How to Cook a Fresh Turkey

eHow may earn compensation through affiliate links in this story. Learn more about our affiliate and product review process here.

Things You'll Need

  • Turkey

  • Roasting pan

  • Water

  • Salt

  • Pepper

  • Garlic powder

  • Vegetable oil

  • Oven

  • Cooking thermometer

Turkey is a healthy and versatile protein source.

Turkey is not only great at Thanksgiving, but all year round. It's good as a meal when you first cook it and for days after as a leftover. It's good hot or cold; with turkey you just can't go wrong, as long as the bird is cooked well to begin with.

Advertisement

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Video of the Day

Step 2

Remove any insides that may be stuffed inside the turkey if you bought it fresh. Now give the turkey a quick rinse under the faucet and place it in your roasting pan. Add a little water to the bottom of the roasting pan.

Advertisement

Step 3

Add some spices for flavoring. Coat the turkey with vegetable oil instead of butter under the skin. This keeps the seasoning stuck to the turkey and gives it some more flavor. Add garlic powder, salt and pepper generously all over the top and sides of the turkey.

Step 4

Cover the turkey with the roasting lid or aluminum foil. Cook 15 minutes for each pound. If your turkey is 12 lbs., it will need to cook for thee hours.

Advertisement

Step 5

Once the turkey has cooked for the allotted time, take it out of the oven and check the internal temperature. If the temperature is 160 to 165 degrees in the breast area, then it is done. If not, put the turkey back in to the oven until it reaches this temperature.

Tip

If you bought the turkey frozen, then set it on a plate in your refrigerator and allow it to thaw out naturally. Add stuffing to the inside of the turkey before cooking instead of making it separately as a side dish.

Warning

Cooking a turkey at a temperature higher than 325 will cause the turkey to dry out.

Advertisement

Video of the Day

references

Report an Issue

screenshot of the current page

Screenshot loading...