FREE your OVEN! 8 alternative ways to cook a whole turkey

FREE your OVEN! 8 alternative ways to cook a whole turkey

I host Thanksgiving every year, which I love. It’s taken me a few years to get my system down, the timing, the recipes, the organizing.

It’s not flawless, but I’m approaching at least a level of easy comfort about the whole thing.

One of the best things I ever did to de-stress the holiday is to buy an electric roaster. Moving the turkey to the roaster means I free the oven for everything else.

My oven is not big enough to hold more than just the turkey, so pre-electric roasting, I had to get everything done before OR after the turkey. Now, I can prep my dishes with leisure. I also use the electric roaster at Easter for ham. So I pretty much only use it twice a year, but it was still worth every penny.

Note the sizes of the turkeys here, because some methods are better for smaller birds. My electric roaster is a big one, so I can hold up to a 20 pound turkey. But a slow cooker or a Dutch oven, for example, may not fit a turkey that large.

1. Try deep frying your turkey. 
2. Here are great instructions for cooking turkey in an electric roaster. Warning: Turkey is done faster than you think!
3. Cook your turkey with a charcoal smoker.
4. Grill your turkey. 

1. Cook it on the stove top in a Dutch oven. 
2. Pull out the slow cooker for your turkey. 
3. Or grill it on a beer can. 
4. Cook a whole turkey in an extra large pressure cooker. 

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