Turkey Cooking Instructions

Turkey Cooking Instructions Do you love a turkey dish and plan to cook it at home for your family and friends? Well, not a bad idea, but do you know that turkey cooking procedure involves various challenges and hence it’s very important that you are aware about intricacies involved in it.
Following are some of the instructions that will make handling and cooking of turkey easier and hygienic. These guidelines will help you to follow the right techniques of cooking a turkey.
Just give it a read, you will surely benefit from the useful instructions.

Instructions
You need to be very careful at every stage while handling turkey. Each stage, ranging from thawing to storage up to final cooking stage, requires right handling of the turkey.

Thawing a Turkey

Thawing is the initial step towards turkey cooking. You need to be really careful while thawing. Make sure that you do not thaw a frozen turkey at room temperature. It is always better to leave it in its package and then follow any of the following thawing methods:

Refrigerator Method: keep the turkey on a tray in the refrigerator and allow 5 hours of defrosting time for every pound.
Cold water method: place the turkey in a large container and fill it with cold water. Keep changing the water at least every hour and allow 1 hour per pound defrosting time.

Cleaning Turkey

Proper cleaning is very essential for hygienic cooking. Following are the basic cleaning tips:

Remove the plastic pack from the thawed turkey
Properly clean the turkey by removing giblets and neck from the body cavity
Wash the turkey properly with cold water. Rinse it inside as well as outside.
Pat dry the turkey with paper towels
Wash your hands in hot soapy water before as well as after cooking it.
Clean all the utensils and surfaces used during the cooking process.

Storing Turkey

Storing is an important process and one should be aware of the right procedure. Following are some of the guidelines that one should follow:

While storing a fresh turkey, make sure you remove all the giblets and refrigerate in a covered container. This stored meat should be used within 2 days.
A thawed turkey does not require refreezing.
A cooked turkey is safe for 4 days when stored in refrigerator and up to 3 months when stored in a freezer. While storing the turkey, place it in a container or a plastic bag or you may even use an aluminum foil as a wrap.
Cooked turkey should not be left at room temperature for more than 2 hours.

Cooking turkey

Before cooking it is always recommended that you pre-heat the oven to 325ºF.
If you want to go for a stuffed turkey item, then make sure your stuff it light. Stuffing should be done just before placing the turkey into the oven.
The turkey stuffing should be placed in the oven during the last 30 minutes of the turkey’s roasting time.
Avoid opening the oven number of times because that will lengthen the cooking time.
Insert an oven-safe food thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh. Make sure it is in the innermost part of the thigh.
In case of unstuffed turkey, allow it to roast till the meat temperature rises to 170ºF, while a stuffed turkey should be allowed up till 180ºF.

Watch a video instruction on turkey cooking