Thanksgiving Tips: Turkey Prep 101

The turkey is usually the most important part of your Thanksgiving Day meal. It can also be one of the trickiest if you haven’t cooked many before. However, it really is a very simple task if you prep right. Here, we have the two most important things to do before you cook the bird.

Defrost the Turkey!

Have you found yourself on Thanksgiving morning staring at a 20-pound turkey still half frozen because you only took it out of the freezer to thaw in the refrigerator 2 days earlier? I have. I had no clue you need about 24 hours of thaw time for every 5 POUNDS of turkey! Which means … that baby should have been in the fridge thawing 4 days ahead of the big day.

To save you from the headache of figuring out when to pull the bird out of the freezer, here is a handy little chart I found on the USDA’s website.

Brine the Turkey!

If you aren’t familiar with what brining is, it’s pretty much the best way to prep your turkey ever. It yields a super moist, flavor packed meat that your entire family will be in awe of. Much different than years past when they were in awe of how much of a train wreck you were showing up still feeling it from the Thanksgiving Eve festivities the night before. But I digress.

Here’s a recipe card for a simple turkey brine recipe using Spice Madness’ all in one Turkey Brine products to save for future reference.