How to Defrost a Turkey — Even If It's Still Frozen on Thanksgiving Day

It's Thanksgiving Day and you're finally ready to get your cook on. With all the holiday cheer you can muster, you reach for the turkey in the fridge, only to realize it's still a frigid solid mass. Panic seizes you. You thought you prepped everything right, but suddenly you're calling your grandmother in tears asking about turkey thaw time and how to defrost a turkey fast.

Step away from the phone (and the hair dryer). Take a deep breath. There's good news: the answer to how to defrost a turkey is actually pretty simple. While it typically can take a few days to defrost a frozen turkey in the fridge, you can still achieve the same results using a cold water bath either in your sink or in a large tub. Of course, any time you're cooking poultry, safety is a top concern, nutrition expert Toby Amidor tells PS. But follow these steps and you'll have a perfectly thawed bird ready for the oven in no time (and you'll buy grandma a couple extra hours of rest before the big meal).

Read on for tips on how to defrost your turkey (fast), how to know when your turkey's completely defrosted, what to do if you just simply don't have time to thaw your bird, and, most importantly, how to do it all safely.

Toby Amidor, MS, RD, CDN, FAND, is a nutrition expert, food-safety consultant, and author of "Up Your Veggies: Flexitarian Recipes for the Whole Family."

The best-case scenario is to defrost your bird in the fridge — and you'll need several days to do so. Set the turkey unopened on a tray, breast-side up, and put it in a fridge that's 40 degrees or below, Amidor says. For every four pounds of turkey, it'll need about a day in the fridge to defrost completely. (For example, if your turkey weighs 16 pounds, it will take about four days to thaw. You can also use this handy calculator from Butterball to do the math for you.) Once fully defrosted, the turkey will keep in the fridge for up to two more days before cooking, Amidor says.

If you've missed the fridge-thawing window, your best bet is to defrost your turkey in cold water. You'll want to submerge the turkey (breast-side down with its original wrapping still on) in a sink or a big container full of cold water. "You want the water to be cold, so the turkey stays at a safe temperature to minimize the growth of any harmful bacteria," Amidor says. You should change the water every 30 minutes with all new water.

"Using this method, it takes 30 minutes to defrost one pound," Amidor says. So a 16-pound turkey, for example, will take eight hours to defrost. (If the math isn't mathing, simply plug the weight of your turkey into Butterball's turkey defrost time calculator.) "Once the turkey has thawed, cook it immediately," Amidor says.

You perform two tests on the bird to confirm that it's completely defrosted: reach your hand into the bird's cavity to make sure there aren't any ice crystals, and poke the thicker parts of the turkey with a fork. If you get icicles doing either one of these, then your turkey needs more time to warm up.

Hours of thawing time may not be an option, in which case you can cook the bird from its frozen state as long as your bird is unstuffed. Just note that it'll take longer to cook than a fresh or thawed turkey, Amidor says, and while "roasting can be done to an unstuffed frozen turkey, you cannot cook a frozen turkey on the grill, deep fat fry, microwave, or smoke it."

"To determine cooking time, look at the timetable for oven-roasting a whole turkey for the size you have, and add 50 percent of that time to the original time," Amidor says. For example, instead of cooking a 12-pound turkey for 3-3.5 hours, you'll need to cook it for 4.5 to 5.25 hours. To make sure your turkey is done, you'll need to use a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature in the innermost thigh, wing, and thickest part of the breast. It should reach 165°F.

Whether you're in charge of the turkey for this year's big Friendsgiving or for an intimate Thanksgiving for two, follow these easy steps and you'll be all set to serve a feast that's memorable (and not because it was still cold as ice when you bit into it).

Susannah Chen is a former PS contributor.

Lauren Mazzo was the senior fitness editor at PS. She is a certified personal trainer and fitness nutrition specialist through the American Council on Exercise. Prior to joining PS, she worked for six years as a writer and editor for Shape Magazine covering health, fitness, nutrition, mental health, sex and relationships, beauty, and astrology.