Small turkey cook time warning

Just a heads up for whenever: Due to a severely reduced group (only 4) I bought an 11.5lb turkey this Thanksgiving and cooked it with stuffing inside. All the online info said 20 minutes per pound or 3-3.5 hours. But… the bird looked very scrawny so I used a probe oven thermometer to be safe. After just over 2.5 hours the thermometer read 185°. Allowing for the possibility that the probe might be misplaced I also used my instant read thermometer in a couple of places. It read almost the same as the probe.

None of the sides were ready at that point so I just covered it in foil and upped the pace for the rest of the meal. Wound up just fine though a bit frustrating.

That’s just 13 minutes per pound; way less than anything I’d read. So, with so many people down-sizing their holiday meals I thought I’d post the warning that a very small turkey may be more like an oversized chicken for cooking time.

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Hi @Midlife – I found your post muted in the “uncategorized” section so I moved it to “Home Cooking” today. I don’t know why someone else didn’t move it sooner, but better late than never. Wishing you Happy Eats this holiday season!

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Thank you. I thought I saw it under “Unread” and “Latest” for quite a while after posting. That’s how I access everything here. I thought it was strange that it got zero response but figured that can happen, so no big deal.

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