Your Guide to the Perfect Thanksgiving Turkey
Mostafa Fouad
With Thanksgiving just around the corner, people all over the country are preparing to cook for friends and family. If you need help preparing the most important part of the Thanksgiving meal, the turkey, you’ve come to the right place! If you are already confident in your cooking skills, stick around—you just might learn something new!
To begin, it is important to determine what size turkey you will need. Most likely, you will need about one and a half pounds of turkey for every guest. This means that a ten pound turkey will be enough to feed six people.
After you’ve bought the perfect turkey, you must allow it to thaw prior to cooking. A turkey must thaw in the fridge for one day per five pounds. Therefore, a ten pound turkey should thaw for two days. On the day before cooking, a turkey must be brined—depending on the type of turkey you have. Brining is simply soaking the turkey in salt water overnight. This ensures the turkey is moist and flavorful. Brining is usually used with wild turkeys. High quality turkeys from the grocery store, on the other hand, do not have to be brined. After the turkey has thawed, leave it out for an hour so that it can reach room temperature. Then, preheat your oven to 325 degrees F.
Contrary to prior belief, basting is an inefficient way to make a turkey develop a crisp, golden brown outside. Basting is covering the turkey with a mixture to keep it moist while cooking. Every thirty or so minutes, you must take the turkey out and apply the liquid mixture. Basting requires a lot of hands on work, and leads to the oven losing heat. The process can make the turkey take longer to cook and cause dryness. Instead, smearing a herb-butter mixture on the skin should achieve perfect color without any cons. To make the mixture you’ll need butter, minced garlic, salt, pepper, freshly chopped rosemary, freshly chopped thyme, and freshly chopped sage. Mix ingredients together. Who needs basting!
To prepare the turkey, take it out of the packaging and remove the neck and giblets. These bits can be saved for the gravy, or just discarded. Season the inside of the bird with salt and pepper. Then, stuff it with a quartered lemon, onion, apple, and whatever herbs you have on hand. Pat the turkey dry with paper towels. Use your fingers to loosen and lift the skin above the breasts and apply a few tablespoons of the herb-butter underneath. Microwave the remaining herb-butter mixture for thirty seconds. Don't worry if it is not completely melted—as long as the mixture is softened the herb-butter will do its job. Use a basting brush to brush the remaining herb butter all over the outside of the turkey. Roast the turkey for 15 minutes per pound. So, roughly two hours and fifty minutes for a ten pound turkey. Be sure to occasionally check the turkey to ensure it is cooking properly. After you’re done cooking it, let the turkey rest for about half an hour. Voilà!
Congratulations, you’ve finished your turkey! Of course, feel free to experiment and add your own twists to this recipe. Enjoy! Happy Thanksgiving from the Cliffside Park Courier!
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