Remember To Thaw Your Frozen Turkey
Comments (7)
8 years agoAnd if it's still frozen on Thursday!
Yes, you really can roast a turkey from frozen — and it’s delicious. Here’s how to save the day.
Oven-roasting is the way to go. Size translates to oven time for a whole turkey, and size will be an issue when you are faced with day-of choices in your grocer’s freezer. As in, the ideal 12- to 14-pounders will be long gone. Generally, a frozen bird needs to spend about 1 ½ times as long at a low-ish oven temperature (325 degrees); an unstuffed 19-pounder that takes almost 4 hours to roast from a fully thawed state will take 6 to 6 ½ hours from fully frozen.
The pan you use for this is nonnegotiable. It needs to be low-walled so as much air as possible circulates around the bird. You have the technology at hand:
• Seat an ovenproof wire rack inside a rimmed baking sheet.
• Hoist the bird onto the rack.
• Move the middle oven rack down one level, keeping the lower rack in place (for reheating sides) and removing any upper rack.
• Pour a cup of water into the pan.
That’s it.
At 2 ½ to 3 hours in, the turkey will be thawed enough for you to deal with the giblets packet, and deal with it you must. Chances are that it is either in the main or neck cavity. Remove the baking sheet from the oven just long enough to retrieve the packet via tongs. The packet’s contents will still be usable, whether the bag is made of food-safe plastic or paper. Even if you don’t plan to use it, you need to remove it, because leaving it in will cause the meat to be cooked unevenly around it. At that same time, you can use a small, sharp knife to cut a slit just under each drumstick, which is a Jacques Pepin trick to help that deep joint get cooked through.
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Comments (16)OMG, Bizzo, I just wing it! First, when I'm at the meat counter this year, I want the turkey butterflied but with the skin and bones left in it. From the same shop, last year the butcher asked me one time if I wanted it deboned. Hemming and hawing, I said yes. What I got was a 1/2 turkey breast that was 3-4" thick, skin left on. I grilled it and it made wonderful sandwiches. No problem trying to carve it and get all the meat off the bones. Here's what I intend to do this Thanksgiving-- Wash the turkey breast and dry it. Then stuff sage leaves under the skin along with some small pieces of butter. The skin be covered with a rub of Penzeys Southwest Seasoning. I use a small gas grill so it isn't set up for indirect heat. Usually, I keep the heat in the 325-350 degree range The turkey breast will be placed on the grill, skin down for the time it takes to make the skin a light golden brown. Then flip the turkey so that it rests on it's bones and cooks for the rest of the time that way. Total cooking time should be 60-75 min. I use an instant read thermometer (I target about 170 degrees), but cut into the thickest part of the breast--meat near the bone should no longer be pink. Using these instructions, your turkey breast should look dark golden brown and very moist. This is our favorite way to cook turkey. Since we have a couple of months before Thanksgiving, please cook a 1/2 turkey breast yourself. Cooking times will be similar and you will get a feel for how it's done and whether or not you like it. It's easy and delicious!...See MoreOne yr old frozen turkey
Comments (11)lazycook, be sure you roast at no lower than 325, I usually do mine at 350 and a 13-14 pound turkey would take about 3 and a half hours, unstuffed. How to thaw? A bird that size will take 2-3 days to thaw in the fridge or you can submerge it, still wrapped, in cold water. Change the water every half hour or so and it'll be thawed in 8 hours, give or take an hour. I've been known to leave a frozen turkey overnight in the sink, although I realize that the USDA says that's an absolute no-no, so I don't advise other people to do it. As for temperature, I roast to 165F, I find that 180F in the thigh gives you way overcooked breast meat. I do hope that you have company coming or you are going to have a ton of leftover turkey, the "experts" recommend a pound per person. Good luck, cooking turkey is easy, actually. If you want the skin crispy, roast uncovered. You can start at a higher heat and turn the heat down if you prefer, and Ann T does a quicker high-heat method, but it can make a mess in the oven if you don't have the right pan. Annie...See MoreWhen do you buy your frozen turkey?
Comments (10)You can order a fresh one and then you will not have to wait for it to thaw. If you are planning to do the "dry salt" method of roasting, you will need to pick it up on Monday, November 19 to start the salting process. Personally, I am not cooking a whole turkey this year. If you wanted to dry salt a frozen turkey, you would need to start thawing it on Sunday at the latest. Lars...See Morefrozen turkey in crockpot
Comments (12)There are lots of cooking practises that people used to do.... My MIL always left the stuffed cooked turkey on the counter after a 1:00 dinner until about 7 that night. All stomach discomfort was blamed on a "rich meal". I rememberw hen someone had a bright idea to put the turkey into a 125 oven before you went to bed and cook it 12 hours...I did it once.....don't think anyone got sick. And someone here recommended soaking a turkey in warm water for several hours before cooking. The problems are in these days of enormous butchering and packing facilities...one bad bird can contaminate thousands in the scalding tank....so the possible germs on the bird are multiplied many times over. And some bacteria, while they are killed by cooking, leave behind a toxin that is not deactivated by heat. Keep it hot or keep it cold! Linda c...See More- 8 years ago
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morz8 - Washington Coast