The first time I cooked a half turkey, it felt like a revelation. “You mean, the delicious taste of roast turkey, with ample meat for 4 – 6 people, in more or less the same time it takes to cook chicken? I should do this every week!”
Half turkeys include one breast, one thigh, one drumstick and one wing — that is, they are sliced down the breast bone to be a half of a whole turkey. Roasted on their side (skin side up, bones down), they look pretty impressive in their roasting pan, and cook much more quickly than a whole bird.
Half turkeys generally weigh between 5 – 10 pounds, and we recommend you allow about 10 minutes/pound at 325°F. You can follow any turkey recipe with a half-turkey, just remember that it will cook more quickly than you expect — possibly even under an hour, so don’t let it go too long without checking. A meat thermometer in the thickest part of the breast should be 165°F (meat will continue to rise an additional 10°F once you take it out.)
If you’re having a large crowd for Thanksgiving, consider choosing a whole turkey and a half turkey, rather than just one very large bird. You’ll have the (medium-sized) whole turkey to show off and carve at the table (if you must), and the half turkey can stay in the kitchen, ready to replenish the serving platter.
Preheat oven to 450, turn down to 350…2 hours for my 7and 1/2 pounds half turkey
amazing!
I cooked a nearly 8 lb, half-bird at 350 F, and checking after 2 hours, both the breast and thigh were up around 180F, so I just stopped there, and it was pretty much perfect, not dry.
I did brine in a 4% salt solution with the juice of an entire lime and a half cup of sugar in a bucket. Super!
I’m trying it this week and think I will follow your way .Might even turn temp to 350 not 325
10 minutes per pound?? I thought that a half turkey would be a lot shorter time than a full turkey, but that’s not the case, I found. Dinner was very late the first time I tried it. This year I allowed 20 minutes per pound and it could have been just a tad longer, at 325 degrees. I am curious as to how many people tried the 10 minutes per pound and how it worked out.