This slow roast turkey recipe is simply brilliant. It dates back to my grandmother, with only healthy, happy results. (Granny lived to be 103 and was still dancing at 101).
Turkey (without the skin) is a delicious, nutritious, low-fat protein food. And over the past 42 years, I've successfully cooked more than a hundred holiday and Thanksgiving turkey dinners, using this recipe, with absolutely NO failures. Here's how it works.
If your oven is set at the desired internal temperature of the meat, the turkey will eventually reach that temperature. It can conveniently be put in the oven the day before dinner and stays moist and succulent without overcooking. So it cuts down on holiday stress.
Slow Cooking Turkey Research
Slow roasting makes perfect sense. But, is it safe?
Recently the USDA changed their "done" internal temperature recommendation for cooking turkey from185ºF to165ºF. No one seems to know why. (In Canada it's still 185ºF.) The USDA also now recommends oven temperatures no lower than 325ºF to kill food borne bacteria.
But my slow roast recipe calls for oven and turkey temperatures of 185ºF. So what's the story?
In 1988 the University of Minnesota Department of Food Science did an excellent study on slow roast turkey. Four stuffed turkeys were used and two were actually injected with bacteria.
The outcome proved that if the stuffing reaches an internal temperature of at least 165ºF, the slow roast turkey safely spends plenty of time at temperatures lethal to all unwanted organisms.
Slow Roast Turkey Recipe
- Beginning the day before your meal, make sure you have a good meat thermometer, oven thermometer, roasting pan (no cover), adjustable roasting rack, carving board and knife.
- Remove the neck and giblets of a thoroughly thawed turkey (giblets can go into the stuffing or gravy if you want). Rinse the turkey inside and out, pat it dry and position it breast-side down on a roasting rack in a large pan. Stuff the turkey at this time, if you want.
- Melt 1Tbs of unsalted butter and rub on the turkey to help keep juices from evaporating. Cooking the turkey upside down, unsalted and lightly buttered makes it self-basting, which means you can let it continue to cook slowly until time to serve.
- About 24 hours before dinner, preheat your oven to 325ºF, place a meat thermometer in the breast (without touching any bone) and roast the turkey for an hour at 325ºF to destroy any surface bacteria. Then reduce the oven heat to about 185ºF.
- Roast the turkey at this low temperature overnight. Oven temperatures vary, so it's essential to use an oven thermometer to make sure your oven keeps the right temperature.
- Several hours before serving check the meat thermometer. If you've reached 185ºF for the turkey and at least165ºF for the stuffing, keep on roasting at 185ºF until time to serve. Otherwise, turn the oven up to 225ºF (or higher) to make sure your turkey's done on time.
- When ready, turn the turkey on its back on a carving board. If the rack sticks, just gently remove it. The turkey will be so juicy and tender it'll be easy to cut. Once you've taste how delicious it is, you'll never want to cook a turkey any other way.
The Dog-gone Problem
The only drawback is, when our turkey stays in the oven overnight like this, we wake up the next morning to find our dog, Phyto, lying in front of the stove in a pool of drool. We take pity on him though and make sure to give him plenty of turkey scraps. So all is forgiven.
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