Someone gave me a turkey in Nov. I have waited til now to make it, its pretty big. How long can I safely have it thawed out. I put it in the fridge Wednesday evening and our fridge is pretty cold. How long do i have before not being able to cook it?
When thawing out our turkeys that we cook for Thanksgiving we put the frozen bird in the fridge on Sunday, cook on Thursday. General rule of thumb is that you have a week to cook after it’s been thawed.
If you want to hurry things up, fill your sink with cold water and stick the bird in there for a few hours.
If you are going to brine the turkey you can start before it’s fully thawed, and the brining will finish the job.
No brining, its been 4 days.
It should be ready after 4 refrigerated days of thawing. As long as it is thawed enough to be able to pry the neck, gibblets and stuff out of the body cavity. Then you can rinse out the body and you should be good to go. If it is still too frozen to get the stuff out, soak it in cold water until you can.
Would 5 days be too late?
I’m thinking not at all. You should be good to go - use a meat thermometer and set it for 165 or 170 or so. The bird will still rise in temp 5 - 10 degrees after you take it out.
Don’t forget to throw the turkey carcass in a freezer bag for yummy soup-making goodness later on. We just made our Thanksgiving carcass dumpling soup this weekend and it was truly delightful.
Awesome turkey 101