How To Cook a Thanksgiving Turkey

Happy November from The College Chew. October flew by along with all of our Fall-themed posts. But don’t worry, we’ve still got one more month of everyone favorite time of the year. With that being said I though the first post of November should encompass the Thanksgiving feels. Today I’m going to teach you how to cook a Thanksgiving turkey.
Now, before you click off because of pure intimidation, hear me out. It’s actually not as hard as you think. I’m going to take you through it step-by-step and as long as you can read and prepare everything, you will be fine.

The skill of cooking a Thanksgiving turkey will give you so much culinary street credit, your friends will beg you to come over and cook one for them and your mom will pass on the Thanksgiving duties to you. It’s a skill you can carry onto the rest of your adult life and pass onto your children. So even if you get stuck in your college town for Thanksgiving, you can still have the homey feels in your dorm.

So this recipe is a roasted turkey. I think a roasted turkey is the most traditional version of a Thanksgiving turkey, but you could also fry your turkey. Frying is a bit more dangerous and requires a bit more skill, so roasting is the best for novice cooks looking to cook a turkey for the first time.  It’s also the easiest method because it doesn’t require a lot of attention. Also, I’m talking about a turkey with very basic seasonings but feel free to add herbs of your choice.
The first step requires a fully thawed turkey. The general guideline is to thaw the turkey in the fridge for 24 hours per five pounds of turkey.

Ingredients

• 1 turkey (size doesn’t matter)
• 2 cups of chicken broth (you can also use vegetable broth)
• 1 cup of unsalted butter, melted
• Salt
• Pepper

Equipment

• Roasting pan
• Roasting rack

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 450
2. Prep: An hour before roasting your turkey, removed from fridge to get closer to room temperature. Remove giblets from the body cavity and set the turkey breast-side up on the rack.
3. Season turkey by rubbing salt and pepper, and leave the turkey unstuffed. It’s common to stuff your turkey with stuffing, but keeping the turkey unstuffed will allow the turkey to cook more evenly
4. Pour the broth into the roasting pan
5. Place the turkey in the oven an immediately turn the temperature down to 350 and cook for 13 minutes per pound.
6. Every 45 minutes, remove the turkey from the oven and baste it (pour the liquid  over the turkey)
7. In the last 45 minutes of cook time, baste your turkey will oil for a crispy golden skin
8. Before finally taking your turkey out of the oven, check the temperature in the breast, outer thigh, and inside thigh. All of these areas should be above 165 degrees.
9. Let your turkey rest on a cutting board for at least 30 minutes
10. Enjoy.