How to Cook a Turkey

You can safely defrost a turkey in its package in the kitchen sink in cold water. You have to change the water about every 20 minutes. You can check how to prepare the turkey on www.butterball.com. We fry our turkey now but I found the best way to make it was to baste it when we made it in the oven. I like crispy skin and you really don't get that with the oven bags. Just remember to take the out the gizzards and gravy packet. I make my stuffing outside the bird just to be safe and it always turns out great.
Here's the recipe for the stuffing
1 stick butter save package
2 packages Pepridge farms sage stuffing
3 stalks celery diced
1 whole onion diced
1 skinned and peeled apple like granny smith
turkey gizzards diced and sauted in butter (optional)
1 large container Swansons broth

Melt butter in broth along with celery, onion, and apple. Saute diced gizzards in 2TBSPS butter. Put stuffing in large mixing bowl and mix in broth mixture once veggies are tender.
Add gizzards. And mix stuffing until saturated. Use butter wrapper to butter caserole dishes. Cover stuffing with tin foil and put into fridge. Cook for 30 min/350 until warm.

you can cook a semi frozen turkey- so don't worry about that. i just rinse out the turkey and make sure you take the extra surprises that are found in the cavities out. then i oil the turkey lightly and use poultry seasoning. and baste every couple of hours. but instead of using water i use chicken broth. as for time and temp on the package it'll tell you. good luck!!!

I cooked my first turkey just this past Thanksgiving! It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be.

I think a lot of stores now carry "oven ready" birds. Just rinse the bird completely inside and out. Make sure to remove the giblets out of the body and neck cavities. If you stuff it with stuffing, it usually adds about an hour to the cooking time. And make sure to buy an oven proof thermometer that you can leave in the turkey thigh (don't trust the pop-up timers).

I just basted mine with butter every hour or so. Although some seasonings (whatever you like) would be nice, too. And I covered mine with foil for the first little while and let it brown up towards the end. I wouldn't worry to much about opening and closing the oven door. I just took mine completely out to baste it and put it back in so the door wasn't open for any significant amount of time.

Hope you have a great dinner!

Hi J., my mom uses the turkey in the bag all the time and loves them. They are no fail, and if you don't have time to thaw one I would do it too. God Bless, H.

I have finally figured out a couple of tricks that made me a perfectly juicy and easy and good turkey this year for Thanksgiving. I stuff the inside of the bird with onions garlic oranges and lemons (quartered and whole garlic cloves)..I also use fresh herbs, but you don't have to if you don't want to. I then cover the skin of the bird with butter, salt, pepper and poultry seasoning....I just take room temperature butter and I mix the poultry seasoning init and then rub the whole bird. Put enough chicken stock to cover the base of your pan and put it in a preheated 325 degree oven, uncovered. Cook it uncovered for the first 2/3 of total cooking time and at the end put the lid on and let the bird finish. The most important part of Turkey is to let it rest for at least 30 minutes so it can suck all that juice back up. My Thanksgiving bird was 23 lbs and I didn't think it was even possible for it to be juicy, but with the citrus inside the cavity of the bird, it just sends moisture up into that breast as it cooks, and it is amazing! I cook my turkey for about 14 minutes a pound, and it had a little pop timer and was done in perfect time! Good luck!

Hi J.,
You can get some fast easy directions for cooking turkey's on Foodnetwork.com. They will have different ideas for you and be able to answer all your questions. Good luck! And enjoy your dinner!

I am all about simplicity- and this is how I do my turkey and noone has died yet! lol. When I am ready for bed, the night before the meal- I put my turkey in the roasting pan with about a cup of water, maybe 2 in the bottom of the pan. I turn my oven on like 250 and slow cook while I am sleeping. Then, in the morning when I get up and ready to put other stuff in the oven to cook, I take out the turkey and it's ready. And if you eat at noon, it's still warm when it's time to eat.
I have some sick adversion to putting my hand inside a turkey cavity, so all the package of "stuff" is always cooked inside the turkey and it has never caught on fire or anything stupid either. Of course I don't stuff my turkey so I can do this.
It has never been dry, or over cooked or anything- they always turn out good for me this way- you may just not want to share your secret with others! It concerns others when I tell them how I cook mine! lol!
Good luck and have fun!

Just rinse the bird inside and out. Remove the giblets out of the body and neck cavities. The first one I cooked I did not know you had to do this and didn’t take them out. It did not hurt anything, but we found the dropping were oily .If you stuff it, it usually adds about 20 min per pound to the cooking time. I do not baste my turkey. I did use an oven cooking bags this year and loved it, not only was the turkey juicer, clean up was so easy. I use an eclectic roasting pan, so you get baked on stuff the sides and it tack lots elbow grease to get it clean. Good luck

If you use the bags, which are great, the turkey doesn't take as long to bake. The times are in the box. Make sure you oil the turkey otherwise it will stick to the bag. Don't forget to cut the slits in the bag to let the steam out. Rinse the turkey off. In the neck cavity is a bag with the giblets. Take it out. (My sister didn't one year and everything turned out fine) The neck is in the stomach cavity. You can fill the stomach cavity with onions celery and carrots to give it flavor. I like to rub garlic inside and on the skin. Take the turkey out of the oven when it is done and let it rest for 10 minutes before carving. The juices will redistribute and you will have a juicier turkey.
Have a Merry Christmas and enjoy your turkey.

This is what my brother and I do--we get a Reynold's cooking bag, a thawed turkey, and some injectable marinade like Tony Cachere's Cajun Butter. After injecting the marninade under the bird's skin, we put the bird in the bag and the whole thing in the roasting pan about ten pm the night before and then put it in a 200 degree oven until about 2 pm the following day. Sounds crazy to cook a turkey for sixteen hours on such a low temperature, but the meat doesn't dry out and it's all falling off the bones when you start to prep it for serving. And it tastes fantastic! Even those family members who don't like turkey love it. Good luck!

This is my favorite recipe. I have made it about 5 times and it has never turned out badly. Good luck
Turkey Brine
1 small onion, diced
1 stalk of celery, diced
1 medium carrot, diced
3 garlic cloves, sliced
3 bay leaves
1 TB black peppercorns
3 sprigs each of rosemary, thyme and sage
6 sprigs italian parsley
1/2 cup iodized salt
3 gallons cold water

One day before baking the turkey, prepare brine, Combine all brine ingredients. Place the turkey in a bucket or a very large pot and pour brine over turkey to submerge. Refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours. Remove turkey from brine; dry off turkey with paper towels and discard brine.

In the bird:
2 carrots
2celery stalks
1 apple, sliced into wedges
1 orange sliced into wedges
4 garlic cloves, peeled whole
salt and pepper the turkey, Fill the cavity with the above ingredients bind the legs with kitchen twine.

Under the bird
1 medium onion, diced
1medium carrot, diced
1 stalk of celery
3 cloves garlic, whole
3 sprigs each of sage, rosemary and thyme
6 sprigs of parsley
3 bay leaves
In a large basting pan, spread above. place the turkey on top of the bed of vegetables and herbs.

On the bird
1/4 pound of butter
5 cups chicken stock

Put butter on turkey, or between skin and breast meat. Place the turkey in the oven and roast 45 minutes. pour half of the chicken stock over the turkey; roast 45 minutes.
Pour remaining stock over turkey and roast 45 minutes more; it will start turning golden brown. Baste with pans juices, cover loosely with foil and roast another 45 minutes. When the turkey has reached an internal temp of 165 to 175, remove from oven, cover and let rest at least 10 minutes before carving.

Just to try and persuade you some more. get an reyolds oven bag and follow the instructions on the package. you shouldn't have any problem getting a non-frozen turkey. take the insides out, all the turkeys I have bought it was all in a little bag on the inside, aside from the neck, which I also remove. This was the first Thanksgiving I haven't cooked and my husband decided to make up for it by declaring I'd make Christmas dinner. Maybe I'll make a ham too, seems a little adventurous. :) GOOD LUCK!

J. - Go to Butterball.com. They have step by step instructions and I followed them for the Thanksgiving turkey I cooked. Note if you can't find a fresh turkey you should be able to thaw one in cold water Friday evening over a few hours time. Those instructions are on the website too. Good luck! K.

Hi J.
One of my favorite websites is www.foodnetwork.com
They have LOTS of ideas about how to cook a turkey.
And if the store doesn't have a thawed turkey, you can thaw it in your sink full of warm water for a few hours. Just make sure that you change the water every half hour or 45 minutes, and that you thoroughly disinfect your sink when you are done.

hi there J. just rinse it out and make sure you remove the extra then oil it up throw a little poultry season and pepper on it stuff it put it in the bag and i cook mine brest side down juicy beyond beleaf well good luck you will do just fine

I think you can order one already cooked at meijer, you can even get the extras to go with. IE: potatos and stuffing.
I'd give them a call, then you don't have to any of the work.

I have done "the bag" for the past 4 Thanksgivings- it works perfectly and is SO easy! All the instructions are in the box of oven bags. You need to have celery and onions (and maybe carrots?) as well to put in the bag with the turkey. Another suggestion is to pick up a disposable foil pan that is big enough to hold the turkey, if you don't have a large enough roaster. Just be sure to put it on a cookie sheet to support the bottom so it doesn't collapse on you when you try to take it out. Good luck!

BRINE IT
you will get a very flavorful and moist turkey every time.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOO...
http://virtualweberbullet.com/brining.html

and never baste, you just let heat out of the oven and delay your cooking time.

google alton brown- turkey for more info.
good luck!

Hi J.!
Hope your turkey turned out great.
Just for kicks, this is what we did, for the first time this year...
Took two 5' strips of heavy duty tin foil and figured out how to fold them together to make a seam, wrapped the turkey tight and cooked our 17+ turkey for 2 hours on 450! Opened the foil just from the top to brown, the juices were all in the foil! We had a little leak but nothing big, the pan was almost clean!! The juices were wonderful and ALL the meat was juicy and delicious!!
Go ahead and add whatever salt, oil, seasonings you want before cooking. I dont think the seasonings we added were tasted much at the end. Could be the kind...??
Anyway. Just another way.
deb

Hey J. you might try a smoked turkey- that means its already been cooked you just have to make sure its heated through out and they are really juicy and tasty, (thats how I did my first turkey :)) good luck. Also someone may have said this already but if it is still frozen you can thaw it in your sink over night you want to change the water regularly but it can thaw in hours instead of days.

Check out www.butterball.com they have great information for 1st timmers! I've used the bags they are great!

GL! Let us all know how it went!