Everyone wants perfectly golden-brown crispy turkey skin, but few people actually know how to get perfectly golden-brown crispy turkey skin. Turkey is a controversial centerpiece of Thanksgiving in part because it’s easy to mess up, and for that reason, the universally beloved side dishes wind up doing a lot of the heavy-hitting. The finicky bird can easily dry out in the oven, or come out bland and borderline slimy. Turns out, the trick for juicy turkey that’s got skin crispy enough to audibly shatter when you bite it isn’t a special glaze or a particular kind of convection oven. It’s simpler than that: it’s trust.
Just ask the Turkey Talk experts at Butterball, the food and retail brand; I did and they gave me some pretty shocking advice. If there’s one way to guarantee crispy turkey skin every time, it’s to stop with all the basting and glazing and just let the bird cook undisturbed. I know this goes against everything generations before you may have sworn by, but basting the bird just cools down the oven and makes the turkey take longer to reach the right temperature.
To get that crispy turkey skin just right, here’s everything else the Butterball experts want you to know.
How to Get Crispy Turkey Skin
For end results that are a nice, deep brown, the Butterball experts recommend brushing the raw turkey skin with a high-heat oil or clarified butter before putting it in the oven. Butterball says turkey skin is like a raincoat and the drippings just drip right off, anyway, so basting won’t do you much good. Instead, put all those drippings to good use as the base for the gravy you’ll use to smother your mashed potatoes.
Also – and this is where that trust exercise comes into play – it’s crucial to resist the urge to repeatedly open the oven. It’s tempting to check on the bird, but the oven light is there for a reason. Just be sure that when you’re popping everything in at the beginning, you position the turkey and the oven-safe thermometer in such a way that you can read the temperature through the window.
If your oven doesn’t have a window (or you don’t have an oven-safe thermometer), there’s always simple math. Use a calculator-convertor to calculate how long it will take to cook the bird, and set a timer so you can minimize opening the oven door.
Follow these simple tricks and you’ll have plenty of crispy turkey skin to be thankful for this holiday.
Anna Monette Roberts is a former PS contributor.
