Let's talk turkey...

[busy mom]

In an effort to avoid the 15 minute panic prior to sitting down for Thanksgiving dinner, I am trying to plan ahead and figure out the best plan of attack for my meal...

I will be roasting my turkey in a (counter top) roaster, but I read that it should sit 45 minutes prior to carving. Is this accurate? If so, what should the internal temperature be when I turn the roaster off?

Also, I plan to cook a 2nd turkey the day before. If I carve and refridgerate, how do I keep it moist?

 

[disneymom2003]

Not sure about the first question but I have cooked a turkey the day before and sliced it. I put it in a shallow baking dish and pour some chicken stock on it. Not a lot just enough to keep it moist. cover and reheat with foil on it the day I serve it. Nice and moist.

 

[honeydiane1953]

Any meat should rest 10 min after cooking. I have no clue re your "oven". Think 10 is sufficient.

 

[SarahKate]

The turkey recipe that has never failed us is Alton Brown's. You can Google it and find it very easily. You don't have to do the brining, which is a little labor intensive (but we do and it does turn out well!). One thing that's weird is that a turkey will continue cooking after you take it out of the oven, so you don't have to wait until the fully cooked temp to remove it. If you wait to remove til the final temp, it will definitely be dried out.

Our birds usually sit out for a good 30-45 minutes before carving. We'll put some foil over it to keep the heat in.

I will say that we did use a roaster one year and didn't have good luck with it. I'm definitely not saying not to do it, but you might want to do some research first to see if there are any good techniques.