Reduce the trouble with 2-hour turkey

The turkey is thawed and the fridge is packed with the rest of your Thanksgiving dinner but how do you juggle everything that is going to need oven time before this feast is finished.

Safeway grocery stores and Sunset magazine kitchens have a solution … their exclusive 2-hour turkey.

Crank up the heat and you can get that bird out of the way fast. The less time your bird is taking up all that oven space, the more time you have for the sweet potatoes, corn pudding and green bean casserole. Safeway tested dozens of turkeys to come up with a method for moist turkey that has crisp brown skin. You can cook a turkey of up to 22 pounds in two hours, according to a news release from the company.

“The introduction of the 2-Hour Turkey recipe eliminates all-day cooking on Thanksgiving and gives our customers more time to spend with their family and friends,” says Michael Minasi, a Safeway vice president.

Want to try it? Here’s what you’ll need: a thawed turkey, coarse ground black pepper, coarse kosher salt, extra-virgin olive oil and a very clean oven. (Otherwise you’ll fill the kitchen with smoke. And that is no way to greet your guests.) A recipe booklet can be found at area Safeway stores, but here’s the Cliff notes version: Preheat the oven to 475 degrees, put in the prepared bird and roast it until it’s done. (That’s 160 degrees on a thermometer when inserted into the breast. Or 170 degrees, as recommended by the USDA.)

Safeway and Sunset aren’t the first to think of cranking the dial to speed up roasting. The method became popular when it was included in a book by Barbara Kafka, “Roasting: A Simple Art,” according to Rick Rodgers in his book, “Thanksgiving 101.” Rodgers recommends a little lower temperature (425 degrees) for his high-heat roasting method.

“The high-temperature method blasts the outside of the bird to seal the skin and hold in juices,” Rodgers writes.

Frozen turkey blues

One of the biggest holiday mistakes for rookies is that they forget to thaw the bird. But even if your turkey is still solid there are a couple options: cold-water thawing or the microwave.

Submerge the tightly wrapped turkey into a cold water bath and it will take about 30 minutes per pound to thaw, according to the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service. That’s about 8 to 10 hours for a 16 to 20 pound bird. And you have to change the water every 30 minutes.

If your turkey fits into the microwave, that’s another possibility. Check your owner’s manual for the details on how to thaw it.

For more turkey tips, go to: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/