Expert: Enrique Torres - 10/30/2009

Question
Hello Enrique,

My boyfriends parents will be visiting us for Christmas. I would like to make sure they have a good time here as well as good meal :) I have never cooked whole turkey and was wondering if you have any tips on making this bird delicious.

I respect them a lot and would like to impress them with my meal.

Thank You!

--Daria

Answer
Daria:
Hello,
If you want to reach the highest level, i recommend to spend time planning all details related to the preparation of that future meal.
Here, turkey is one of the main ingredients,but, there are many other, such as beverages, desserts, salads, etc.

Going to your specific question:

First of all is important to know that turkey is a very big animal to be cooked and you have to spend a lot of time doing it using traditional methods (whole carcass), and whenever you cook any meat for long time it becomes hard,dry and lack of flavor.

What I recommend is to divide turkey before cooking, this to facilitate and spend less cooking time.

What I recommend is:
a. Cut the turkey carcass into quarters: legs, breasts, and wings.
b. Marinade the turkey quarters for 12 hours inside the refrigerator. To  marinade, you can use some commercial marinade brands available: internet or supermarket.
c.Mix the marinade with meat in a bowl, cover and put inside refrg.
d. Put the meat on a oven tray and cover with aluminum foil.
e. Pre-heat the oven at 350 F for 20 minutes.
f. Put the meat inside the oven and start to cook.
g. Here the most important is to check constantly if bones are well cooked. The form to reach that is to introduce a thermometer inside the leg bone each 30' minutes. If the internal temperature of the bone is > 150 F, is time to remove aluminum foil and cook for 30 minutes more.
h.Here a juicy, tender and flavorful turkey is ready to serve.  
As i told you before, is better is you try this method before to find the right time and temperature.
Remember to serve with some salad, a good wine (better if you investigate about origin and kind of grape)an special dessert, special plates, etc.

If some extra information is needed, please don't doubt to ask me,
Good luck,
Enrique

h.