Cooking a frozen Turkey

Now that it is holiday time again. You will find many people rushing the stores for the best products. Well in this case it is thanksgiving. Meaning many people are going to be looking for the best Turkey they can find. Once they have this perfect turkey, most will go home and put it in the deep freezer. Which leads us to frozen solid rocks, we call turkey. Now comes the worst part of cooking a turkey. The thawing. There are a few ways that you can thaw a turkey, but either one takes a lot of time.

Many people are trying to find different ways to stop all of this hassle, besides buying a fresh turkey or cooking something different. Well here is another option for you. Cook the turkey frozen. Yep I sure did say FROZEN. I did this last year and will be doing it again this year.

I found out how to do this from a very interesting PDF. Back in 2005, food scientist and president of a Minnesota consulting company, O. Peter Snyder, Jr., did some guidelines for roasting a frozen turkey. You can find the PDF at http://www.hi-tm.com/Documents2005/turkey-cook-frozen.pdf.

 There are many benefits to cooking a turkey frozen. The big one that I agree with first is no worrying about turkey’s raw juices contaminating the kitchen as you handle and prep it. Also starting frozen also the dark meat to reach well done while the breast meat takes a little bit longer to thaw and reach tender but done. By doing this you help prevent the breast and white meat from drying out, helping the white meat stay juicy.

There are a few tips and tricks though to cooking a frozen Turkey. As soon as the turkey thaws enough you must remove the giblets. But you must be careful not to get burned and watch out for giblets packaged in plastic bags. The FSIS warns that you must remove the plastic packed giblets before the plastic starts to melt. Once it starts to melt you run the risk of harmful chemicals leaching into the surrounding meat. Another thing to be mindful of, it using bags to cook the frozen turkey. It is not a safe or good idea, because when you open the bag to remove the giblets, there is a high chance of getting burned.

Now onto cooking times. Look at the package directions on the turkey. The Department of Agriculture suggests you use the direction times and add 50% f the time to it. So if it says you can cook the turkey in 4 hours, you will want to cook if 6 hours. You can find more of their information about cooking a frozen turkey at: http://origin-www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/Turkey_Alt_Routes/index.asp#8

Please make sure that you use a thermometer to check the temp of your turkey. You want to make sure that it reaches an internal temp of 165 °F.

For me I like to make sure my turkey is covered with foil. I always remove the foil the last 30-45 minutes of cooking. I also baste the turkey with a little bit of butter and minced garlic and a few other seasonings. To me this makes the best skin.