There are probably more tears shed and tempers frayed over cooking turkey than possibly any other dish. It's not hard to see why

The Easy Way to Cook Turkey

The problem for the poor old turkey - and those who attempt to cook it - is that it is a festive bird, nearly always associated with an event which, even without culinary traumas, is potentially stressful.

Let's try to smooth the path a little.

The first thing to remember is that cooking turkey is as easy as roasting a chicken and it will not dry out if handled properly.

Try to remove a potential problem by buying a fresh - rather than frozen - bird. If that's not possible, begin thawing a frozen bird at least 72 hours before you intend to cook it. You do this by leaving it on the bottom shelf of the fridge.

If, by any chance, it still has some thawing to do when you come to stuff it, submerge it in cool water until the legs move easily and the breast feels soft and pliable. Stuff and cook immediately after this treatment.

Prepare the turkey for roasting by stuffing the neck end only. Leave the body cavity empty to ensure that heat penetrates to the center of the bird.

Now, here's my number one trick; remove the legs and cook them separately!!

In fact I bone them out (very easy to do), then stuff and roll them to make a separate dish. Boning is simple if you start by cutting the meat of the inner thigh away from the bone and work towards the knuckle end. Of course, you don't have to do this, but it is a good way of cutting down on the time needed to cook it.

Whatever you decide to do, this next bit is important: Weigh the stuffed turkey and calculate the cooking time to be ready 20 minutes before you intend to carve. Spread with butter or oil, season and wrap loosely in foil. Then place it upside down on a trivet of some kind in a roasting tin so that the air circulates freely round it and it's not sitting in its own juices.

By roasting the bird the 'wrong' way up, you'll keep the juices where they belong, in the breast. Result? No more dried out meat and inedible leftovers.

Cook at 180C, 350F, and remove the foil 45 minutes before the end of cooking time. With the foil gone, you need to baste the bird every 15 minutes. Check that the bird is fully cooked by inserting a meat thermometer into the thickest part of the meat. You want to see an internal temperature of 160C. Then you can relax and allow the bird to do the same, once again covering it with foil.

Cooking times

If your bird is larger than the weights given above, wrapping it in foil is pointless. In fact, it's pretty near impossible. The trick is to baste frequently, say about every 45 minutes, and expect your cooking times to range from 4.25 to 5.5 hrs. With birds over 9 kilos (20 lbs) it's essential to use a thermometer, preferably one that can remain in the meat while it's cooking. By stopping cooking as soon as the internal temperature reaches 160C you will prevent much of the dryness often associated with this wonderful tradition.

Print this page