The Surefire Tip For Cooking An Entire Turkey Evenly

There are a lot of potential ways to cook a whole turkey evenly. Some people try to baste it all over so the juices are evenly distributed. Others may try their hand at smoking the turkey or even deep-frying it to make sure it's cooked all over. While these are all good ideas and each has its own benefit, there's one particular method you've probably never tried before: "icing" it.

By icing it, we don't mean that you should do anything rash with a piping bag. We refer to the idea of using ice to ensure your turkey can get as moist and as evenly cooked as possible. Icing a turkey isn't hard — all you have to do is take a few ice packs or plastic bags full of ice cubes and lay them over it for a few minutes while the bird thaws out in your sink. Let the ice packs sit on your turkey breast for around 15 to 20 minutes, before roasting the turkey as you usually would. 

At first glance, that seems counterproductive. We're trying to roast the turkey so it's evenly cooked, top to bottom, not trying to keep it so cold that it won't cook right. Normally, ice obviously wouldn't be necessary for trying to cook a turkey. But the main goal isn't to cook the turkey as fast as we can — it's to ensure all the meat, white and dark, is evenly cooked.

Have you ever been to your relatives' house for Thanksgiving, and noticed that the white meat of the turkey was dry? So dry that it almost seemed insulting they would serve it to you, but you drenched that sucker in gravy and swallowed it anyway to be polite? Even more baffling, the dark meat of the turkey seems incredibly juicy in comparison. If you've ever run into the problem of dry white meat, then icing your turkey will do the trick.

White and dark meats have different cooking times — as the dark meat takes longer to fully cook than the white meat. When the turkey's temperature reads "ready," chances are the white meat is overcooked while the dark meat is cooked to perfection. By putting ice packs on your turkey before you put it in the oven, what you're actually doing is lowering the temperature of the meat so that it will take longer to get to the "ready" mark.

This means that both the white and the dark meat will cook more evenly, rather than one cooking faster than the other, resulting in both types of meat remaining juicy and tender. Of course, while the white meat can still dry out if the temperature of the oven is too high, even if the turkey is chilled first, the ice method will provide extra piece of mind for those worried about tough turkey for their dinner.

It's natural to have some doubts about "icing" your turkey before you put it in the oven. After all, you usually don't associate ice with any form of roasting. How can you be sure that this method actually works?

Wine brand Kendall-Jackson performed an experiment with this ice-pack method in 2010, following the advice of food scientist Harold McGee. Two 15-pound birds were taken and set out to thaw, with one being covered in a large ice pack for between 15 and 20 minutes. Once the turkeys were thawed to room temperature, they were placed inside of a convection oven at 350 degrees with temperature probes fitted to them. The turkey that had been covered in ice had a difference of eight degrees compared to the turkey that was left out to thaw "raw."

After two hours in the oven, the turkeys were removed and carved. Although both turkeys were described to be tender, and the white meat of each were at the same temperature, the turkey that had been chilled with the ice pack was noticeably moister and more tender. Although there are many ways to ensure that your turkey remains moist and juicy, whether it's basting it, soaking it in a marinade, or putting a few ice packs on it as it thaws, we can all agree that a turkey that's juicy and tender is better than one that's dry and flavorless.