How long to cook a 20 lb turkey

First, pinkness can disappear before a safe temperature is reached. A meat thermometer comes in handy all holiday season. Tracking the temperature helps to ensure that you get a perfect roast turkey every time. To check the temperature of the turkey, you can use either an instant-read thermometer which you insert after cooking, as it gives a reading immediately or a remote food thermometer the type that has a probe you insert before cooking, which connects to a digital display that sits on your counter.

This gives the juices time to settle into the bird and be reabsorbed; carving it up too soon will just allow the moisture to run out, leaving you with dried-out meat on top of a puddle on your cutting board.

Tented with foil, you can leave the bird in a warm place for up to 40 minutes, which gives you plenty of time to make gravy. The only thing worse than not knowing how to roast a turkey on Thanksgiving morning? With longer thighs and drumsticks, a leaner breast, and a more diminutive size compared to a standard supermarket turkey, heritage birds look, taste, and cook differently than your average Thanksgiving fowl. Heritage birds generally top out at 14 to 16 pounds, so if you plan on serving a larger crowd, you might want to roast two side by side.

Because they tend to have a more active lifestyle, heritage turkeys must be roasted differently in order to avoid toughness. Both ways will work—the most important thing is to watch the internal temperature so that you will not overcook the meat. Be aware that this could leave the meat with a pinkish hue that may be unappealing to some diners, but a quick fix is to toss their pieces under the broiler for a minute or two if they complain. A curious difference between a heritage and conventional bird concerns the neck fat.

While heritage breeds are typically leaner, many have more neck fat than the Broad Breasted White. The excess fat will render into the stuffing, making it soggy and greasy. Instead, stuff vegetables like carrots or onions into the neck cavity. The veggies and fat will add flavor to the extra drippings, ideal for gravy making. Hey, it happens! In fact, there's not a whole lot that will. Thawing a turkey in the refrigerator can take half the week.

But who says you need to thaw that turkey at all? That's the question posed by the test kitchen at ThermoWorks, makers of our favorite quick-read thermometer, the Thermapen digital thermometer. ThermoWorks VP Tim Robinson told us, in no uncertain terms, that to cook a partially thawed turkey is to invite disaster.

A rock-hard, fully unthawed turkey, though? Another matter entirely. And the oven really is your only option. The temperature differential between the hot oil and the cold turkey can lead to a situation of extreme boiling over, increasing the danger already inherent in deep-frying a turkey of committing injury to yourself and maybe lighting your home on fire.

If it is at room temp, it may take less time to cook. So, check the temperature of your bird earlier than the full cooking time. Your turkey will be perfectly succulent and delicious. That said, if you would like to cook your turkey in a more conventional manner, breast side up, brining will help keep the breast from drying out.

See our methods for both wet and dry turkey brines:. If you find yourself in a bind when cooking your turkey, Butterball offers a telephone hotlines during the holiday season at Need recipes for all that leftover turkey? Here are some of our favorites. Handle raw turkey the way you would raw chicken, with care.

Use a separate cutting board and utensils to avoid contaminating other foods. Wash your hands with soap and water after touching raw turkey and before you touch anything else in the kitchen. Wipe down surfaces with dampened paper towels. Need help figuring out how big a turkey to get? Butterball has a turkey calculator that helps you figure out just how many pounds you need per person.

Juice of 1 lemon. If you are starting with a frozen turkey, you will need to allow several days to defrost the turkey. You'll want to defrost it in the refrigerator so that the turkey stays chilled during this process.

Put the wrapped frozen turkey in a pan to prevent leaks and then place it in the refrigerator. It will take about 5 hours of defrosting time for every pound of turkey. So, if you have a 15 pound turkey, it should take about 75 hours, or 3 days, to defrost. If you need to defrost it more quickly than that, you can place it in a large tub of cool water, and keep changing the water to keep it cold, until the turkey is defrosted.

Remove the turkey from the refrigerator 2 to 5 hours depending on the size of the bird before cooking, to allow it to come closer to room temperature. The turkey will cook more quickly and more evenly that way. When you are ready to cook the turkey, remove it from its package.

Usually turkeys come packaged with the neck and giblets heart, gizzard, liver in the main cavity or the neck opening make sure to check both! Pull the giblets out; they are often wrapped in a small paper package. If you want, you can chop up the heart and gizzard to make stock for the stuffing or dressing put the chopped heart and gizzard into a small saucepan, cover with water, add salt, bring to simmer for an hour or so.

You can either cook the neck alongside the turkey, or use it to make turkey stock. You can also use all of the giblets for making giblet gravy. Rinse the turkey inside and out with water. If you see stray turkey feathers, pluck them out. Use paper towels to pat the turkey dry. Many turkeys come with a plastic tie holding the drumsticks together.

Check the instructions on the turkey package; it is likely that you will not need to remove the tie unless you are cooking the turkey at a very high temperature.

Slather the inside of the cavity with a tablespoon or so of lemon juice. Take a couple teaspoons of salt and rub all over the inside of the turkey. Skip the salt if you are using a brined turkey. Put the cut onion, several sprigs of parsley , a chopped carrot or two, and some leafy celery tops into the main cavity of the turkey. These are aromatics that will flavor the turkey from the inside as it cooks. Cover the entrance to the main cavity with aluminum foil, or close it with metal skewers or kitchen string not nylon string!

Put a few sprigs of parsley into the neck opening, cover the opening with the surrounding turkey skin, and close the opening with skewers or string. By the way, we don't cook stuffing or dressing as it is known in many parts of the country in the turkey anymore. Stuffing the turkey adds to the overall cooking time.

Not packing the turkey with stuffing will allow the turkey to cook more evenly. We do make our stuffing with stock made from the turkey giblets so the stuffing has plenty of turkey flavor. We truss our turkey, though some people choose not too. The point of trussing is to keep the legs and wings close to the body so they don't spread out while cooking. To truss, make sure that the turkey's legs are tied together, held close to the body, and tie a string around the turkey body to hold the wings in close.

Here's a good video: how to truss a turkey. Rub either softened butter or extra virgin olive oil all over the outside of the turkey. Sprinkle salt generously on all sides of the outside of the turkey do not add salt if you are using a brined turkey.

Sprinkle black pepper over the turkey as well. How do you know the turkey is breast side down? The wings are up and the legs are down. Note that you can also place the turkey directly on an oven rack with a large roasting pan to catch the drippings on the rack below.

That method helps create a convection-like environment, helping the heat circulate more evenly around the turkey. Note: if you are using a remote thermometer or two to gauge the temperature of the turkey while it cooks, it's easiest to find the right place to insert the probe when the turkey is breast side UP.

So eyeball where you think the thermometer probe s should go first, before placing the turkey breast side down in the pan. If you only have one remote thermometer, put it in the breast. Before you put the turkey in the oven, do a rough calculation of how much overall time it should take to cook the turkey. Usually they say to assume 15 minutes for every pound of meat, but I have found in practice that it's usually less than that, more like 13 minutes per pound.

Cooking time will vary depending on the size of the turkey, how long it has been sitting at room temperature before cooking, and the shape and particulars of your specific oven. So come up with a rough estimate for the overall cooking time, and then make sure to check how the turkey is doing well before it is supposed to be done!

Note that the lower oven temperature at the end of cooking can help you time when you want the turkey to be done. If the turkey is cooking more quickly than you expect, lowering the oven temp can extend the cooking time.

Note that by browning the breast you may end up over-cooking the turkey breast a little bit. We often don't turn the turkey over. Turning the turkey over can be a hot, messy job, so if you do it, the best way is to use clean oven mitts or clean kitchen towels just throw them in the laundry afterwards. Start taking temperature readings with a meat thermometer, inserted deep into the thickest part of the turkey breast and thigh, an hour and a half before the turkey should be done.

Turkey Weight Servings Cooking Time 10 to 12 lb. Turkey is done at an internal temperature of degrees F Allow the turkey to rest for at least 30 minutes before carving and serving Using an an oven thermometer and a meat thermometer to get accurate temperature readings is recommended. Credit: Meredith. Credit: Chef John. Prep Remove the packet of giblets from the cavity of the bird and save them for gravy or stuffing.

Next, use paper towels to pat dry the bird inside and out. See how to truss a turkey. Roast Place the turkey on a rack in a roasting pan, and into a preheated degrees F degrees C oven and follow the cooking times above based on the weight of your bird. During the last 45 minutes of roasting, remove the foil tent to brown the skin. Basting is not necessary, but does help promote even browning. Rest, Then Carve When the turkey is done, remove from the oven and allow to rest for 30 minutes before carving.

This allows the juices to redistribute throughout the meat, and makes for easier carving. See how to carve a turkey. Need to know how to cook a small turkey? We've got you covered. Bookmark these Thanksgiving Disaster-Savers , because you never know. Get top-rated Thanksgiving recipes , including turkey , side dishes , and desserts. By Vanessa Greaves.