Thanksgiving is right around the corner so I’m sharing Thanksgiving Turkey hacks to make the day run smoother. To ensure you don’t get a dry bird, use this tips for the perfect turkey. They include how to avoid basting, the best steps for prepping the bird, and much more!
Hack One: Thaw your turkey in the fridge. It takes 1 day per every 4lbs.
Hack Two: Brine your turkey in a large cooler with ice to save up space in the fridge Hack Three: Make sure your turkey isn’t pre-brined. You’re looking for something on the packaging that mentioned something like ‘contains 10% of a solution of water and salt”
Hack Four: Bring your turkey to room temp before you put it in the over. Roasting your bird cold could lead to an uneven cook and dry meat.
Hack Five: Skip stuffinf the bird. Cooking stuffing in your bird typically means you need to cook it longer to ensure the stuffing is cooked all the way through and cooking it longer most certainly means a dried out thanksgiving turkey. Instead, cook your stuffing separate in a casserole dish or, even better pop them into muffin tins to create individual servings and get crispy edges for everyone!
Hack Six: Ensure a flavorful and juicy turkey without basting. The reason basting has become a thing of the past is we’ve learned that repeatidly opening your oven to baste the turkey droped the oven’s temperature and casuses a longer baking time and that causes a drier bird. Instead, you can minimc basting by covering your turkey in cheesecloth. Take cheese cloth that you’ve soaked in herbed butter and drape the entire turkey. Once the bird start to cook the butter and flavors and all the delicious goodness will seep down in and baste the bird for you with no oven door opening
Hack Seven: Don’t have roasting rack? You want one because you need to lift your bird up out of the jucies at the bottom of your pan. But, No poblem. Just take some tin foil and create thick rolls which you’ll space about an inch apart in your pan, and place the bird on that!
Hack Eight: Cook the turkey at two temperatures. You want to start your bird out on a super high heat, I’m talking 450 for the first 30 minutes then drop it to the standard 350 to finish. By starting at a high heat it renders the fat from the turkey which gives a crispy skin.
Hack Nine: Now, if you notice your skin is getting TOO crispy but you’re bird isn’t cooked yet, DON”T lower the temperature. Remember, lower temperature causes a slower cook and that causes dry bird! Instead, take a little piece of tin foil and place it over the turkey where it’s browning to quickly.
Hack Ten: Ditch those little pop up temperature indicators that come with the turkey. They aren’t reliable. Get a thermometer that can sit outside the oven (you dont’ want to keep opening the door to check the temperature). Set it to go off at 165 and let it do it’s thing
Hack Eleven: Don’t carve your entire turkey. Only carve what you and your guests will eat and store the rest in the fridge as is and carve as you eat it. This will prevent your leftovers from being dry
