Name: How to Cook a Turkey in a Roaster Oven
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 3 h
Total time: 3 h 30 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 thawed turkey; 3 onions, peeled and roughly chopped; 20 baby carrots; 2 celery stalks, roughly chopped; 3 tablespoons butter, divided; 1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided; 2 1/2 teaspoons pepper, divided; 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning

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The best way to manage your oven space on Thanksgiving is to learn how to cook a turkey in a roaster oven because it frees up your oven for those pies, rolls, and side dishes! An electric roaster oven is a must-have piece of kitchen equipment for the holidays and my recipe and video tutorial will create the perfect turkey every time.

And YES, you can get that beautifully browned skin in a roaster oven 🙂

For way too many years, I fought the battle for oven space and schedule on Thanksgiving Day. It is HARD to get it all on the table at one time, still hot and looking delicious. To finally win that battle, I made two major changes in my Thanksgiving prep:

I created a master Thanksgiving Cooking Schedule & Oven Timing Planner. Get your free copy!
I moved my turkey into an electric roaster oven.

When your oven is taken up for 3-5 hours on the turkey, it then becomes a mad dash to get everything else done either before or after. Lose that craziness and switch to a roaster oven!

How long to thaw your turkey

It isn’t hard to properly roast a turkey but it has to be completely thawed first, and that takes time. It is best to let your turkey thaw slowly in the fridge the week before the big feast.

The general formula is to allow 24 hours to thaw for every 4 pounds of frozen turkey. So to save you some time doing the math…

12 pounds	72 hours = 3 days
14 pounds	84 hours = 3 1/2 days
16 pounds	96 hours = 4 days
18 pounds	108 hours = 4 1/2 days

Remember that these are just estimates. I always like to add an extra 12-24 hours just to be safe! Yes, you can “speed defrost” a turkey in cold water, but that requires changing the water every 30 minutes and the risk for contamination is just too high for my comfort.

When is the turkey done roasting?

Yes, many turkeys come with those handy little red pop-up indicators, but I don’t trust them….at all. Spend $15 bucks and get a proper food thermometer because it is perfect for more than just turkey! Once you know an exact temperature of your cooked proteins, you will stop overcooking them and be amazed how much better of a cook you have become 🙂

The only way to know a turkey is fully cooked (and not overcooked!) is with a temperature reading…which is very simple to do. For the breast meat, insert the probe into the thickest part of the meat, running parallel to the ribs. That reading should be 165 degrees.

You need to check the thigh meat as well, which should be at 175 degrees. Once you have reached those temperatures, remove the turkey from the roaster and allow it to rest for 20-30 minutes before carving.

Don’t skip the resting!

Resting your finished turkey before carving is very important, but the step most new cooks skip because they want to eat now 🙂 Giving the finished bird time to sit after allows the meat to reabsorb the juices. If you skip it, they will all dribble out and you will have a dry turkey.

Also, it is important that you don’t tent the bird with foil while it rests or it will make the skin soggy. It will still be a perfect hot temperature after the resting period.