Pre-Cook Your Thanksgiving Turkey

Submitted by: Amber Moeller

Greatly simplify your Thanksgiving meal preparations and reduce holiday stress by roasting your turkey ahead of time. Here is how my mom and I do it:

Any day before Thanksgiving: We cook the turkey as desired. Neatly slice/cut the meat off the bones. Place the meat in a tupperware container (white meat on one side, dark meat on the other)--it should be a bit smaller in size than your crock pot. Cover and freeze. The day before Thanksgiving day, put meat in fridge to thaw overnight.

Take meat out of fridge Thanksgiving morning and pop meat into a crock pot. Pour some chicken or turkey broth over top. Turn crock pot on low and cook for 4 hours, or until meat is hot and heated through.

It will be moist and tender every time, and no worries about it not turning out right on Thanksgiving day.

It couldn't be any more stress-free than that. Cooking the turkey ahead of time makes it so there are fewer dishes that will need to be washed after the meal--which is a plus! You'll have more time for fellowship and other festivities.

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