a turkey. My aunt usually does that. The pointers you give are amazing. My aunt is the cook around here, not me!!
That turkey looks delicious