Time to baste and cover!
Seriously, this is the perfect turkey. Turns out great every time!
Cook this one only if you want to be responsible for the turkey forevermore.
Everyone tells you to uncover the turkey during the last half of the cooking. This makes for the dry turkey everyone has grown up with.
I’ve even come up against a cooked in the bag turkey, at the same dinner. This turkey won hands down.
Preheat oven to 325 F.
Clean turkey inside and out.
Prepare stuffing.
Melt 2 sticks of butter.
Loosely stuff bird. Do not pack. Stuffing expands.
Place Turkey in pan. Turkey lifters are a great things to have. I always just tuck the legs under that flap of skin.
Place meat thermometer in thickest part of thigh muscle- Not touching a bone.
Brush bird with melted butter coating every part very well.
Put in oven uncovered and forget about it for at least ½ hour. Check and baste with juices from pan every half hour until bird is nicely golden brown. Don’t skimp on this!
Cover completely with foil and seal well to keep things juicy. Continue cooking until bird should be about done. Turkey cooks at about 15 to 20 minutes per pound depending on your oven. Mine is more like 20 minutes.
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Side Note-
So if you are cooking a 20 lb. bird, at 20 min. per pound – it would take 400 minutes, or 6 hours and 40 minutes. The turkey will be nicely browned at 3 ½ to 4 hours. So from the time you cover the turkey, you will have about 3 hours to do other things.
If you plan to eat at 3, and you are cooking a 20 lb. Bird-
It will need to be in the oven by 8 AM.
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Check meat thermometer. When done, it should register 185 degrees. Stuffing should register 165 degrees. If not done, baste and put back for another 15 – 20 minutes.
If done, take the bird out of the oven and let it sit for 15 – 20 minutes before trying to carve. Any earlier and you will just shred it.
And have a really good knife on hand for best results.