How to Thaw a Turkey

You will want to save this one! It never fails, every year I have to dust off the cobwebs in my brain to remember all the details of properly thawing a turkey before Thanksgiving Day. The tricky part is that every turkey is a different size, depending on how many people you are hosting, sometimes we buy the turkey early and have lots of time, sometimes we wait until the last minute and have very little time, and sometimes we just need a small turkey breast.  It’s hard to remember what to do in all of those different situations!  So…. we have just what you need!  All the information in one place for thawing a turkey in any situation!

How Much Turkey Per Person

A good rule of thumb is to buy about one pound of turkey for every person that you will be serving.  So if you have 15 people coming to dinner, you would want to buy a 15 pound turkey from the grocery store.  If you want to have a lot of leftovers (yes, please!) then you will want to add in about another 1/2 pound per person.  You might only need a small turkey breast if you are cooking for only a few people.

If you need any help with the calculations you can checkout this handy turkey calculator.

How to Thaw A Turkey in the Refrigerator

This will be the slowest way to thaw a turkey, make sure you have enough time.  You will want to allow about 24 hours for every 5 pounds of turkey.  So if your turkey is 15 pounds that will take about 3 days.

1. Keep the frozen bird in the original packaging.
2. Place the turkey, with the breast side up, in a roasting pan or rimmed baking sheet to prevent any turkey juices from getting all over the fridge.
3. Once the turkey is thawed in the fridge it can continue to stay there for up to 2 days before cooking – this is one perk to using this thawing method!

How to Thaw a Turkey: Cold-Water Method (Water Bath)

This might be the best way, it is definitely a quicker thawing method and probably the one that we use most often.  You will want to allow for about 30 minutes for every pound of turkey.  So if the turkey is 15 pounds that will take 7.5 hours to thaw in a cold water bath.

1. Keep the turkey in the original packaging.
2. Place the wrapped turkey, breast side down, in a kitchen sink, bucket, or large cooler to hold enough cold water to completely submerge the bird.
3. Fill the sink, bucket, or cooler with COLD tap water (40 degrees F. or colder!) and make sure you change the water every 30 minutes (or half hour).
4. Once the turkey thaws you will want to immediately prep the turkey to be cooked  – remember as soon as the thawing process begins bacteria that was present before freezing will begin to grow again, so cooking the thawed turkey very quickly is very important.

How To Know If A Turkey Is Thawed

Put your hand inside the bird to see if there are any ice crystals on the inside. You can also poke around the large meat portions with a fork to make sure that there aren’t any frozen parts. If it is too hard to poke, then it is still partially frozen.

How To Thaw A Turkey Breast

Follow the same thawing instructions above and calculate thaw times based on the size of the turkey breast. The thaw times should be pretty short overall, since a turkey breast is typically a smaller size than a full turkey.