From choosing the bird to sitting it in the tin: size, safe thawing, the giblets, a gentle brine, the wishbone, the neck end, a tidy truss and butter under the skin.
An oven-ready turkey, ready to unwrap, check and prepare.
Preparing, step by step
This is the whole-bird path we use for Roast Turkey and Gravy. If you would rather take the legs off and roast a crown, skip to Taking the legs off once the bird is thawed and the giblets are out.
Step 1Choosing and buying
Allow about 500 g raw weight per person. That is the figure we use on the roast turkey page, and it leaves a little for the next day without buying a bird you cannot get in the oven. Free-range if you can. Fresh or frozen both work, so long as a frozen bird is fully thawed in the fridge before you cook it.
If you plan to brine the turkey, avoid birds labelled self-basting, basted, or “for flavouring”: they have already had a salt solution added, and a second brine will make them too salty. There is more on that in our brining guide.
A frozen turkey must be fully thawed in the fridge, on the bottom shelf, in a covered container that catches the drips. Do not thaw it at room temperature, in a shed, or in warm water. Keep raw poultry away from ready-to-eat food.
Follow the pack if it gives a time. If it does not, the Food Standards Agency says allow around 10–12 hours per kg. A big bird therefore needs three or four days, so start in good time. It is fully thawed when there is no ice in the cavity and the legs are flexible. Only then take it out of the fridge for the hour before cooking.
Thaw it in the fridge, on the bottom shelf, in a container that catches the drips.
Fridge thawing, at 10–12 hours per kg
Bird
Allow
In days, roughly
4 kg
40–48 hours
About 2 days
5 kg
50–60 hours
About 2½ days
6 kg
60–72 hours
About 3 days
7 kg
70–84 hours
About 3–3½ days
8 kg
80–96 hours
About 3½–4 days
The kit
A sturdy board and kitchen paper. Put a damp cloth under the board so it does not slide.
A small, sharp knife — a paring or boning knife — for the wishbone, and kitchen scissors or poultry shears for the string and, if you need them, the wing tips or a crown.
Cotton kitchen string for tying the legs. About 75 cm for a simple tie, or around 2 m for a full truss on a big bird.
A food-safe brining bag or a deep container, if you are wet-brining, and a rack if you are dry-brining.
Softened unsalted butter for under the skin. We use 60 g on a 5 kg bird in the roast turkey recipe. Use butter, not margarine. A little sunflower oil is for browning the bones in the tin, not for the skin.
A large, heavy roasting tin and a probe thermometer for the roast itself, and for the stuffing if you put any in the neck.
Step 3Unwrap it and take out the giblets
Once the bird is thawed, or as soon as you unwrap a fresh one, lift out the giblet bag. Do not wash the turkey: splashing raw poultry around the sink spreads germs, and the Food Standards Agency advises against it. Pat it dry with kitchen paper if you need to. Wash your hands, and clean the board and surfaces, after handling the raw bird.
Cut off the wing tips and save them with the giblets — except the liver, which can make stock bitter — for a batch of make-ahead giblet stock. The rest of the wings and the neck go into the roasting tin later, not into the stock pot, so the flavour is not used twice. Make the stock the day before if you can; cool it quickly and refrigerate it within two hours.
Lift out the giblets, and do not wash the bird. Save the giblets and wing tips for stock.
Step 4Optional brining
You do not have to brine a turkey. Our roast method already aims for a juicy bird, with a hot start, a gentle finish and a long rest. Brining is an extra, if you want the meat seasoned right through and a little more insurance against dryness.
Go gentle, and keep the time short. Make a 5% brine: 50 g fine salt for every litre of cold water, with up to 25 g sugar per litre if you like. Give it about 1 hour per kg, so a 5 kg bird needs about 5 hours; a whole bird can take 4–12 hours, and a crown 2–4 hours at most. Always in the fridge, below 5°C. Lift it out on time, let it drain and pat it dry; do not rinse it. Shorter brining keeps the juiciness without the saltiness, especially if you will eat the turkey cold on Boxing Day.
Rather keep it simple? Dry-brine it: 10 g fine salt per kg, rubbed all over and under the breast skin, then left uncovered on a rack in the fridge for 1–2 days. If you brine the bird, beat the butter later with pepper only, and taste the gravy before you add salt.
A gentle 5% brine, about an hour per kilo, always in the fridge.
Take the wishbone out before the bird is roasted and the breast will carve into neat slices, with no bone in the way. You can do this once the turkey is unwrapped, before or after brining. (If it is still in when you come to carve, there is a shorter after-roasting version on How to carve a turkey.)
Sit the bird breast-up, neck end towards you, and lift the neck skin back.
Lift the neck skin and scrape along each side of the wishbone until the bone is exposed.Work your fingers round both arms of the bone until it is clear of flesh.Cut it free at the base and lift the wishbone out in one piece.
With a small, sharp knife, scrape along the flesh on each side of the wishbone until the bone is exposed. Then use your fingers to rub it clear, working round both arms. Cut the bone free at the base, where the two arms meet the breastbone, and lift it up and out in one piece.
Step 6Stuffing the neck end only
The Food Standards Agency advises cooking turkey stuffing in a separate tin. Our roasting times, and the Christmas charts, assume an unstuffed bird. That is the path we follow in Roast Turkey and Gravy, with a dish of English Stuffing or Chestnut Stuffing cooked alongside.
If you do put stuffing in the bird. Use the neck end only, not the main cavity, which stays cold for too long. Spoon the stuffing in loosely — it swells as it cooks, and a packed pocket can burst or stay cold in the middle. The centre of the stuffing must reach 75°C, and the bird will take longer, so go by a probe, not the clock.
Loosen the skin at the neck end to make a pocket over the breast. Spoon in a little stuffing, fold the neck flap over it and underneath the bird, so the bird’s own weight helps to keep it closed. A cocktail stick will hold it if it will not stay, then truss as usual.
If you stuff the neck, spoon it in loosely — it swells as it cooks.Fold the neck flap over the stuffing and underneath the bird.
Step 7Trussing or tying
Tie the legs so the bird keeps a neat shape in the oven and sits steady on the board when you carve. A simple tie at the drumsticks is enough for most home kitchens: about 75 cm of cotton string, looped under both drumstick ends, pulled so the legs close over the cavity, then a double knot and the ends trimmed short. If you have stuffed the neck, fold the flap under first.
A full one-string truss also holds the wings against the body. The whole method, including a note on trussing with a needle, is on How to truss a chicken or turkey.
Tie the legs so the bird keeps a neat shape in the oven.
Step 8Butter under the skin, and seasoning
Beat softened unsalted butter with salt and ground black pepper. If the bird was brined, use pepper only. Gently loosen the skin over the breast, from the neck end, and spread about a third of the butter underneath; rub the rest over the bird. On a 5 kg turkey we use 60 g of butter, as in the roast recipe.
Use butter, not margarine. Take the turkey out of the fridge one hour before it goes into the oven, and soften the butter at the same time.
Loosen the breast skin and spread softened butter underneath, then rub the rest over the bird.
Step 9Into the tin, then on to the roast
In our Roast Turkey and Gravy method, you brown the rest of the wings and the neck in a little sunflower oil, in the roasting tin, with onion, carrot and herbs. Then sit the turkey on those browned bones and vegetables and put it into a very hot oven to start, before finishing at a lower heat.
Go by a probe, not the clock. The house figures — including the times for a 4–8 kg bird and where to probe — are on the recipe and on our roasting chart. When it comes out, give it a proper rest, then see How to carve a turkey.
Sit the turkey on its browned wing joints, neck and vegetables, then into the oven.
Taking the legs off, for a crown
The breast cooks in less time on its own, and the legs can be boned, stuffed and cooked separately. That is the method in Turkey Crown with Stuffed Legs. Do this once the bird is thawed and the giblets are out; you can still brine the crown afterwards, for 2–4 hours at most.
Pull each leg away from the body and cut through the skin between the leg and the breast. Bend the leg back to free the thigh joint and cut through it, keeping the oyster of meat on the leg. Then cut the backbone away below the breasts with poultry shears so the crown sits flat. Keep the backbone, wing tips and neck for stock and gravy.
Cut the skin between leg and breast, then pull the leg out to show the hip joint.Both legs off: the crown roasts in less time, and the legs can cook on their own.
A different option, if you would rather have no bones to work round at all, is a turkey supreme: the bird boned and rolled into a joint, then tied with string. It cooks evenly and carves into clean, round slices. Ask your butcher to do it, or start from the legs-off method and follow the rolled-joint tying on the tying page. Because it is a stuffed, rolled piece, cook it right through, and take the centre to 75°C if there is stuffing inside.
Boned, rolled and tied, it cooks evenly and carves into neat slices.
A few useful points
Do not wash the bird. Pat it dry if you need to, and keep the sink, board and cloths clean.
Give a frozen bird enough fridge time. Ten to twelve hours per kg, on the bottom shelf, until there is no ice in the cavity.
Stuffing is safer in its own tin. If you use the neck end, it must reach 75°C in the middle.
