Every Thanksgiving, most American families cook a turkey. And every Thanksgiving, many of those turkeys disappoint. Below, 10 steps to the perfect Thanksgiving turkey.

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      1. Buy a fresh turkey. Frozen turkeys don’t taste as good as fresh ones…they’re injected with things that you don’t need, such as artificial flavors and sodium…and they require days to defrost safely—24 hours in the fridge for every five pounds of turkey.Purchase one-and-a-half pounds of turkey per person if you want leftovers. Don’t worry about the brand—even a supermarket store-brand turkey can be delicious as long as it’s fresh.
      2. Remove the giblets. A surprising number of people forget to do this—the giblets usually are tucked away in the body cavity or neck.Warning: Skip the rinse. Many people think that rinsing poultry in the kitchen sink washes off potentially dangerous bacteria. Actually it just increases the odds that any bacteria on the bird will spread to your sink or kitchen counter. Bacteria will be killed by proper cooking.
      3. Rub the bird with a stick of softened butter. Half a stick of butter is sufficient with a bird smaller than 16 pounds.
      4. Season the inside and outside of the bird with a light coating of salt and pepper. Don’t add any other seasonings—they’ll just burn.
      5. Stuff the turkey, if stuffing is desired. But stuff loosely—the stuffing will expand as it soaks up the turkey juices.Warning: Don’t make stuffing the day before. Stuffing that spends a night in the fridge can be like a big cold ball inside the turkey when it goes into the oven—and the stuffing might never cook enough.
      6. Cover the turkey’s open end with foil. This is easier than sewing it up. Crumple the foil a bit so that it stays in place.
      7. Cover the turkey’s breast with foil. The lean white meat of the breast cooks much faster than the turkey’s dark meat. Wrapping the breast in foil deflects some of the oven’s heat, slowing cooking in this area. Remove this foil for the final hour or so of cooking to let the skin brown.
      8. Pour two cups of chicken or turkey broth into a roasting pan. Then put a metal rack in the pan, and place the turkey on this rack so that it’s above the broth. The broth creates steam that helps the turkey cook evenly. This broth also will reduce to a glaze that will improve your gravy.But: Don’t use a disposable aluminum foil roasting pan. The shiny surface reflects the heat away from the pan, and the pan tends to collapse under the turkey’s weight.
      9. Cook at 325°F for around 15 minutes per pound of turkey. But treat this cook time as just an estimate. The turkey is ready to come out of the oven when it reaches 175°F to 180°F. Insert your meat thermometer into the meatiest part of the turkey’s thigh. Don’t let this thermometer touch bone—that will throw off its reading. Use an instant-read digital thermometer if possible. Baste the turkey a few times during that last hour to help brown the skin.
      10. Let the bird sit, uncarved, for around 30 minutes after it comes out of the oven. This lets the turkey’s juices redistribute throughout the meat.

 

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