Make Moist, Mouthwatering Turkey & A Simple Stuffing Recipe

After all these years of worrying that my turkey will come out dry, I now learn that a turkey's breast meat cooks faster than the thigh and leg meat, which explains why my white meat is rarely moist enough. I asked some friends, who are great cooks, how they prepare their turkeys; I share their responses below.

Turkey Tips

• Rhoda: Cook turkey breast-side down first..flip it over..it requires 2 people.  We do the flip about an hour before it's finished. All I do is rub the inside and out with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Making a turkey is very simple...I understand that fried turkey is pretty great too.
• Linda: I ALWAYS put a few oranges cut or apples or an onion in the cavity with the dressing to waft flavor into the turkey meat, and I make sure there is plenty of liquid in the bottom of the pan at all times. Usually I double the spice – sage, rosemary, thyme, black pepper, a little italian seasoning. Yum! 
• Pam: I tent the breast with foil. Keeps it moist and prevents the skin from burning.  Then you remove the foil when you want to brown the skin.
• Sarah: Two things that I think help are: not to cook a cold turkey...take it out of the frige a few hours before cooking. AND, if the bird is not too big, you can start cooking it breast side down and then flip it part way through...this can be a tricky, messy maneuver, but works well with smaller turkeys. High then to low heat works well...my concern is that I never know if the bird is fully cooked...I don't trust that little pop up thing to work right.
• Betty: I have occasionally taken out the bird and cut off the leg/thigh and put that back in for 20 minutes. This can be necessary for a large bird.  
• Donna: My sister cooks it lately and I can never remember LOL. I would say baste, baste, baste.  Also "rubs" are good that people do with herbs, oil etc on skin and below skin. 
• Comment on NPR: My grandmother had a great technique for roasting turkey. She separated the skin around the breast and stuffed that area with her flavorful moist(!) stuffing. This did two things, it insulated the breast so it wouldn't dry out while the thigh/drumstick reached the correct doneness. Secondly, it produced a beautifully buxom bird, the Mae West of turkeys.
• Matha Stewart: A full 24 hours of brining results in wonderfully juicy and flavorful turkey. The turkey skin turns out crispy and deep golden-brown thanks to the butter-soaked cheesecloth that covers the breast during the first half of roasting time.

I figure you can't go wrong following Martha Stewart's recipe, so I wanted to include it, even though I'm not likely to personally use a recipe that involves cheesecloth.

I am an eclectic cook. Just as I sometimes make decisions by asking others what they think and then doing what I want, I often look up few recipes and then take an idea from here and there, whipping it all up my own way. So it is with stuffing. Parts of the recipe below, I borrowed from a Martha Stewart recipe.

When I was in my twenties, I found a great stuffing recipe in a magazine. A few years ago, I tried to recall the ingredients. I also consulted some recipes from the Internet and then put it all together. The stuffing turned out as delicious as I remembered.

Simple Stuffing Recipe

1 package seasoned stuffing mix

3 (more or less) stalks celery cut into ¼-inch pieces

1 onion (I prefer a small one) diced

1 small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped

1 small can thawed frozen orange juice concentrate

1 stick butter (more or less)

(½ cup low-sodium chicken stock if cooking outside the bird)

Cook celery and onion in butter, stirring occasionally, until softened, around 5 minutes. Toss with other ingredients and loosely stuff into the turkey. For safety, be sure to remove all stuffing from turkey cavity after cooking.

If making the stuffing outside the bird, add the chicken stock and put into a buttered baking dish (I like Pyrex). Cover with foil and cook in a preheated oven at 375 for 25 minutes. Then remove the foil and cook for another 15 or 20 minutes, until golden brown.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Please comment below with your tips for keeping turkey moist and other ideas for a successful Thanksgiving meal!

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