I Tried Butterball’s New Cook-From-Frozen Turkey

I have roasted countless turkeys over the years, both at home for the holidays and for my job as food director at REAL SIMPLE, and still, I totally get that the process can be intimidating and frustrating. If the turkey is frozen, when should you defrost it? Should you wet or dry brine? Should you spatchcock it? How long should you roast it for, and where are the giblets again? It’s a lot, especially if you’re only doing it once a year.

So when I saw that Butterball had launched a new cook-from-frozen turkey, I was intrigued. Cook from frozen?? Wow! That could be a game changer. Thawing is an all-around hassle, something that Michelle Lieszkovszky, Butterball’s Director of Innovation, confirms. “The number one question that consumers ask the Butterball Turkey Talk Line experts every Thanksgiving is how and when to thaw a turkey.” 

But that’s not the only pain point this new turkey was developed to address. The bird also comes pre-brined with the giblets removed. “We’ve taken both the fear and frustration out of the whole cooking process,” says Lieszkovszky.

I decided I needed to test the turkey myself. How long would it take to cook? Would it be as tasty as a bird I buy fresh and dry-brine myself? Butterball sent me a sample so I could find out, and on a random Monday in October I made my apartment smell like Thanksgiving. Here’s how the experience went. 

Prepping the Turkey

Butterball’s Cook From Frozen Premium Whole Turkey comes tightly wrapped in plastic in a larger plastic bag with cut-out handles for easy transition from grocery store freezer to shopping cart. The turkey cooking instructions are on the outer bag, and they’re very simple. You literally just take the bird out of the bag, remove the plastic wrapper, put the turkey on a rack fitted in a roasting pan, brush it with oil, and pop it in a 350°F oven. There’s no need to season it or baste it or add anything to the pan.

The packaging does give options for further seasoning the turkey if you want, but since the bird is pre-brined, Butterball says that step isn’t necessary. I wanted to test the most basic version, so I didn’t even salt and pepper the turkey. It felt weird to skip this, but I restrained myself.

Roasting the Turkey

The instructions say to roast “until fully cooked,” when a thermometer reaches 170°F when placed in the breast and thigh. (The breast will always cook faster than the thigh, so the thigh temp is the key.) The packaging says that the approximate cooking time is five hours, but that it will vary by oven. 

This was really the only part of the process where I ran into trouble. After four and a half hours, I temped the turkey just to see where we were, and it was only 127°F. There was still a long way to go. In the end, it took more than six hours to cook the turkey, fine on my random Monday, but I would have had a lot of hungry guests milling around on Thanksgiving. (And yes, in case you were wondering, I have an oven thermometer, and my oven was indeed at 350°F.)

The Results

After letting the turkey rest for 30 minutes—I usually rest it for up to an hour so I can cook the stuffing and other sides while the turkey rests, but the packaging says to rest for 20 to 30 minutes, and we were hungry—I carved it and brought it to the table. 

The look of the turkey was just right, a burnished golden brown. The skin was crispy, and the meat was mild and tasty. My worries about not seasoning the bird with salt and pepper turned out to be unfounded. The turkey had a pleasant level of seasoning. It was also tender and juicy, not dry in the least. This was not a bird with big flavor, but frankly, I don’t expect that from any turkey. 

My Overall Review

My only challenge with the new Butterball Cook From Frozen Turkey was not being able to predict how long it would take to roast. With a fresh or fully defrosted bird it’s much easier to have a general idea. 

Other than that, I can see this turkey being a lifesaver for novice and nervous cooks, but also for anyone who just doesn’t want to fuss with the bird, either to save their energy for the sides and pie or to just save their energy, period. Me, I like some fuss, especially at Thanksgiving. So, chances are I’ll be cooking a fresh bird, where I can play around more with the seasonings and be better able to predict how long it will take to roast. But, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this product to anyone who was interested, with the caveat that they allot more time than they think they might need for roasting.