{"id":11416,"date":"2025-09-30T14:22:23","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T18:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eatturkey.org\/?page_id=11416"},"modified":"2025-09-30T14:59:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T18:59:04","slug":"pig-beach-bbqs-matt-abdoo","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.eatturkey.org\/pig-beach-bbqs-matt-abdoo\/","title":{"rendered":"Pig Beach BBQ’s Matt Abdoo’s Thanksgiving Turkey Tips & Tricks \ud83e\udd83\ud83c\udf7d\ufe0f"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Matt Abdoo is the Executive Chef & Partner of Pig Beach BBQ restaurants.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Matt is a frequent guest chef on NBC\u2019s TODAY, and often appears as a celebrity guest or judge on Food Network programs such as America\u2019s Beat Bobby Flay, The Kitchen, Battle of the Brothers, Kitchen Crash, and more. Matt has also appeared on the Dr. Oz Show and DirecTV\u2019s Fantasy Zone. Matt is a co-author of the Pig Beach BBQ Cookbook: Smoked, Grilled, Roasted, and Sauced. Matt is a close friend of the turkey industry, and offered up some of his personal advice on how to make your Thanksgiving celebration go off without a hitch!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83e\uddca Brine your bird the night before in a cooler with ice!<\/strong> It\u2019s a great way to add tons of moisture and flavor to your turkey without taking up precious refrigerator space. I like a brine that is as simple as water, salt, sugar, thyme, bay leaf, black peppercorn, and citrus \ud83c\udf4b.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83c\udf21\ufe0f Make sure to have a digital instant-read thermometer on hand.<\/strong> The best way to cook the perfect turkey is to know for sure when it is done! It should read 165 degrees internal when you are done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udd2a Break down your turkey before cooking!<\/strong> Separate the legs and thighs from the breast. Taking the breast meat off the cage while keeping the skin on, and breaking down the legs and thighs to cook separately, will give you a much better opportunity to cook them appropriately. This way you can guarantee that you won\u2019t have dry turkey breast while having undercooked leg and thigh meat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83e\uddc8 Don\u2019t forget the butter!<\/strong> Whether you are cooking the turkey whole or breaking it down as I suggest, generously smear the entire bird with lots of room temperature butter. Not only does the butter provide amazing flavor and moisture, it will also help your turkey develop a beautiful golden brown color! Don\u2019t forget to stuff some butter under the skin too, and season with salt and pepper! \ud83e\uddc2<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83e\udd44 Baste with haste!<\/strong> Basting the turkey is a time-honored tradition, but many people are doing it wrong. When it comes time to baste, I suggest pulling the entire roasting pan out of the oven and placing it on the stovetop, then quickly shutting the door. This will prevent the oven from losing valuable heat and help speed up the cooking process. Also, once the turkey is on the stovetop, it gives you a better visual to baste the turkey with the fat drippings. When you baste the turkey, you want to be basting with oil, not liquid, to enhance the browning of the skin! \ud83c\udf57<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2744\ufe0f Frozen? Don\u2019t fret!<\/strong> If your turkey hasn\u2019t had time to fully defrost, don\u2019t panic! You can absolutely cook a partially frozen turkey, but you will miss out on the advantages of brining or breaking it down to cook. If this happens, I suggest getting one of those turkey roasting bags to cook your turkey in and plan on it taking an extra hour or two to cook. The bags will help with an even cooking process and prevent the outside from drying out while the inside stays frozen. Throw a bunch of aromatics in the bag like thyme, garlic, onions, and lemons to help add some extra flavor, and add a few tablespoons of flour to help absorb the drippings and have a gravy ready to go. Plus, the cleanup is super simple! \ud83e\uddf9 Just make sure it gets to that magic 165 degrees internal temperature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udccf Plan your cook based on these rough estimated turkey cooking times by weight so you don\u2019t fall behind:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n