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Food Network’s Test Kitchen Chefs Cooked a Fully Frozen Turkey and Here’s How It Turned Out
Read on if it’s Thanksgiving and you’re wondering what to do about a turkey that’s still entirely or partially frozen.
Renee Comet
To defrost a turkey in the refrigerator, you need a full day for every 5 pounds of turkey. So if you’re cooking a 12-pound turkey, that’s over two days. The CDC assures us it’s safe to cook a fully frozen turkey, and other prominent food websites even assure readers that it’ll taste pretty good—perhaps juicier than a fully thawed turkey. But the expert chefs in the Food Network test kitchen were extremely skeptical, so they decided to test it out with a fully frozen 12-pound turkey.
How Do I Cook a Frozen Turkey?
Food Network’s recipe developer Richmond Flores roasted the turkey using the following method. The cooking time will take at least 50 percent longer than recommended for a fully thawed turkey. He added vegetables and water to the roasting pan and basted the turkey every hour starting at three hours to impart the turkey with as much moisture as possible.
Ingredients:
1 12-pound frozen turkey, removed from plastic
2 celery stalks
1 large onion, chopped
1 garlic head, halved
2 medium carrots, chopped
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Place the vegetables in the bottom of a roasting pan along with 2 cups water. Transfer the frozen turkey to the rack of the roasting pan and tent with foil. Roast for 2 hours.
After 2 hours, remove the turkey and remove the giblet bag with a pair of tongs. Season the turkey with salt and pepper. Fold the wings in, if possible, or cut the wing tips completely off. Add 2 more cups of water to the roasting pan.
After 3 hours, remove the turkey neck and baste the turkey with the pan juices. Continue basting the turkey every hour until an instant read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the turkey reads 165 degrees F, about 6 hours.
Renee Comet
How Did the Frozen Roast Turkey Turn Out?
With crispy, deeply bronzed skin, the turkey looked stunning when it came out of the oven. But the inside was extremely dry and stringy. According to Richmond Flores, “It was edible in that it would not make you sick, but final product was not worth the time or energy.” Ginevera Iverson, Executive Chef of Food Network, explained why the technique did not work well: “The outer layers of meat cook first, and the turkey is in the oven so long, that by the time the frozen core cooks through, the outer meat gets completely dried out.” In this author’s humble opinion, it was the downright worst turkey I’ve ever experienced. No one wanted to have a second bite, and the turkey went into the compost bin.
Renee Comet
What Should You Do Instead of Cooking a Frozen Turkey?
Run to the grocery store at the crack of dawn and buy something else, like a chicken or a thawed turkey breast.
Or, if you’re dead-set on cooking the bird you already have, quick-thaw it in the sink: First, clean your kitchen sink and place your frozen and wrapped turkey in the largest pot you have. Fill it with enough cold water to fully submerge the turkey (you may need to weigh it down with a plate). Every 30 minutes, drain the pot and refill with more cold water. After it's thawed, dry the bird well with paper towels. Plan on 2 to 3 hours for every 5 pounds of frozen turkey.
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