How Long To Cook A Turkey In A Roaster Per Pound. Your recipe may call for a different temperature and overall time and your oven may run hotter or cooler. This table from the usda is based on a 325 f oven and a fully defrosted or fresh bird.
How long to cook a turkey the times on this chart are based on placing the whole turkey on a rack in a roasting pan and into a preheated 350 degree f 175 degrees c oven. How to roast a basic turkey. A 12 pound turkey will take three days to defrost in the refrigerator while a 20 pound takes five days to thaw.
Since roasting a stuffed turkey is no longer considered food safe not to mention doing so dries out the turkey meat it s best to stick to this method and bake one of these crowd pleasing stuffing recipes in a separate dish.
Optional but recommended brush your turkey with a browning sauce of butter kitchen bouquet 3 target and paprika about cup butter 1 tsp. If you have the instructions for your roaster those will include a chart of cooking times. This table from the usda is based on a 325 f oven and a fully defrosted or fresh bird. Remove foil during last hour of cook time.