The Many Ways to Cook a Turkey for the Holidays

It's that time of year again, Christmas. With Christmas comes the Christmas dinner and Turkey is the staple for North American Families. There is more than one way to cook a Turkey, just how much work you want to put into making the perfect bird?

I'm not the most educated when it comes to picking out the best turkey, but if you want the best turkey buying tips the internet is full of them.

Turducken

I'd never heard of a Turducken before and I won't be making one anytime soon. This is definetly for the most adventurous of cooks. If you want to make a turkey everyone in your extended family will be talking about for years - this might just be the one! A Turducken, for those uneducated in the gormet turkey world -like me, is a Turkey stuffed with a duck, which is stuffed with a chicken and includes stuffing. Like I said, its for the most adventurist of cooks.

How to make a turducken.




Brine your Turkey for the Juciest Turkey around.

I brined a turkey a few years back, when I was more ambitious in the kitchen, and it was the juciest bird I'd ever cooked. It is really simple to do all you need is a cooler, cold water, brown sugar and kosher salt. There are lots of different variations for those who want to be adventerous and have more ambition in the kitchen then I ever had.

How to Brine a Turkey.

Simple How to Brine Recipe from Food network

Feeling more adventerous, add Aromatics and other flavourful items to the Brine.

The Martha Stewart Way to brine a turkey.

I was never so ambitious to go beyond water, salt, and brown sugar. However, these other brine receipes sound so good I wouldn't mind trying the results. Maybe I can get my mom to brine the turkey this year, I've got the cooler.




Deep Fry your Turkey

I've never deep fried a turkey, the first time I heard about it I thought it was a lie. I was manning a booth at a trade show and in conversation with some Texans across the lane the topic of deep fried turkey came up. When they mentioned this method of cooking a turkey I didn't believe them - I thought it was a joke at a Canadian's expense. However with the advent of the internet, I have discovered that a deep fried turkey is a real popular way of cooking turkey south of the 49th parrellel.



Deep frying a turkey may be tasty but it is dangerous if done carelessly. So if you are going to try this method of cooking your bird this year be careful.... I think I'll leave it to the professionals for now.




The Lazy Housewife Method

As the Lazy Housewife, I feel all the above turkey cooking methods are way too much work. My favorite method of cooking a turkey, by far, is purchasing a pre stuffed frozen butterball turkey. It goes directly from the freezer to the oven and after 6-8 hours your table. Cook at 450 for 1/2 hour and then turn the heat down to 300 for the rest of the cooking process. Don't forget to insert the themometer, I like the digital type.




Photo originates from Butterball.ca

What's your favorite way to prepare your holiday turkey?