BBQ Turkey

[Bedlam BBQ]

Hmm, seeing Mike in a skirt... now that's a scary thought. What would Christie think???

And I could just see the White House Press Room -- all decked out in tie-die.

[SoEzzy]

Here are the latest USDA guidelines for cooking turkey.

They say 165° in the breast is hot enough for bug killing purposes, but is just their minimum, not the temperature they recommend stopping cooking it at.

I like to cook to 175° in the breast, for a moist tender bird, my wife likes me to cook them to 185° - 190° internal as she likes a drier meat than I and the kids do, I will often, cook one full bird for the kids and I, and a breast only for the wife, (and leftover sandwiches).

Personnaly I like to cookin different ways with different temperatures: -

15 mins / lb at 375° + 15 minutes for the bird, so 12 lb turkey = 195 minutes (3 hours 15 minutes total cooking time).
18 mins / lb at 350° + 18 minutes for the bird, so 12 lb turkey = 234 minutes (3 hours 54 minutes total cooking time).
20 mins / lb at 325° + 20 minutes for the bird, so 12 lb turkey = 260 minutes (4 hours 20 minutes total cooking time).

I bounce around all over the temeratur range, sometimes lower still, I have done a few turkey breasts down at 250°, but because they were breast only I did them 22 mins / lb, if they had been full birds I would have looked at 25 - 28 minutes / lb cooking time based on weight + 1 lb as above.
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Here's a change Robert.

I still work here!