How to Cook a Juicy Thanksgiving Turkey: Oven, Roaster, or Deep Fryer

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A turkey show, not a mortgage show

Welcome to Mortgage Mom Radio. I'm Debbie Marcoux, the Mortgage Mom, and every week I bring you up-to-date information about the real estate and mortgage world — what's happening with CPI, what's happening with inflation, what the Fed is doing, whether rates are coming down, whether you should buy a home now. But guess what: it's almost Thanksgiving, and I'm not going to be on radio next week. I go dark on holiday weeks. So I thought, what fun to actually have a Thanksgiving show and not talk about real estate and not talk about mortgages.

I want to talk about turkey. I want to talk about cooking those turkeys, and how you make the best turkey possible. There are so many ways to do it — the oven, an electric roaster on your countertop, or deep fried. So we're going to talk about some great tips and tricks, and I want you all to get interactive: tell me how you do your turkey. Do you do yours breast-side up? Do you wrap it in foil? Do you put the oven on bake or on roast? Is there a certain spice you like? Do you cook it at a different temperature than what the recipe says? That's what I want to hear.

How Debbie cooks her turkey

Let me start with this: Thanksgiving, for me, is bigger than Christmas. I love Christmas, but Christmas for my family is waking up, opening gifts, doing a brunch, and then relaxing the rest of the day. Thanksgiving is my big thing. I start cooking on Wednesday in order to deliver dinner by Thursday at 3:00, so I'm literally working a straight 24 hours to put that meal on the table.

I make my stuffing the night before. I use the neck and the heart and all that good stuff and boil it all up really well, and we either toast bread and rip it into pieces or buy the cubed croutons. We make the stuffing the night before — and then we stuff the turkey the next morning. Don't stuff it overnight. That's a really bad no-no. You're going to end up with salmonella or something sitting in those juices, and all of it gets absorbed by your stuffing. Stuff your bird the next morning.

Then I season it the way I want to season it: water, salt, pepper, a little bit of garlic powder. It doesn't need a lot, in my opinion. And I cook mine breast-side down, because as it cooks, all of those juices drain down into the breast instead of away from it. I wrap that turkey as tight as I can possibly get it in foil, and I leave the foil on through the majority of the cooking. I set my oven really low — 325°F — and we go for hours.

I do use a thermometer — an electric one that connects to my phone by Bluetooth, so I can keep watching the temperature of the bird. When it gets to the point that it's ready to start browning, that's when I open up the foil, start basting, and turn the oven up to about 400 or 425 to make sure I get it nice and browned.

The mistake almost everyone makes

Here's the one tip I'd give you: the turkey continues to cook once you take it out of the oven. A big mistake a lot of people make is pulling that turkey when the temperature hits 165, 170, even 175 — and then there's what I read online, that you want the internal temperature of the breast to get to 180. If you cook that thing to 180 inside your oven, it is going to be the driest turkey you have ever eaten, and I really hope your gravy's good.

So watch it, and pull the turkey when it hits about 165 in the breast. Then let her sit for about 30 minutes. She will keep cooking, and that temperature will come up to where it needs to be to be safe to eat. That's how I do it. It comes out juicy, it comes out buttery, the whole family loves it, and it really does turn into a great meal.

Listener tips: bags, butter, and infrared fryers

The chat had better ideas than mine on a few things. Cheryl says she puts her turkey in a bag — my aunt does that too, and it does come out very tender and very juicy. Heather says she puts hers in a turkey bag with everything thrown in, including the butter and the salt and pepper, and pops it in the oven; she finds it cooks a little faster and comes out super juicy. I might have to check into these turkey bags, because it's sounding like that's a good way to go. The worst thing in the world is a dry turkey. Nobody wants a dry turkey.

Heather also says she sometimes loosens the skin over the breast and slides some fresh herbs under it. That's a great idea. I do that with chicken — rosemary and butter right under the skin on bone-in, skin-on pieces — and I don't know why I've never thought to do it with a turkey. I usually put the butter on top of the skin. I'm going to try it.

Heidi says they have an infrared fryer they've used for years for the turkey. She tells me you cook it outside, it hooks up to a propane tank, it's oil-less, and it comes out super juicy. That's almost certainly what my cousin is bringing this year — he said he'd bring his deep fryer, then told me it's oil-less and runs on propane and goes outside. So we're cooking two turkeys this year, and I'll report back on whose came out juicier.

My dad jumped on to say I should try a turducken from the Cajun store. Dad, I love you very much, but a turducken is an acquired taste. You're talking about a turkey, a chicken, and a duck, and that is not my idea of Thanksgiving. I know a lot of people love them and I know they sell like hotcakes, but I'm going to say no. This is Thanksgiving. It's turkey.

What brining actually means

I've never brined a turkey. I've heard a lot of people talk about it, so I wanted to learn what it is and why people say it comes out juicier. The recipe I pulled up says: start by brining the turkey — that means soaking it in salt water overnight in the fridge, generally using a brining bag, and you can add a few flavors to the brine if you want. Once the turkey is drained of the brine and ready for the next step, rub really soft butter generously under the skin. Herbs and spices can be added to that butter for extra deliciousness. So Heather was onto something.

And then this one said exactly what I already do: when your turkey is ready to go in the oven, place it upside down in the tray, breast-side down on a roasting rack for the first hour or so of roasting, which essentially allows it to baste itself. That's probably why mine comes out juicy even though I'm not doing all the other fancy stuff. When you see a turkey come out of the oven in a movie, it's that big gorgeous breast facing up with no foil on it. Mine goes in the other way around.

Heather also mentioned a friend who brines a turkey every year in an ice chest overnight, and says it's really good.

A big family Thanksgiving, and a smaller kitchen

I host my whole family every year. It's a big, big event. We make our bread from scratch, our potatoes from scratch, our stuffing from scratch, our pies and our cookies from scratch. We do not buy anything pre-made, and that is why it's my favorite holiday of the year. This year a couple of extra people said they're coming, and I told my cousin: I can't get two turkeys cooked in my kitchen, could you bring your deep fryer? He said yes.

Everybody in the family has their job. Mine is the cookies, the cherry pie, the banana cream pie, the stuffing, the turkey, and the sides — the potatoes, the veggies, the cranberry. My sister does the apple pie and the bread, and honestly we could skip the rest of the meal and eat nothing but her bread. In the chat, Carrie says her husband always does the turkey and the stuffing and she's in charge of the rest, and she isn't sure who has the better deal. Carrie, if he's doing the stuffing and the turkey, he's doing more — that's my job, and I'm in the kitchen way more than anybody else.

This year I moved into a new house — we talked about that on the show a couple of months ago — and my kitchen is nowhere near as big as it used to be. I don't have my double wall ovens anymore, just one normal oven. That's fine if all I'm doing is cooking the turkey, but I'm baking bread, baking pies, making the sides. I need a lot of things to go in that oven. So this year I bought an electric roaster for the countertop to free up the space, and I did a test run last Friday.

Minutes per pound, or a thermometer?

When that turkey is stuffed, it's about 15 minutes per pound — so a 20-pound bird is a good long time. But it really does depend on your temperature, which is why I like a thermometer better than the per-pound math. I just ordered brand-new smart thermometers because my old ones kept losing their Bluetooth connection whenever I walked away from the kitchen, which is annoying when the bird is in the oven all day and you've got other things to get done. The new ones have a much longer range, and I tried them out on the test run.

Knowing the internal temperature makes a huge difference. If the turkey is cooking too fast, you can turn the oven down; too slow, you can turn it up. And remember, those pop-up buttons that come in the turkey get stuck all the time and never pop, so you can end up overcooking the whole bird waiting on one. Don't rely on it.

The test-run disaster

Let me tell you about my horror story, because I'm glad I did a run-through. The worst thing in the world, for me at least, is having a house full of 18 to 20 people ready to eat and pulling out a turkey that looks like the one from Christmas Vacation.

Where did I go wrong? Number one: I just got done telling you how great the thermometer is, and I put the thermometer in the wrong place. So it thought the turkey was cooking faster than it actually was. When it hit my target temperature, I opened the lid and the turkey wasn't brown yet. So I put it in a roasting pan, put it in the oven on roast to brown her up — which worked great, she looked beautiful. But I had also already pulled all the juices out of the bottom of the roaster pan, because I thought I was done, and I'd started my gravy.

Then I pulled that turkey out of the oven, saw where my thermometer was sitting, and it dawned on me: that probe was definitely not in the thickest part of the breast. So back into the roaster she went — with the juices gone, after letting all the steam out, after being browned. It came out tasty, and we ate turkey all weekend, because why would you have turkey in the refrigerator and not eat it. But it was not as juicy as I could have gotten it.

The other thing: I read the instruction manual, and it told me to put the bird in breast-side up. Against my better judgment I did that. So for Thanksgiving she's going in breast-side down, completely stuffed, with the thermometer in the right place, and I'm not opening that thing until it's actually time. If she's not brown enough at the end, I'll put her in the oven just to brown the skin and make her pretty.

Just don't make the mistake I made. Place those probes correctly. Into the breast, you want at least 165. Into the deepest part of the thigh, you want 180. And if you stuff your turkey like I do, the stuffing also has to reach 165 — and it cooks a lot slower than the rest of the bird, because it's all the way inside. If your breast hits 165 and your stuffing is at 155, remember that it keeps cooking during those 30 minutes of rest, and that will bring your stuffing up to temperature along with everything else.

The electric roaster recipe, step by step

Here's what the roaster recipe I found says to do. Take the insert pan out of the roaster and preheat the roaster to its highest setting — on mine that's 450, but use 500 if yours will go that high. Do not wash the turkey; the USDA says washing it can spread salmonella. Sprinkle salt in the cavity. Stuff if desired, but don't pre-stuff your turkey — mix and stuff immediately before roasting. Tossing in a few pieces of cut fruit or herbs isn't considered stuffing; stuffing means filling the cavity with about three-quarters of a cup per pound of turkey. Rub the entire bird with olive oil or butter, and season it however you like — the recipe says poultry seasoning, then a good sprinkle of seasoning salt and black pepper.

I don't usually use poultry seasoning. I like salt, pepper, a little garlic powder, and butter. I'm not one to go crazy with flavors in my turkey. I like a good buttery, salty turkey.

It also says to use a wired thermometer so you can watch the temperature without lifting the lid — again, put it in the bird where it's supposed to go. Put the rack into the insert pan, handles up, not tucked under the bird. Roast at the high setting for 30 minutes; the butter, oil, seasonings, and searing time will make the skin beautifully brown. After 30 minutes, turn the temperature down to 325. The turkey will self-baste if you do not lift the lid — you don't have to baste every 20 minutes the way you do in a conventional oven.

And this is the part I got wrong: do not lift the lid during cooking. Lifting the lid increases cooking time, because roaster ovens lose their heat unlike regular ovens. The recipe also pushes back on the idea that a roaster just steams the bird — it says the turkey comes out moist and properly roasted, similar to the roasted chickens you buy at the supermarket. I put mine in at a low temperature planning to cook her all day, and that was the mistake. This year I'm following these steps.

Deep-fried turkey, done safely

I would really like to try a deep-fried turkey eventually. I've eaten it and it is absolutely wonderful, but I've never done it, so I pulled up notes on the safest way — this is the version with oil.

First, the brine: put hot water, kosher salt, and brown sugar into a five-gallon upright drink cooler and stir until the salt and sugar dissolve completely. Add ice and stir until the mixture is cool. Gently lower the turkey in, and if necessary weigh it down so it's fully immersed. Cover it and set it in a cool, dry place for 8 to 16 hours. Then remove the turkey from the brine, rinse, pat dry, and let it sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before cooking. That brine sounds tasty, though brown sugar makes me think of a honey-baked ham — then again, we buy honey turkey at the deli counter, so it could be quite good.

Then the oil: put it into a 28- to 30-quart pot and set it over high heat on an outside propane burner with a sturdy structure. Bring the oil to 250°F. Once it's at 250, slowly lower the bird in and bring the temperature up to 350°F, then adjust the heat to hold it at 350 for the rest of the cooking time. Once the breast reaches 151°F, gently remove it from the oil and let it rest a minimum of 30 minutes before carving — carryover cooking brings it to about 161°F while it rests.

I would never have thought to put the bird in at 250 and let the oil climb to 350 — I'd have assumed you get the oil to 350 first and then drop it in. Good to know.

Here's the tip I really liked, and the reason I wanted to share this one. To figure out the correct amount of oil: put the turkey into the pot you'll be frying in, add water until it barely covers the top of the bird and is at least 4 to 5 inches below the top of the pot. That's the amount of oil you'll use. So you do a trial run with water, pull the turkey out, and now you have a baseline for exactly where to fill your oil to.

What I still want to know from the deep-fry veterans: how do you actually know when the breast is at 151 degrees? Do those fryers have a probe that stays in the bird? If I put one of my Bluetooth smart thermometers in that turkey and dropped it into hot oil, I'd probably destroy it. Are you pulling the bird out, sticking a thermometer in, checking, and pushing it back down into the oil? I can be a little clumsy, and I can absolutely see myself tipping the pot over and sending oil everywhere. So if you know, tell me — I'd want that answer before I try it.

Wrap-up

That's the show. If you're watching this later and you have suggestions, put them in the comments — your recipes, what you season with, and especially how you monitor the temperature of your bird when you're deep frying outside. Let people read them.

If you want to know when I go live, text the word LIVE to 844-935-3634 — one text a week with the topic and a link to join, no spam. That's also the office number if you'd like to talk with me or the team. At mortgagemomradio.com you'll find the calculators, the weekly newsletter, the podcast archive, and a way to submit questions for the next live show.

I'm not here next week — I go dark for the holiday — so I won't see you for two weeks. I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving. This is my favorite holiday of the season and I am getting the party started the second we stop this show. Talk to you all real soon.