Turkey Cheat Sheet: A Guide to the Perfect Turkey
Make THE most delicious turkey with tips from this Turkey Cheat Sheet! With tips for how much to serve, how to brine, how long to cook, roasting tips, recipe ideas and more.
If you’re roasting a turkey, this post is full of helpful cooking information and useful tips to give you the most delicious turkey! Everything you need to know, at your fingertips! Here’s what you can expect in this post:
FAQs A Quick Reference
The Perfect Turkey Cheat Sheet
For your convenience I put together a quick Turkey Cheat Sheet as a reference guide for when you roast a turkey. Just DOWNLOAD it here, and save it to your desktop or print it off! Or PIN it to save and use later.
How Much Turkey Per Person?
So there are 2 ways to think about this. Do you want just enough turkey for everyone? Or do you also want leftovers?
- NO leftovers: the best rule of thumb to follow is 1 + 1/4 pound of turkey per person. For example, 6 people with no leftovers would be about an 8 lb turkey.
- WITH leftovers: 1 + 1/2 to 1 + 3/4 pounds of turkey per person. For 6 people with leftovers would be about a 10 – 12 pound turkey.
How to Thaw Turkey
The best way to thaw a turkey is to take it out of the freezer and place it in the fridge to thaw. The rule of thumb is 24 hours for every 4 pounds. So if you have an 8-10 pound turkey, you will need 2-3 days to thaw; a 16 pound turkey will take 4 days, a 20 pound turkey will take 5 days and so on.
Brining a Turkey
Brining a turkey is SO easy and results in the most tender, moist and flavourful turkey! You can grab my favourite turkey brine recipe and more helpful tips here! But here are the basics of brining:
- To a large stock pot add 1 cup of salt to 16 cups water (1 gallon), then add about 1 cup total, of aromatics/flavourings to the water. For example garlic, cranberries, bay leaves, peppercorns, mustard seeds, rosemary, thyme, onions, lemon, orange, wine…the possibilities are endless. Then add the turkey to the pot so it is fully covered in brine. Brine for 12-24 hrs, turning it once during brining. Then rinse the turkey well and pat dry after brining. Now proceed to roasting.
How to Season a Turkey
Once you have the turkey in the roasting pan you can season it. There are a couple of ways you can do this.
- Dry Seasoning: Brush the top of the turkey, including the wings and legs, with olive oil. Then season generously with salt, ground black pepper, and poultry seasoning (rosemary, thyme and sage). Sometimes I just use seasoning salt and pepper.
- Whipped Butter: Mix 3/4 cup salted butter with fresh herbs such as parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. Then spread the butter mixture all over the top of the turkey. SO SO SO good. You can see more about how to do this in my Traditional Roast Turkey Recipe here.
SO flavourful!
Bacon Wrapped Turkey
Yes. Everyone must try a bacon wrapped turkey at least once in their lives. It’s so delicious. Bacon adds the perfect amount of flavour and smokiness to roasted turkey. And believe it or not, gravy made with the pan juices is amazing. Get my recipe for Bacon Wrapped Turkey here.
Turkey Cooking Times (325 degree F)
This is the most asked question when it comes to cooking a turkey…how long does it take? Well it depends on a couple of things: the weight and whether it’s stuffed. But the basic rule of thumb is 15 – 20 minutes per pound at an oven temperature of 325 degrees F. The best way to know if the turkey is done is to check the temperature: when a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh meat reaches an internal temperature of 165 – 170 degrees F it’s done.
| Turkey Weight | Stuffed Turkey | Unstuffed Turkey |
| 8 lb | 3 hours | 2 + 3/4 hours |
| 10 lb | 3 + 1/4 hours | 2 + 55 minutes |
| 12 lb | 3 + 1/2 hours | 3 hours |
| 14 lb | 3 + 3/4 hours | 3 + 3/4 hours |
| 16 lb | 4 hours | 4 hours |
| 18 lb | 4 + 1/4 hours | 4 + 1/4 hours |
| 20 lb | 4 + 1/2 hours | 4 + 1/2 hours |
| 22 lb | 4 + 3/4 hours | 4 + 3/4 hours |
Making Gravy from Pan Juices
Keep all of the delicious pan juices from roasting the turkey, they make the BEST gravy!
- Take the pan drippings and pour them into a saucepan or large skillet (you should have about about 2 cups of drippings). If you don’t have 2 cups, you can top it up with additional chicken broth. Keep the stovetop heat at medium.
- Whisk in about 1/4 cup of flour while the gravy boils. Whisk until smooth.
- If the gravy separates, add more chicken broth and flour and whisk until smooth.
- If you would like extra smooth gravy use a hand blender to mix everything.
- Taste the gravy then salt and pepper to your taste preference.
- Tip! Sometimes if I want a little extra flavour, I will add a splash or 2 of soy sauce.
Turkey Cooking Tips
- Prepare the turkey: Remove the neck and giblets, rinse, pat dry. Make sure the skin from the neck of the turkey fully covers the back portion of the turkey, and that the legs and wings are tucked in.
- Use a roasting pan large enough to fit your turkey.
- Place a roasting rack under the turkey to avoid steaming and a soggy turkey.
- Before roasting, baste the top of the turkey with butter or oil for delicious golden browning!
- If you want a more golden turkey top, at the very end of cooking, turn up the oven to 400 degrees F and cook for a few more minutes, until the top is golden.
- Once the turkey is done cooking allow it to rest, covered with foil, for 20-30 mins before carving.
- When done, save the pan juices to use for gravy.
Basic How to Cook a Turkey
- Prepare the turkey for roasting. Clean, season, place in roasting pan.
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. YES, you read that right.
- Place the turkey in the oven and immediately TURN DOWN the heat to 325 degrees F.
- Roast according to the weight and time chart above.
- Enjoy!
More Delicious Resources
Now that you’ve perfected your turkey, here are some tasty links for side dishes, desserts, make-ahead recipes and table setting ideas.
I hope you found everything you need in this Turkey Cheat Sheet to cook a turkey! It may seem difficult, bit it’s actually SO easy. Just look at it like you’re cooking a giant chicken for dinner…it doesn’t need to be any more complicated than that. Good luck, you’ve got this!
Have a delicious day!
