How Long to Cook a Turkey

Work out how long to cook a turkey on the day before you cook.

Plan your timetable around your roasted turkey, working backwards from when you want to serve a meal.

Start your cooking time to allow the cooked turkey to have at least 20 minutes to rest before you carve. This lets the flesh re-absorb the juices, and makes the bird easier to carve.

Remove the roasted turkey from the pan, place it on a board and cover with a clean tea towel. It will stay hot for at least half an hour.

This roast turkey recipe suggests that you rub the turkey with sunflower oil, season and wrap in foil for most of the cooking time.

Cooking begins with a short blast of heat, then there?s a longer period at a lower heat, and then you should tear off the foil over the breast and finish cooking at a higher temperature.

Thanksgiving Recipes

The best idea of healthy thanksgiving recipes is to aim for lower calories and create low fat Thanksgiving recipes, by altering your favorite recipes by stealth, so that you don't completely change the flavors and textures of these much-loved dishes.

Follow these hints to transform your usual holiday fare into healthy Thanksgiving recipes.

Turkey
Simply prepared, roasted with the correct turkey cooking time and served on its own, turkey is a nutritious low fat meat. For the healthiest turkey dinner, roast the bird on a rack so that the fat drains off. Choose white breast meat without the skin for the healthiest option. The darker meat has a higher fat content.Use healthy turkey stuffing recipes. Cook stuffing or dressing in a separate pan, rather than inside the bird where it will absorb more fat.Skim as much fat as possible from the juices before you use them to make gravy. Thicken the gravy with corn starch rather than a mix of flour/butter.Use any remaining turkey in Healthy Leftover Turkey Recipes.

Potatoes
Leave butter out of the mashed potatoes and moisten with low fat cream, chicken broth or skimmed milk instead. Use garlic and herbs to add flavor. Sweet potatoes are a great source of vitamins, but don't pile on the butter and sugar. Make a glaze from pineapple or orange juice thickened with corn starch, or add just a fine sprinkling of brown sugar.

Vegetables
Serve fresh vegetable crudites as appetisers.You really can get away without slathering butter all over the vegetables. Dress lightly with a little olive oil or vinaigrette if you wish, and add fresh herbs to enhance the flavor.Make green bean casserole with low fat condensed soup, or serve beans steamed and dressed with fresh herbs such as dill or chervil. Rather than fried onion rings on top, use toasted almond shreds.Serve vegetables steamed or boiled rather than coated in rich cheesy sauces.

Accompaniments
Do you really need bread rolls with such a heavy meal? 'Forget' to put them on the table, or if you do serve them, spread them lightly with a low calorie olive-oil based spread rather than butter.Cranberries are delicious, and you can lower the calorie count of cranberry relish by replacing some sugar with fresh orange juice.

Pumpkin pie
Use phyllo (filo) pastry for a low fat crust, or make a crumb crust with low fat graham crackers (digestive biscuits).Use skim milk or low fat soya milk.Some recipes recommend that you sweeten your pie with a sugar substitute, but it's preferable to avoid the use of artificial products for a really healthy diet, so cut the fat as much as you can and sweeten with sugar as usual - and limit the calorie intake by cutting into small slices to serve!

Dinner time
In the hours before the big meal, have a breakfast of wholewheat cereal or toast and some fresh fruit. Drink a glass of water 30 minutes before you sit down to eat. It will take the edge off your hunger.Less is more when it comes to the Thanksgiving dinner. Resist the temptation to pile your plate, but take just a little of all the foods you love - you'll still have a satisfying meal.

With a little planning, you can make your usual recipes into healthy Thanksgiving recipes. Whatever you do, enjoy the meal, and make the most of this once-a-year occasion.

How To Cook A Turkey

Don't know how to cook a turkey? Cooking a Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey is simple with these easy turkey cooking instructions.

If you buy a fresh, oven-ready turkey, you can keep it refrigerated for 2 days before roasting.

A frozen turkey needs careful thawing - follow the supplier's instructions carefully.

Before cooking, prepare your turkey for roasting.

You can do this the day before you want to cook, but don't stuff the bird until just before you want to roast it.

First, wash the bird inside and out under cold running water, and set it on to a layer of kitchen paper towels to drain.

Pat both inside and outside of your turkey dry with kitchen paper. Trim off any excess fat and skin around the neck and the opening to the body cavity, and underneath the bird.

If you are planning to stuff the bird, refrigerate it at this stage and use one of these Turkey Stuffing Recipes to make a well-flavoured dressing.

To stuff the breast, gently loosen the skin at the neck end and use a tablespoon to carefully push the stuffing in between the breast and skin. Keep the stuffing loose, as it expands when cooked and will burst the skin if you pack it in too tightly.

For food safety reasons, it's better to cook any remaining stuffing separately rather than placing it inside the body of the turkey. If you do stuff the cavity, use a meat thermometer to check that the stuffing is thoroughly cooked.

If not, you can put any aromatics of your choice inside the turkey to enhance the flavour - a halved lemon, a peeled and halved onion, bunches of fresh herbs or some roughly chopped apple.

Take the stuffed or unstuffed bird and place it on a clean board. The legs and tail may already have been trussed together. If not, tie the ends of the legs together firmly, using non-meltable string, then tie both to the tail. This helps to prevent the bird from gaping open during roasting.

Preheat the oven. The starting temperature depends on the size of the bird, check here for how long to cook a turkey.

Place the turkey on a wire rack in a large roasting tin or pan.

Rub or brush the bird lightly all over with oil such as sunflower. Season with salt and pepper and dried mixed herbs.

If you are using a meat thermometer, insert it into the thickest part of the leg, making sure the tip of it is not resting on the bone.

Wrap a sheet of turkey foil loosely over the bird, leaving some space between the turkey and the foil. Tuck the ends in.

Place the turkey in the oven for the first period of cooking, then turn down the heat - see turkey cooking time for detailed instructions.

Finally, remove the foil for the last half hour of cooking so that the breast can brown.

The most accurate test for done-ness is to use a meat thermometer, which should register 185F when the bird is cooked.

You can also pierce the thickest part of the breast with a skewer to check that the juices are running clear. The leg should be showing signs of coming away from the body.

When the bird is cooked, remove from the oven, lift carefully out of the roasting tin or pan, place on a warmed platter and leave to rest, covered, for at least 10 minutes and up to half an hour before carving. The bird will hold its heat for this amount of time and the meat will shrink down, making it much easier to carve.

Don't forget to make the most of your turkey, and try some of these leftover turkey recipes for delicious sandwiches and salads.

You can also make a great turkey soup recipe, or try a turkey meat loaf recipe.

With all these delicious dishes at your fingertips, you'll be glad you learned how to cook a turkey.