Dave’s Thanksgiving Turkey Tips
Want to have a Thanksgiving turkey that is juicy and flavorful without deep-frying it? Here are my Thanksgiving Turkey Tips to avoid a dry, flavorless, foul-tasting fowl.
Tip 1: Buy fresh, not frozen - My apologies if you've already purchased a frozen turkey. I don't know how well the rest of my tips will apply when preparing a frozen turkey. When I first started being in charge of turkey duty for my family, I had assumed that fresh turkeys would be significantly more expensive, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn that fresh turkeys at the supermarket are usually either approximately the same price or even cheaper than frozen turkeys. (And SO much easier to work with!)
Tip 2: Use an oven bag - Oven bags are inexpensive, and they help a TON with keeping the natural moisture of the meat from escaping and making your turkey dry out. Using a bag will alter the cooking time and temperature required, but fortunately most boxes of oven bags will provide those altered cooking times and temps for you.
Tip 3: Butter - The next step is always my least favorite to execute, but so important that I know it's worth it in the end. Warm up a stick of butter until it is soft. (You don't want it to be liquid, but it should be soft enough to mix stuff into.) I like to add some salt, rosemary, and basil to the butter, but honestly the seasonings are going to vary by personal preference and availability. Once you've put the turkey in the oven bag, pick up the stick of butter in your hand and start slathering it over the entire surface of the turkey. Like, everywhere. In every nook and cranny, top, bottom, right, left, front, and back. If you were one of those kids who loved to play in squishy mud as a child, you may claim this feels "strangely satisfying." I was not one of those kids, and I will not lie to you. I always regret it the moment I start, but then I always know I did the right thing as soon as I'm done. Power through it, my friend. Your family and your taste buds will thank you. (I used to use regular butter before we discovered my wife's dairy allergy, but I'm happy to report that dairy-free butters work equally well.)
Tip 4: Throw a small dash of flour in the oven bag - That's... that's pretty much it. Nothing profound about this, you don't need to coat the turkey with flour or anything. Just put a little bit of flour in there to help keep the bag from bursting. Why does this work? I dunno, ask Alton Brown or Bill Nye or something.
Tip 5: Cook it "upside down" - I've observed that many people cook their turkey with the white meat (turkey breast) at the top, and the dark meat (legs and wings) at the bottom. I beg you to do the opposite. The dark meat is the most flavorful part of the bird, and the white meat is the most likely to go dry. By cooking the turkey "upside down," you allow the delicious flavor of the dark meat to cook through the whole turkey, and the white meat is able to stay down at the bottom where it is able to get tender and juicy. (Honestly, if there are only two tips you take away from all this, Tips #2 and #5 involve the least hassle, and make the biggest difference.)
Bonus Tip: Don't bother washing the turkey - I know it might seem a little icky when you take the turkey out of the packaging and there is so much liquid in there. (Sorry if this grosses you out, but we're all grownups here.) So yes, I do recommend opening it near your sink so you can let all that liquid drain out. But a lot of people make the mistake of thinking they need to go a step further and wash/rinse the whole turkey before doing anything else. This is both unnecessary, frustrating, and counterproductive. The heat from cooking is going to kill off any bacteria that may be on the bird, and honestly most kitchen sinks are going to put more microbes on your meat than remove it. So skip that slippery Sisyphean turkey task, and keep save your sanity. (This tip isn't really about improving the taste of your turkey, just improving the state of your mental energy and stress levels, which I suppose could have an indirect impact on how the turkey turns out?)
OK, I think that's it! If you made it all the way through this, I think you should feel well-equipped to produce poultry perfection this year! And if this is your first Thanksgiving trying to do the turkey yourself because of social distancing, take a deep breath, have courage, and give yourself credit for doing the right thing. You're going to do great, I believe in you, and I'm rooting for you!!
