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Are you in charge of making the turkey this year for Thanksgiving? I recently asked readers to share their best tips, tricks or turkey recipes with me. There were several great responses, so I’m hoping some of these ideas can help you have a stress-free holiday this year. Here are the top 10 reader tips for the perfect turkey!
For more Thanksgiving ideas, see our Thanksgiving roundup.
10 Reader Tips for the Perfect Turkey
- Be sure to buy enough! A general rule of thumb is at least 1-1.5 lb. of turkey per person. This may seem like a lot but a whole turkey comes with a lot of parts that are not eaten, plus it’s always nice to have plenty of leftovers!
- Give yourself enough time for it to defrost and make sure that you take stuff out of the inside of the turkey. The last few years we have used an electric roaster to cook our turkey. It cooks in less time, comes out juicy and leaves the oven available for other dishes. Oven space is precious!
- Brining your turkey is the easiest way to make the best turkey of your life. It’s so easy and will change your turkey game forever!
- Turkey oven bag helps it stay moist. Also, whenever we cook one we find a marinade at the grocery store to inject it with.
- Put butter all over inside the skin. Cover it in something while it cooks. It helps keep it juicy instead of ending up dry. Also, don’t cut into it right away when you take it out. Let it rest a bit!
- Make sure that your oven is working properly. Happened to a cousin one year. We ended up slicing the meat and frying it. But the best piece of advice I can give is to remember it is a dead bird. Do NOT let a dead bird intimidate you.
- Use an oven bag, it’s the best thing ever and keeps the meat from drying out. I rub butter all over the turkey then stuff a couple of bars of butter inside. Super moist meat!! Easiest way to cook a turkey. Here is the link to recipe to try.
- Smoke it if you have a smoker.
- Alton Brand’s recipe on Food Network. It has never failed me and makes the best and most moist Turkey. There are great videos on how to do each step. I have used his brine for an unbrined Turkey and used a pre-brined and don’t notice a huge difference there, but the cooking method is the best.
- Inject with butter and bake in a baking bag. I like Tony Chachere’s Creole Style Butter Marinade.
Let me know if you have anything to add!
