24 Rookie Mistakes to Avoid When Roasting a Turkey

When it comes to a holiday feast with lots of guests, it’s always better to have too much food than too little. Turkeys are sold by weight, so, remembering that the bird’s bones will account for a lot of the total, figure about 1½ pounds per person (so a 12-pound turkey for eight guests, for instance). This will ensure that nobody goes hungry — and that there are leftovers, which are one of the best things about a Thanksgiving feast anyway.

Turkeys are big creatures, especially when they get up into the 16- or 18-pound range and above. If you buy yours frozen a week or so ahead of time, you’ll want to keep it frozen until it’s time to start the thawing process, so you will need plenty of freezer room. And when it comes out of the freezer, you’ll need room in the fridge for its long, slow thawing.

If you buy a frozen turkey, be sure to remove it from the freezer early enough. You can roast a turkey that isn’t thoroughly thawed, but it will take much longer and be much harder to time. The best way to thaw one of these big birds is to place it, in its wrapper, on a tray in the refrigerator. It will take at least a day for every four pounds. Don’t be afraid to start early, because it will keep in the fridge for up to four days after it’s thawed.

Like other poultry, raw turkey is likely to be covered with bacteria. This will be killed by roasting to a safe temperature, but many cooks think they should try to rinse the bacteria off the bird. Not so, says the USDA, which counsels: “Wash your hands, not the turkey!” It’s almost impossible to get all the bacteria off anyway, and all the process does is risk spreading E. coli, salmonella, and other bugs around your kitchen. But the hand-washing part is vital to avoid transmitting foodborne illnesses. The USDA recommends a 20-second scrub with soap and warm water — and use soap and warm water on any surfaces (platter, cutting board, etc.) the raw bird might touch.

Many home cooks — and professionals, too — recommend brining the bird in a solution of water, salt, sugar, and other ingredients before roasting. The problem, as other cooks point out, is twofold: it waterlogs the bird and it makes the turkey taste like luncheon meat. As no less an authority than award-winning chef and “Top Chef” host Tom Colicchio just tweeted: “Don’t brine the bird.”

If you want crispy skin on your turkey — and who doesn’t want crispy skin? — pat it dry thoroughly with paper towels before roasting it. If you have the time, leave the bird in the refrigerator for a few pre-oven hours, unwrapped and on a platter large enough to hold it with no overhang (so that the juices don’t drip). The arid environment in the refrigerator will dry the skin more efficiently that simply blotting it.

Once the turkey is well-seasoned, it should be trussed. Trussing a bird means tying it into a kind of bundle so that it cooks more evenly and the extremities (like the wing tips) don’t burn. There are many step-by-step instructions for the process online and in cookbooks, and a number of instructional videos on YouTube.

Some people like to rub butter or even duck fat on the exterior of their turkey before seasoning it. That’s fine, but it’s not essential. The seasoning part is. Once the bird is trussed, rub salt and pepper inside the cavity (don’t worry about the stuffing; see below) and then over every inch of the exterior. You may think you’re using too much seasoning, but you’re not. When you finish this task, though, wash your hands very thoroughly with soap and warm water.

The point of setting the turkey on a rack is that it allows the oven heat to circulate evenly all around the bird. If the bottom of the bird rests on the pan bottom, it’ll end up damp and pale. If you don’t have a roasting rack, ball up a few pieces of aluminum foil and scatter them around the bottom of your roasting pan and set the bird on top of them.

Yes, generations of home cooks have roasted their turkeys with the cavities filled with stuffing and survived. But the stuffing, which usually involves breadcrumbs or some other porous substance, absorbs the raw turkey juices as the bird begins to cook, and those juices are often contaminated with bacteria. If you do stuff the turkey, the USDA recommends that both the meat itself and the stuffing are cooked to a temperature of at least 165 degrees F for safety. But the stuffing cooks more slowly than the turkey because it’s farther from the heat and by the time it gets to a safe level, the meat will be way overcooked and dried out. Bake the stuffing separately in a pan or casserole dish, and if you want to put something into the turkey cavity, make it a few bunches of savory herbs and/or a lemon or two.

Once the turkey is in the oven, resist the temptation to open the oven door to see how it’s doing until you start checking the bird with a meat thermometer, roughly half an hour before you think it will be done.

What about opening the door to baste the turkey, though? Most authorities today say that basting makes little difference in either the appearance or the moistness of the finished bird. It also prolongs the cooking time both because the drippings cool the meat’s surface slightly and because frequent opening of the oven door lowers the temperature of the oven interior. Besides, doing it is just one more thing to have to remember when you’re trying to coordinate an already complicated meal.

Make sure that the temperature inside your oven matches what’s set on the dial or display. Every oven is slightly different, and not all of them will have reached the temperature you want when the “preheated” signal goes off. You’ll need to leave a heatproof thermometer in the oven. Check it when you hear that signal, and if it doesn’t correspond to the temperature you’ve set, wait until it does.

Unless you’re a professional turkey-roaster (does such a job description even exist?), don’t trust cooking charts or intuition. Use a meat thermometer to check when the meat is done. Supermarket turkeys often come with a small indicator inset into the breast that’s supposed to do the work of a thermometer, but by the time these pop up, the turkey is often already overcooked.

For your meat thermometer to work properly, it should be inserted in the right places. Put it into the thickest part of the breast on one side of the bird, holding it parallel to the bird’s neck and being careful not to let the tip touch bone. Then repeat the process on the other side. Next, insert the thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh, again avoiding the bone. Repeat that too.

The ideal temperature for cooked turkey meat is about 165 degrees F in the breast and 170 degrees F in the thigh. Estimate the cooking time for the bird using a chart, but then, about 30 minutes before you think it will be done, start checking it with the thermometer about every ten minutes.

Get an early start with your roasting, because once the turkey comes out of the oven, you should let it stand at room temperature for 45 minutes to an hour before carving. This gives the meat a chance to reabsorb its juices, so it will be moister. Don’t cover it with foil if you want the skin to stay crisp.

When some cooks lift the turkey out of its roasting pan, they put the pan straight into the sink to soak for easier cleaning. Big mistake. The pan drippings, including any browned bits sticking to the bottom, are the makings of a great gravy. The turkey juices, fat, and browned bits all contribute flavor to the gravy. Look online for gravy-making directions, but the process is easy.

This is an essential step for carving any kind of poultry or meat. You can’t do a good job with a dull knife. If you’re adept at the task, sharpen the blade yourself (even just stropping it on a sharpening steel will help). If you’re not, most cookware stores and many hardware stores will sharpen knives for you — but you may have to wait a few days for the results, so start early. (Forget electric carving knives, by the way. They’re loud, hard to clean, and liable to leave the meat in stringy pieces.)

It’s a pretty picture: the perfectly cooked turkey, glistening golden brown, brought to the table on a festive platter, then deftly dissected in front of a ravenous audience. Unless you’re a real pro at turkey-carving, though, the process can be a little messy, so it’s best done out of sight. Present the turkey to your guests just before you’re ready to carve to show off its beauty, then take it back into the kitchen, work your magic with your sharp knife (there are numerous online tutorials to help), and reemerge with a platter full of gorgeous, ready-to-eat meat.

Unless you’ve got extra guests or a very small bird, leave some meat on the carcass. It will stay moister if you need more helpings, and it’s easy enough to remove for the leftover Tupperware later.

Save all the turkey bones and that hulking carcass. They make intensely flavorful stock to use for soups, rice dishes, ramen, and other purposes. If you’ve had enough cooking for the next few days, put everything into large freezer bags and freeze it until you have time to make the stock.

For some, Thanksgiving leftovers are the best part of the meal. The USDA, however, warns against saving any turkey, gravy, or stuffing that has sat out on the sideboard or the table for more than two hours, as bacteria may have begun to grow on them. If they don’t get devoured quickly, you can always take these items back to the kitchen and loosely tent them with aluminum foil until seconds are needed.

Yes, there’s a lot to think about when you’re cooking a holiday turkey, and yes, you might make some rookie mistakes. Ultimately, though, as long as you don’t put raw meat on the table, everything will be all right. The point of Thanksgiving dinner is to share a table with family and/or friends and give thanks for the year’s blessings — while eating entirely too much delicious, traditional food. Is the turkey a little dry? That’s what the gravy and cranberry sauce are for. Does the meat look like it’s been through a wood-chipper? As long as there’s plenty of it, people probably won’t care. You’ve worked hard and you’re surrounded by those who mean a lot to you, so relax now and enjoy the holiday.