One reason people are intimidated by cooking a turkey is because they are just hard to cook AND if you’re not careful you can sicken everybody at your Thanksgiving table!
Turkey experts tell us these are the biggest mistakes we tend to make:
- We fail to wash our hands, before and numerous times while preparing the bird.
- Thawing your turkey anywhere but in the refrigerator. Bacteria and pathogens grow alarmingly at room temperature, so let your fridge slowly thaw your bird.
- Allowing turkey juices to drip into your fridge. Avoid cross contamination by setting your bird in a pan first.
- Washing your turkey, which can also lead to cross contamination.
- Stuffing the bird. It’s safer to cook your stuffing outside of the turkey.
- Cooking a frozen turkey. By the time it reaches a safe temperature, it’s overcooked.
- Not using a meat thermometer.
Good luck cooking!