2 Hour Turkey???

[Godslamb]

Has anyone else seen that recipe from Safeway for the Two Hour Turkey?
I am old school when it comes to cooking turkey, and have always had success with a nice, moist bird. Why change it?
I don't like the idea of leaving poultry out to "come to an internal temperature that is within USDA standards". But that is me.
What do you think?

[OldSchool]

I have and found that the meat was not as tender as when I cook at around 325 with a blast of high heat near the end to brown the skin. There are two techniques I've used to get a faster cooking, yet tender turkey:
1. Cook on a Weber kettle grill. I think the shape of the grill has something to do with it. The kettle temp stays in the 300-350 range.
2. A Julia Child technique- Remove the legs and butterfly the body. Cook on a big sheet pan @ 325.

In all cases with cooking meat, I let it rest so the juices redistribute throughout the meat.

[sandylc]

There is an old Cooks Illustrated recipe for a brined, butterflied, hi-temp roasted turkey that works beautifully well. It turns out moist, browned, and delicious. We don't especially care for turkey, but we were O.K. with this turkey. I did substitute my dressing for theirs, sans salt (the dressing is used to catch the briney juice from the turkey via a roasting rack), but other than that, the we followed the recipe and were happy.

[biggreenmatt]

While I haven't seen the Safeway recipe, when I saw the title I thought to myself that the method must involve spatchcocking the bird and cooking it over a convection-type grill or oven.

Great minds and whatnot.

[sandylc]

Spatchcocking is a much better word than butterflying!!!!

[Breezychow]

But they mean the same thing, so who really cares?

[sandylc]

True, but I like fun words!

[Cathy]

http://www.food.com/recipe/safeways-t...

The recipe has been around since at least 2005. I've used it for cooking turkey on non-holidays. Fast and easy.

[sackman]

This may not be for everyone, but its only me and my wife on holidays sometimes and we make the boxed turkey from Butterball. Bone in, breast meat, which is all she will eat. Pop it in the oven for 4 hours and it comes out perfect. Have been doing this for a few years now. Not your 2 hour turkey, but so easy and its really really good!!!

[Godslamb]

I meant what do you think of this method of cooking a bird? I like the way I do it, so I will stick by that. Do you really think it would work? Would you try it? That sort of thing. :)

[porker]

Sure It'll work, and yeah, I'd try it.
BTW, I often times deep fried a turkey. A 20lb bird can cook under an hour!

[porker]

If you like your method and always have success, then no, you don't have change it.

Speaking of "old school", my mother used to throw the 20 pounder into the oven on new years eve and let it cook through the night. What did I grow up eating? Dry bird. I thought I did not like turkey, but it turned out I simply don't like overdone, dry turkey
I'm guessing millions of people cook this way.
When I started doing my own gobbler, I used a thermometer to get that bird *just done* - lo and behold it wasn't dry!

I think the Safeway recipe is trying to address the same thing.

Leaving poultry out (or any piece of large meat) to finish is called carry-over. Its a method thats been used for a long time. If you cook poultry in the oven to 180F and pull it out, the internal temp will continue to rise for awhile, possibly drying it out.

More evident is beef. If you are shooting for a rare roast (internal temp 120F) and pull it out @ 120F, it will continue to "cook" to perhaps 125F, 130F, or 135F (depending on size) and no longer be rare.
The trick is to remove at perhaps 110F (again depending on size), let sit, and allow the internal temp (residual, carry over heat) to rise, perhaps to the target 120F.

[sirdinealot]

If the presentation of a whole bird at the table is not an issue then I have found the best way to roast a turkey is by butterflying it. You won't have a dry bird. Also this way a 20 lb turkey can be roasted in 2+ hours.