The breast should register 165°F and the thigh, 175°F.

I cook to 170 in the thickest part of the thigh....remove and tent and it will come up 5 degrees. By then the breast will be a little over done...but that can't be helped if you cook the dark meat to done.

Whole turkey's are tricky because while you only need to hit 165° for food safety but the dark meat benefits, in both taste and texture, from being cooked to a higher temperature, about 175°-180°. So most of us strike some kind of balance between slightly overcooked white meat or slightly underdone dark meat. Alton Brown suggests using a double layer of aluminum foil (aka, the turkey triangle) to cover the breast and slow it's cooking. It works, to some degree.

The best solution is to actually cut the turkey apart before cooking but that doesn't work so well if you like to present a whole turkey at the dinner table.

I plan to dry brine my turkey and not stuff it. I have a Miele oven which has an autoroast feature starting off at 450 and then dropping to 325. The instructions say to put the probe in the breast and set it to 175. But, I have read all kinds of variances on what temp to actually cook it to from 150 to 160 and higher saying that during resting (I plan 30 min uncovered to keep the skin crisp) that the temp will increase by 5 to 10 degrees. I'd like to find a balance without drying out the breast.

"----But, I have read all kinds of variances on what temp to actually cook it to from 150 to 160 and higher saying that during resting (I plan 30 min uncovered to keep the skin crisp) that the temp will increase by 5 to 10 degrees. I'd like to find a balance without drying out the breast."

Your best bet is to use J. Pippin's method.

For me, every year, I cook a couple of turkeys, using sous vide equipment.

The turkeys are cooked directly from frozen, no thawing is needed.

The turkeys are cooked at 145F. No resting needed. Incredible juicy and tender.

dcarch

I never check temperature. The turkey is done when the drummers move easily.

dcarch, would you please share more info re the J. Pippin method. Do you put the whole frozen bird into an oven set at 145? For how long do you cook the bird? I am very interested, because I cook most meat/poultry pieces in a frozen state. Have never cooked a whole chicken or turkey in the frozen state, but am most interested in doing so. Just need more information. Thanks.

Ricky-you're just like my mom. I can still see her bending over the bird and giving the leg a shake.

She had the touch. I have an instant read.

"dcarch, would you please share more info re the J. Pippin method. Do you
put the whole frozen bird into an oven set at 145? For how long do you cook the
bird? I am very interested, because I cook most meat/poultry pieces in a frozen
state. Have never cooked a whole chicken or turkey in the frozen state, but am
most interested in doing so. Just need more information. Thanks."

Jacques Pépin’s (Spellcheck keeps on changing to Pippin ) method
is to cut up the turkey, similar to what’s known as spatchcock method.
Basically cutting up the turkey in sections to cook, making it easier not to
overcook the bird.

Safety in cooking is very important. Every year around Thanksgiving and Christmas
many people get sick from eating improperly prepared turkey, from thawing to
cooking.

Many refrigerators are not cold enough to thaw a frozen turkey for a few
days, and not using a thermometer is highly questionable.

My method requires the use of sous vide cooking equipment, which can
heat up food much faster using moving hot water at a precisely digitally
controlled temperature. Temperature for
cooking using sous vide electronics can be accurate to less than one degrees.
This allows the turkey to be thawed and cooked much faster and cooked to known safe
temperature inside and out. You cannot try to cook at a low temperature because
oven hot air cannot conduct heat as fast as hot circulating water, and oven
temperature can be off by as much as 40 degrees.

dcarch

Guaranteed perfect results for every part of the turkey

I use Jacques Pepin's method, which also happens to be something I saw on America's Test Kitchen. The turkey is placed on top of the stuffing and cooked, which makes the family who wants stuffing in the bird happy. It's easy and much faster, but doesn't make such a fancy presentation. Since I carve the bird in the kitchen and put the platter of slices on the table, that doesn't matter to me.

Plus, I can cook the dark meat first, add the white meat later and come out perfect on both. Which is 165F for white meat and 175F for dark meat in my house.

Annie

I haven't tried cooking a broken-down turkey before, but really see the value in doing it that way.

I assume your turkey is broken down annie?

Yes, Mimi, the turkey is "disassembled" before cooking, and it seems that it is also Julia Child's technique. I'll let Jacques and Chris Kimball duke it out, Dame Julia probably did it first!

The leg quarters are taken off, and ATK took out the thigh bone, but I don't bother. The breast and wings are left in one piece, and the back removed. So, the much larger breast portion gets brined, then cooked a bit ahead of the rest, then the parts are arranged on the stuffing and baked. It takes about two hours, far less time than roasting an intact turkey. I'm sold, it worked wonderfully and frees up oven space for other things. That's not so much an issue now that I have double ovens, but it was before.

This blog gives some pretty good instruction:

https://myyearwithchris.wordpress.com/2014/11/29/julia-childs-deconstructed-turkey/

Annie

I cook spatchcocked chickens all the time. The only time I've done other than a whole turkey was 1.5 turkeys in parts in the combi-steam oven. They came out great! They leaked enough juice that they kind of braised in their own juices, whereas when I do one on a rack in my cast iron roaster, I dump a bottle of white wine over it. I've also done gigantabird rolled turkey breasts sous vide (not frozen), which everyone loved even though there was no golden crisp skin.

Except for the sous vide, I figure 20 min. per pound with some leeway since the serving time could be off by an hour. With a big bird you also need at least 20 minutes, perhaps more (mine usually get more due to circumstances), for it to rest. I've tried to check with thermometers, but I think it becomes less helpful with a 20+ lb. bird. I've never been able to get a reading that matches what I see.

It always comes out great, whichever way I cook it. I think the secret is starting with a really nice bird(s)!

Thanks so much, dcarch.