Active Time

　　20 min

　　Total Time

　　3 hours

　　A big, golden bird is often the centerpiece of a holiday meal—but that doesn’t mean it has to take the most work. This roast turkey recipe makes it easy to get the main course on the table in just three hours, leaving you more time to bake the other elements of your Thanksgiving dinner (like your green bean casserole and sweet potatoes). The key to roasting a turkey in a shortened time frame is to cook it at a higher temperature than you might be used to. This allows you to cut the cook time, but it also has other benefits, like giving you golden brown, crispy skin and keeping both the breast meat and dark meat moist—no basting required. And you’ll still have plenty of drippings for turkey gravy. That said, we do not recommend this high-heat roasting method for turkeys weighing more than 16 pounds. For turkeys weighing less than 14 pounds, start checking the temperature earlier than the instructions call for.

　　If you’d like to add fresh herbs to your turkey (like fresh thyme or even some fresh rosemary), you can—it’s best to put some sprigs right into the bird’s cavity, along with a halved onion or any other aromatics, so that you don’t have to worry about them burning. But for this Thanksgiving turkey recipe, we keep the ingredients as simple as possible—all that’s added is salt and pepper. Then you’ll just need a roasting pan and a good meat thermometer (ideally one that you can read remotely, to keep track of the meat’s internal temperature), and in a couple of hours, you’ll have a perfect roast turkey sitting on your cutting board.

　　

Ingredients

8–10 servings

　　1 (14- to 16-lb) turkey, neck and giblets (excluding liver) reserved for turkey giblet stock

　　2½ teaspoons salt (2 teaspoons if using a kosher bird)

　　1½ teaspoons black pepper

　　

Special Equipment:

Pliers (preferably needlenose); a small metal skewer (optional); kitchen string; a flat metal rack; an instant-read thermometer

　　

Step 1

Remove any feathers and quills with pliers (kosher turkeys tend to require this more than others).

　　

Step 2

Put oven rack in lower third of oven and preheat oven to 450°F.

　　

Step 3

Mix salt and pepper in a small bowl and sprinkle it evenly in turkey cavities and all over skin. Fold neck skin under body and, if desired, secure with metal skewer, then tuck wing tips under breast and tie drumsticks together with kitchen string.

　　

Step 4

Put turkey on rack in a large flameproof roasting pan. Roast, rotating pan 180 degrees halfway through roasting, until thermometer inserted into fleshy part of each thigh (close to but not touching bone) registers 170°F, 1¾ to 2½ hours.

　　

Step 5

Carefully tilt turkey so juices from inside large cavity run into roasting pan. Transfer turkey to a platter (do not clean roasting pan) and let stand 30 minutes (temperature of thigh meat will rise to 180°F). Cut off and discard string from turkey.

　　VARTIATIONS:

　　For a stuffed turkey: Twelve cups of stuffing will fill both cavities and leave you extra to bake separately. Just before roasting, spoon room-temperature stuffing loosely (stuffing expands as it cooks) into the neck (smaller) cavity. Fold the neck skin underneath the body and secure with a small metal skewer. Then loosely fill the body (larger) cavity, and tie drumsticks together. If you don't want any stuffing to spill out, cover the opening with a slice of fresh bread, tucking it inside the cavity before tying the drumsticks. Follow roasting directions above. (Timing for a stuffed bird may be slightly longer, but start checking the temperature at 1¾ hours.) Immediately transfer stuffing from body cavity to a shallow baking dish (separate from one for stuffing baked outside the turkey). Take temperature of stuffing in neck cavity and if less than 165°F, add it to the baking dish. Bake (covered for a moist stuffing or uncovered for a crisp top) until it reaches a minimum of 165°F. This can take 20 to 45 minutes, depending on the temperature of the oven, which you may have lowered to reheat side dishes.

　　For a roast turkey breast: The same method used above can be applied to a whole turkey breast (instead of the entire bird). For a 6-to-8-pound breast (with skin and bone), reduce amount of salt to 1½ teaspoons and pepper to ¾ teaspoon. Use a V-rack instead of a flat rack. Roast, rotating pan 180 degrees halfway through roasting, until thermometer inserted in thickest part of each breast half (close to but not touching bone) registers 170°F, about 1 hour 10 minutes to 1½ hours. Let stand 30 minutes (temperature in breast will rise to between 175°F and 180°F). (For a grilled turkey option, see Grilled Whole Turkey.)

　　Cook’s Note

　　If you only have a dark-colored metal roasting pan, add 1 cup water to the roasting pan before putting the turkey in the oven. Click here to read more about the basics of how to roast a turkey.

　　Editor’s note: This recipe was originally published in the November 2005 issue of ‘Gourmet‘ and first appeared on Epicurious in October 2005.