How To Cook A Turkey in a Roaster Oven

If you have a roaster oven, cooking the perfect turkey is so easy, you wont even believe it. Here is a tutorial on how to cook a turkey in a roaster oven. #turkey #holiday #thanksgiving #christmas

I love my portable roaster oven!  There are 2 great reasons why it’s perfect for roasting your Thanksgiving Turkey.

1.  It opens up oven space for all your side dishes.

2.  You are guaranteed a moist turkey!

Here’s how I make mine:

Chop the veggies, apples, herbs and butter

If you have a roaster oven, cooking the perfect turkey is so easy, you wont even believe it. Here is a tutorial on how to cook a turkey in a roaster oven. #turkey #holiday #thanksgiving #christmas

Rinse the turkey

If you have a roaster oven, cooking the perfect turkey is so easy, you wont even believe it. Here is a tutorial on how to cook a turkey in a roaster oven. #turkey #holiday #thanksgiving #christmas

Stuff the turkey with yummy things and spread butter all over it.

If you have a roaster oven, cooking the perfect turkey is so easy, you wont even believe it. Here is a tutorial on how to cook a turkey in a roaster oven. #turkey #holiday #thanksgiving #christmas

Place it in the roaster and salt and pepper it.

If you have a roaster oven, cooking the perfect turkey is so easy, you wont even believe it. Here is a tutorial on how to cook a turkey in a roaster oven. #turkey #holiday #thanksgiving #christmas

Cook it according to your roaster directions.  Easy Peasy – now you have a minute to make your table beautiful for guests!

When the button pops – it’s ready!

If you have a roaster oven, cooking the perfect turkey is so easy, you wont even believe it. Here is a tutorial on how to cook a turkey in a roaster oven. #turkey #holiday #thanksgiving #christmas

And then get your sisters to carve it lol!

Here’s a few other fun recipes for Thanksgiving:

Pilgrim Hat Cookies

Simple Turkey Cookies

Are you hosting Thanksgiving at your house?   How will you cook your turkey and what will you serve with it?

Walk with the King,

38 Comments

  1. That is how I do mine ~ in the roaster! I season it a little differently, but nevertheless! Easiest way I have ever cooked my turkey.

  2. I am roasting my first turkey this year and I just bought a roaster oven! so excited to use it. Good thing it will be for a small crowd. hehe. Thanks for sharing.

  3. Courtney,
    I too have a portable roaster (actually two. One for roasting food and the other for Hot stone massages) anyway they do make timing things so much easier.
    Have you tried adding walnuts in your stuffing along with the other things you have there. YUMMY!
    Your table is beautiful and of course you and your sisters are all gorgeous. Have a blessed Thanksgiving Day!
    Love your blog & vlogs, Bobbi Jo

  4. I have never used a roaster oven. What other things do you cook in it ~ or do you just use it for Thanksgiving? Just curious……

    1. Just wanted to let you know that there are lots of things to cook in the roaster oven if you are cooking for a crowd of people. It works great for soups, meatballs, scalloped potatoes etc. It can be used as an oversized crockpot or a small oven. I used it regualrly for cooking meals at our church once a month. LOVE them!

    2. just finished yesterday, a beef/mushroom and barley soup. We ate several bowls of it, YUM, and the rest went in the freezer for later…last week cooked chicken and potato soup and it was just as good. Course you have to make good ole’ fashion Southern cornbread to go with soup. Love my roaster!!

  5. This is my first year cooking Thanksgiving dinner for my family. I’m thinking of making an herb butter and putting that under the skin and on top and then do some citrus as well. That’s as far as I’ve gotten!

    Have a blessed Thanksgiving!!!

  6. Ohhhhhhhh what a timely post! I have a ‘small’ turkley and then a turkey breast to cook. I’m not sure I can fit them both in my oven. (Reason for small turkey…the store had NO turkeys over 13 pounds!!! and I have 11 people to feed!) So I thought of a roaster. I almost bought one today but then thought I could borrow one from the church. Alas, there will be no directions in the roaster at the church…do I need to put water under the pan that the turkey sits in? Does the roaster you show work just like an oven as far as time to allow a turkey to cook? BTW- Tonight the store had 23 pound turkeys! WHAT??? But I have a partially thawed 13 pound turkey so was not sure what to do. Wahhhhh!

  7. I might just have to go out and get one of those roasters. Yum. We’re doing Thanksgiving out of town with family so I don’t have to cook the Turkey but I’ll be helping with other sides. Those pilgrim hats cookies are adorable. I bet those would be a hit with my peeps.

  8. Seriously? Why has no one ever told me of this before! I am going to have to watch for a roaster to be on sale so I can use it in the future. And what a great thing to have on hand to allow family to use too! I think you need to do a post on ideas of what else to use a roaster for though – because I seriously (obviously) was clueless!

  9. We haven’t roasted a turkey in years! It’s FAR better deep fried or smoked! Last year we smoked our turkey using apple wood chips from Gander Mountain and cranberry juice. This year I think my husband is leaning towards deep frying it. Once you eat it that way, either smoked or deep fried, you’ll never want to eat it roasted again!!

    We’ll also be having mashed potatoes, corn, stuffing, green bean casserole and of course pumpkin pie!

  10. I have never roasted a turkey but that’s how I always cook my ham. My husband always fries them but I am trying to get him to smoke one:)

  11. Great photo of you and your sisters 🙂

    We are hosting Thanksgiving for 20 people! I am a little nervous with the logistics, but they are all dear friends, so I know that it will be a great day. My husband is taking care of the turkey this year. He bought an “oil less deep fryer”and has been looking up all sorts of brine recipes. He is really excited, and even did a test chicken a few nights ago to try out one of the brines. I’m glad to have my oven free to make the rest of the sides and desserts, but I didn’t even *think* of a roaster! I’ll keep that in mind for next year.

    Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

  12. My husband is not a huge turkey fan (he used to work for Jenni-O when he was in college). So rather than do a huge turkey, we normally roast a breast. I will roast it and season it with a citrus and sage butter that I push under the skin (like you did). WOW! Does that ever have a nice flavor. 🙂

  13. Wow…that is easy. I always cook my sides. Then cook the Turkey. When the turkey is resting and getting carved I throw all of the sides back into the oven so they can reheat. It is stressful right there at the end and I am usually so frazzled I don’t feel like eating! (Don’t worry, I still do).

    I will need to look into this roaster as it would be a solution for only having one oven. Tell me, do you use it other times of the year or literally just pull it out for the Holidays?

  14. I have used my roaster oven for a multitude of meals especially at the church for a crowd, but the other great thing about the portable roasters is that it is portable. I made the turkey last year at my house, then drained some of the broth and then transported it to my mother-in-law’s to help her handle the Thanksgiving meal details. It worked great and I could still cook in my kitchen which is a bit bigger than my mother-in-law’s!!! Love to cook with roasters!!!!

  15. My hubby LOVES smoked turkey. But a couple of times the turkey was taking too long in the smoker and we had to move it to the oven. A roaster would save valuable oven space.

    We make things like homemade mac n’ cheese, dressing AND stuffing (I have a favorite Southern Living recipe with leeks and saugage), homemade cranberry sauce, collard greens, mashed potatoes and authentic turkey gravy, rolls, corn, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin pie – with graham cracker and regular crusts, pumpkin breads – for our guest to take home. 🙂

    This year we are going to try a dark chocolate genache to accompany the pumpkin cheesecake, maybe the pumpkin pie. I have a feeling dark chocolate and pumpkin play well together. We’ll see!

    Thanksgiving is my FAVORITE holiday meal. 🙂

  16. Looks yummy! I’m afraid to put my turkey in the sink like that though. No matter how clean it is, I’m thinking of the drains in them that might not be so clean. How do you prepare your sink to wash the food?

  17. My Roaster did not come with a roasting rack! Can I still roast a turkey in it or do you have to have a roasting rack? I would love to roast all my meat but every receipe I find say place meat on roastng rack.
    Thanks for yur help!!
    Have a blessed Thanksgiving

    1. I wasn’t sure so I just googled it and I saw a few suggestions if you don’t have a rack.

      1. You could put potatoes and onions in large chunks under the turkey to lift it and give it a bed.
      2. You could crumple foil.
      3. You could use a toaster oven, microwave or cookie cooling rack in the roaster.

      Hope one of these might work for you.
      Lots of Love,
      Courtney

      1. I found a neat substitute from Martha Stewart website- whether u have a rack or not for the toaster this recipe calls to cook the turkey without the rack.

        Butter some Italian bread or focaccia bread and line the roaster bottom with it all and put the turkey in upside down on the breast!! Turkey turns out wonderful and moist!!
        My hubby fell in love with this after my first time.!!!

        Good luck tho I’m sure you will love it as well

  18. I have roasted my turkey this way for several years. One thing I do a little different, I roast mine breast down. This keeps the breast very moist and the legs from over browning. The setting on my roaster has to be at least 25 degrees below the normal turkey roasting temperature, as the heat is very intense. Normally the turkey takes 30 to 40 minutes LESS time to cook in the roaster than in the oven. Thank you for sharing.

  19. I have been married 25 years and am on my third roaster! I actually buy several turkeys this time of year when the price is down, keep them in my big freezer, and then cook them all year long.

    Question = what is your temp/time for cooking your turkey?

  20. Thanks for sharing. I always have Thanksgiving at our home on Thanksgiving day but it only includes one additional person so we have 6 here. Hard to make many dishes as we can’t eat that much just the 6 of us. I come from a very small family and then the day after we usually have my husbands extended family and rotate which family hosts it but it is now at a church or somewhere due to size.

  21. My family for reasons of their own have been scattered in different states & towns. Today, 12/6/2015, my oldest daughter & I are having our Thanksgiving It made me a little sad to be alone on the traditional day, but it was a day. Anyway as I said we are our doing Thanksgiving today. The reason for my comment: next year, 2016, I will be reunited with my family, my friends (family), & their others. I cannot wait to try your recipe, on the turkey & the family gathering. I of course will hand over carving to my eldest daughter & my youngest son-in-law, they can handle it….with love❤

  22. I love my roaster! My only issue that it does not brown as well as in the oven. So, I stick it under the broiler for 5 minutes when it is done. Easy peasy. I make a sage butter and spread on, then stuff with an onion, whole garlic cloves, sage, lemons and an orange. I also set it on a bed of celery and carrots. And the drippings make the best gravy! It is awesome every year!!

    I noticed nobody said anything about broth. I add a little chicken broth to the bottom of my pan. I think it helps keep it moist.

  23. Hello, I was wondering if there is enough juices still for gravy after the turkey is cooked? Then do I have to add a cup of water so the turkey drippings don’t dry up?

  24. i use a roaster to but my never got brown am going to try your way and maybe this year it will i will let you know how it turn out you have a pretty family my sisters wont carve it so am stuck doing it lol

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I accept the Privacy Policy

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.