Thawing a Turkey

REMEMBER TO THAW THE TURKEY!!!!! 

Can’t say that enough!

Seriously, if you either forgot or haven’t done it before, here are the instructions we use in thawing a turkey just in case.

If you find that the evening before Thanksgiving that your bird is still a rock…follow these steps to thaw quickly and safely.

~ Clean your bathtub and start filling with cold water

~ Don’t remove packaging from bird

~ Place your bird in the tub and fill with water until the bird floats – press down on the bird to confirm that it is completely covered (it will float back as soon as you remove your hand)

~ Place a water filled plastic bowl on top of the bird to keep it submerged

~ Depending on the size of your bird…. It takes 30 minutes per pound to thaw in the tub – a 12 pound bird is going to take 6 hours to thaw while your 20 pounder will take 10 or more!

~ You will need to empty and fill the tub every two hours so the water doesn’t get too warm (I usually dump a couple of trays of ice in water and when they melt I know to add more ice)

~ Once you can squeeze your bird and the legs move, you should be good to pull out of the water and proceed with cleaning and cooking your bird

Now that you are ready to proceed with cooking… try our Simple Turkey Recipe

 

** Of course if your bird is really small you can do the same thing in the sink. I usually only had the problem of a still frozen bird when it was a large one…or I need my sink. A drink cooler will also work but is really heavy to move around once you fill with water.