Thanksgiving is a mere two days away. Do you know what you're doing with your turkey this year?

Hopefully you have mad skills in the kitchen and have the perfect process for delivering a perfectly moist and flavorful turkey.

If you're like me, you'll probably want to check out the following eight common mistakes people make with their Thanksgiving turkey.

  1. Not thawing it out soon enough. A 12-to-16 pound turkey takes four days to thaw in the fridge, meaning you should have taken it out of the freezer and into the fridge yesterday! If you forgot, you can still thaw it out in cold water, which takes about 30 minutes per pound.
  2. Brining a turkey that's already been brined. Check the label. If it says something like "8% water, salt, and spices", you don't need to brine it.
  3. Keeping it in the fridge until you're ready to cook it. You should let it sit in the pan at room temperature for about an hour to help it cook evenly.
  4. Turning down the oven when the skin browns too quickly. Once it's in there, you shouldn't mess with the temperature too much. Put aluminum foil over it to keep the skin from burning.
  5. Basting it while it's in the oven. Some people swear by it, but you lose heat every time you open the oven, so it takes longer to cook. Plus drowning it with the liquid from the bottom of the pan can actually make the skin soggy and dry the meat out.
  6. Not using a meat thermometer. A lot of turkeys come with that little red thing that pops up when it's done. But they're not all that accurate. A lot of them pop out when the temperature is 180 degrees, which is too hot. The perfect temperature is really between 160 and 165.
  7. Carving the turkey as soon as it's out the oven. You should wait about 15 minutes, so the juices have time to soak back into the meat.
  8. Carving the entire turkey at once. It's fine if you're going to eat it all on Thanksgiving. But if you're saving leftovers, they'll dry out in the fridge. It's better to cut off one of the legs and breasts, put them in the refrigerator whole, and just cut off slices whenever you want them.

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