Cooking A Turkey At 250 Degrees. Cooked low and slow turkey is tender juicy and pretty hard to mess up. The unconventional cooking method of roasting a turkey while you sleep might seem crazy on the outset but it actually makes a lot of sense.
Allow the turkey to rest about 30 minutes before carving. Increase the heat to 375 degrees and continue roasting for 30 to 45 minutes or until the skin is a rich brown and the meat has reached an internal temperature of at least 165 f. It seems strange but you can cook the turkey to temperatures that by intuition should result in a dessicated horrible bird think 200 degrees internal and instead end up with a bird that s moister than a bird cooked to 160 using the normal methods.
At 350 degrees you usually cook the turkey for 20 minutes per pound but at the low temperature of 250 you ll need to cook it for 6 to 8 hours.
Increase the heat to 375 degrees and continue roasting for 30 to 45 minutes or until the skin is a rich brown and the meat has reached an internal temperature of at least 165 f. So even though the 20 pound turkey is twice the weight of the 10 pound turkey you only have to cook it about 1 55 times. What oven temperature to cook a turkey. The unconventional cooking method of roasting a turkey while you sleep might seem crazy on the outset but it actually makes a lot of sense.