How do you cook a 25lb stuffed turkey in a convection oven?

Answer 1

We'll start with thawing. To thaw your turkey, move it from the freezer to the refrigerator a few days before you plan to cook it. To determine how many days it needs to sit in the refrigerator to thaw, plan on 24 hours for every 5 lbs of turkey. In a pinch for time, you can thaw it in a sink full of cold water, still in its wrapping, and change the water every 30 minutes until it is fully thawed. So, for a 25 lb. turkey, you need to move it from the freezer to the fridge 5 days before you plan to cook it.

An hour or so before roasting your turkey, take it out of the fridge (or cold water). Remove it from the packaging and remove the bag of giblets from the body cavity and in the neck cavity. Set the turkey breast-side-up on the roasting rack and let it sit for an hour or so. This will warm it up a bit so it will cook more easily and it also allows the skin to dry out, which will help it brown beautifully and become crispy.

Remove all racks from the oven except the bottom rack, and make sure that rack is positioned at the lowest level of the oven. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Some cooks like to start off at 400 degrees F and lower the temperature a couple of times during cooking. This is perfectly fine if you want to do this, but your turkey will cook just fine at 325 degrees F.

Brush oil or melted butter all over your turkey. At this point, if you want, you can rub minced herbs or ground spices into the skin and place a couple of onions cut into fourths and a couple of garlic cloves, salt and pepper in the body cavity.

Pour 2 or 3 cups of water into the roasting pan and place the turkey in the oven.

You should roast an unstuffed turkey for 15 minutes per pound. So plan on cooking your 25 lb. turkey for 6 hours and 15 minutes. Every 45 minutes, take the turkey out of the oven and baste it all over with the liquids from the bottom of the roasting pan.

When the turkey is about 45 minutes close to being done, baste it again with oil or melted butter.

About 30 minutes before your determined cooking time is up, check the turkey's temperature in the thickest part of the breast and in the thickest area of the thigh. To be done, your thermometer should read 165 degrees Fahrenheit. If it isn't the right temperature yet, check it again in 20 minutes and continue checking every 20 minutes until the temperature is 165 degrees F.

If at any point, you feel the skin on the thighs and breast is getting too dark, you can loosely lay pieces of tin foil over the dark areas to prevent burning.

When the temperature of the turkey is 165 degrees F (or the pop-up timer pops up if it has one) remove the turkey from the oven.

Lift the turkey by the rack it's sitting on and till it so that any juices in the body cavity will run out into the pan, and transfer the turkey to a cutting board or countertop. You can use a large baking pan or cookie sheet to sit it on to prevent a mess.

Lay a large piece of tin foil over the top of the turkey and let it sit for 30 - 45 minutes to allow the meat to firm up and the juices to re-absorb into the meat. This helps make slicing it easier and the meat will be more juicy.

Now you're ready to carve the turkey!

Cooking Tips:

#1. Use the liquid in the bottom of the roasting pan to make gravy.

#2. Once the meat is off the bone, place the carcass in a large pan and cover it with water. Boil for 45 minutes and you'll have the richest broth you've ever seen. Let the broth cool and freeze it in individual containers for use later on. You can dilute the broth (yes, it's that rich!) if you want, which will make it go farther. And use it just as you would chicken broth. It's great for dumplings, soups and stews!