Happy Thanksgiving! How to Cook a 20 Pound Turkey

Easy Way to Cook a Turkey Recipe

Annette Phillips
Annette Phillips, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Nov 1, 2011 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."
Roasting a 20 lb turkey doesn't have to be complicated. With a few tips, this year's turkey will be moist and delicious.
Category
Main Dish
Cuisine
American
Main Ingredients
Meat and Poultry
Occasion
Thanksgiving
Prep Time
 15 min
Cook Time
3 hrs  30 min
Total Time
3 hrs  45 min

Ingredients

Serves 10
20 lb turkey
1 stick butter
1 medium onion, cut into fourths (optional)
3 stalks celery, cut into 3 inch long pieces (optional)
1 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon sage
1 tablespoon flour
Print Recipe

Directions for Happy Thanksgiving! How to Cook a 20 Pound Turkey

1
Cleaning the Turkey
The first step in cooking a turkey is to take off the wrapper and rinse the turkey with cool water. You'll need to rinse all parts of turkey inside and out until the water begins to run clear.
2
Set turkey aside. Preheat the oven according to turkey package directions.
3
Oven Bag for Cooking
Open one large Oven Bag to cook the turkey in and add the flour. Close the bag and shake. Be sure to coat the entire inside of the Oven Bag with the flour. Set aside.
4
Adding Extras
Add onion, celery, basil, and sage to the inside of the turkey.
5
Butter it Up!
Rub the butter all over the outside of the turkey. This will help give it that nice golden brown color.
6
Place the turkey into the Oven Bag. Tie the bag with the tie that is provided. Follow directions on the Oven Bag box being sure to cut holes in top of the bag.
7
Cooking a 20 Pound Turkey
This is the easy part. All you have to do is place the bagged turkey onto a baking dish and put it into the oven and wait. There is no need to baste. Often, the turkey will be done sooner inside the bag than it would be without one.
Tip
A shallow baking dish with a rack works great when cooking a turkey in a bag. The bag holds in the moisture and makes for a deliciously moist turkey.

To comment, please sign in to your Yahoo! account, or sign up for a new account.