Find out some ideas of what to do when you are faced with a frozen turkey and it's the day before Thanksgiving.
If you are reading this on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving also known as the day before Thanksgiving, you may be really stressed right now. Take a moment. Breathe! Yes, your turkey is still frozen right now, so hopes of your fridge doing the job on it's own are likely gone.
But not all hope is lost!
Let me give you some ideas of what you can do to save the day (Thanksgiving Day that is!)
Safe & Quick Thaw Method
Important! Read This - Your best friend in the world right now is going to be a thermometer. If you don't have one right now and a store is still open that sells them, stop reading this and go and get yourself one. What I use (ThermoWorks brand) aren't available in regular stores, so you will have to wait on getting one of them. Just find what you can, either a instant read style thermometer or one with a probe that you still in the turkey while cooking. The thermometer will not only help you cook your turkey to perfection it will also help you thaw it safely.
You may be tempted to leave your turkey out on the counter to thaw, do NOT do this. This is a great way to invite unwanted bacteria to your Thanksgiving dinner.
What a better option is going to be is water. You see water does a better job of transferring heat than the air does. If you put the turkey into water, it will eventually come to the point where it will be the same temperature as the water, thus thawing the turkey.
The key thing is that you want to make sure that water is cold enough. You can use ice to keep the water from going above 40 degrees, which is when bacteria can begin to grow.
I want to give you an idea of how long the defrosting take per pound. These times are approximate, so it's good to give yourself a little wiggly room. If you have the time to go a little longer than this recommendations safely, then feel free to do so. It's often hardest to get the cavity completely thawed. I often find ice still in there, that I can managed to get out but my hands don't like being that cold!
| Turkey Size | Time | |
| 10 pounds | 5 hours | |
| 11 pounds | 5 ½ hours | |
| 12 pounds | 6 hours | |
| 13 pounds | 6 ½ hours | |
| 14 pounds | 7 hours | |
| 15 pounds | 7 ½ hours | |
| 16 pounds | 8 hours | |
| 17 pounds | 8 ½ hours | |
| 18 pounds | 9 hours | |
| 19 pounds | 9 ½ hours | |
| 20 pounds | 10 hours | |
| 21 pounds | 10 ½ hours | |
| 22 pounds | 11 hours |
Head over right now to my post on How to Quickly Thaw a Turkey to get my full instruction on how to do this safely and successfully.
Thaw & Brine at the Same Time
If you had plans to brine your turkey but now have to thaw it first and don't have time to brine as well, no worries, you could do both at the same exact time.
Check out my post on Can You Thaw and Brine a Turkey at the Same Time. I also have another post that goes into details of adding flavor to a turkey that you aren't brining at all. Check out my post I Don't Have Time to Brine. I talk about what I would do to help the turkey stay juicy too.
Running Low on Time
So if you are worried the time I said that it's going to take to thaw the turkey all the way is going to delay your meal, then there are options to cook the turkey quicker once it's thawed. They will involve forfeiting your dream of bringing that perfect looking browned turkey to your dinner table.
You can cook the turkey faster by either spatchcocking or butterflying it. This increases the surface area of the bird and it will cook quicker. I normally can cook a 14 pound turkey in about 90 minutes using Alton Brown's Spatchcock Turkey recipe.
Another option is to cut the turkey up into it's parts, breast, thighs, drumsticks, and wings. Once you have that done and put them in the oven, it should take about 80 minutes or so.
I tried out a recipe like this before where I glazed the turkey at the end with a cranberry-orange glaze.
🌡️ You need to cook the white meat to 165 degrees and the dark meat to 180 degrees. That is why having a thermometer is so key to knowing when your turkey is perfectly done and that you don't serve raw turkey or dry & overcooked turkey. For a whole turkey there is carryover heat, which means the turkey goes up in temperature after you pull it from the oven, usually 8-10 degrees, so you can pull a whole turkey at 157 for the white meat. But you won't have that same effect with a cut up turkey, so I would shot for 165 in the white, 180 in the dark exactly.
Let Me Know How It Goes
I would love to hear how it worked out for you. Put your email address in below and I will personally send you an email after Thanksgiving to see how things went. I will also send you an email with my favorite way to use leftover turkey.
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