How to Check If Your Turkey's Cooked to the Right Temperature

Want to guarantee that your turkey will be tender and juicy? Throw out the timing charts and forget about cooking "until the juices run clear." Just use a thermometer. It's the only way to guarantee perfectly cooked meat—provided that you know where to check the turkey's temperature and know what that temperature should be. For the best results, you want to check the turkey's temperature in three locations: the deepest part of the breast, the joint between the thigh and the body, and the joint between the drumstick and the thigh.

The video below will show you exactly how to do that.

What Temperature Is Turkey Safe to Eat At?

The government recommends cooking turkey breast to 165°F (74°C). I prefer my turkey breast at 150°F (66°F), at which point it is far, far juicier (especially if you dry brine it!). But is it safe?

Well, here's the thing: Industry standards for food safety are primarily designed to be simple to understand, usually at the expense of accuracy. The rules are set up in a way that any cook can follow then, no matter their skill level, and so that they're easily enforceable by health agencies. But for single-celled organisms, bacteria are surprisingly complex, and despite what any ServSafe chart might have you believe, they refuse to be categorized into a step function. The upshot is that food safety is a function of both temperature and time.

What the USDA is really looking for is a 7.0 log10 relative reduction in bacteria. That is, a reduction that ensures that out of every 10,000,000 bacteria living on that turkey to start, only one will survive.

Take a look at this simplified chart I drew using data from a USDA guide.

Pasteurization Time for Poultry with 5% Fat Content (7-log10 lethality)
Temperature	Time
136°F (58°C)	65.3 minutes
140°F (60°C)	29 minutes
145°F (63°C)	10.8 minutes
150°F (66°C)	3.7 minutes
155°F (68°C)	1.2 minutes
160°F (71°C)	26.1 seconds
165°F (74°C)	Instant

According to the USDA's own data, as long as your turkey spends at least 3.7 minutes at or above 150°F (66°C), it’s safe to eat. In other words, by the time it's done resting (you do let your turkey rest before carving, right?), you should be good to go.

What’s the Best Thermometer for Taking the Temperature of Your Turkey?

The best instant-read thermometer (for turkey or otherwise) is the ThermoWorks Thermapen ONE. It gives you speedy, accurate readings and has a long probe. It also features an automatic backlight, which is helpful for taking the temperature of a bird in a cavernous oven. If you’re on a budget, the ThermoWorks ThermoPop 2 is a fraction of the price. It has a cap on its probe, its screen is large and bright, and it’s our longtime inexpensive thermometer recommendation.

For keeping track of your turkey's temperature as it cooks, we love the ThermoWorks Chef Alarm. It's our favorite probe thermometer, thanks to the easy-to-read, tiltable display. It also has loud temperature alarms, so you can set it to beep when your bird reaches 150°F. This will help reduce the number of times you have to open the oven, which can let heat out and slow down the cooking process.