Easy Turkey Recipes for Thanksgiving: Our Top 10! (2024)

Whether you roast, fry, or barbecue your turkey, it will surely be the centerpiece of your Thanksgiving table. Every family has their own turkey cooking traditions. We remember when the trend was to cook your turkey 8+ hours, or until it looked like it crawled through the Mojave Desert to get to your dinner plate. Thankfully we now know that turkey can be cooked thoroughly and still be juicy and tender.

We collected 10 amazing turkey recipes from around the internet. We love the classic roast turkey, the bacon wrapped turkey, and the southwestern kick turkey. We have also included recipes on how to barbecue a turkey, how to smoke a turkey, and how to fry a turkey.

Will you be having turkey this Thanksgiving?

1. Bacon Lattice Turkey

This beautiful turkey is seasoned simply with salt, pepper and herbed butter. Fancy sea salt is used to elevate the natural flavors of the bird. This is a great way to experiment with luxury salts. Don’t worry if you don’t have any fancy sea salt though- table salt will work perfectly well. Reduce the amount of salt slightly, as sea salt tends to be more mild than iodized table salt. The bacon lattice is beautiful and delicious. The flavors of the bacon will help give a wonderful smokiness to the turkey meat.

https://www.sainsburysmagazine.co.uk/recipes/mains/roast-turkey-crown-with-herb-butter Photos and Recipe By: Sainsbury’s Magazine

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2. Citrus and Herb ButterTurkey

This delicious turkey is flavored with citrus andherb butter. Packed with juicy flavor, this turkey will go down as a favorite no matter who you’re serving. Garnish with cranberries, greenery and lemon to make it festive for a special occasion.

https://thesuburbansoapbox.com/2015/11/01/citrus-and-herb-butter-roasted-turkey/ Photos and Recipe By: The Suburban Soapbox

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3. Honey Glazed Turkey

This sweet glazed turkey gives a beautiful presentation at Thanksgiving. Cook the turkey for two hours in your oven, and then brush with the glaze. If you put the glaze on at the beginning it will surely burn before you’re finished cooking the meat. After it has cooked for half the required time, start glazing with the delicious honey herb mixture. Every 15 minutes add another layer of the glaze. If it starts getting too dark, loosely cover it with foil.

https://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/honey-glazed-turkey-with-sage-and-roasted-garlic.html Photos and Recipe By: Williams Sonoma

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4. Smoked Turkey

This unique turkey dinner uses a grill/smoking technique that you can do on your charcoal barbecue. The resulting turkey has a deep golden brown color and a rich, smokey taste. This is a great option for the warmer States that don’t want to heat their house with the oven on all day.

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/11/spice-rubbed-butterflied-smoked-turkey-food-lab-recipe.html Photos and Recipe By: Serious Eats

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5. Southwestern Rubbed Turkey

This uniquely flavored turkey will really wow your family and friends. Paprika, cumin, and cinnamon spice this turkey. When rubbing the spices into the bird, lift off as much skin as possible and rub it directly into the flesh. Lay the skin back down and finish by rubbing the spices all over the outside. If you have any extra, coat the inside of the turkey too. This recipe calls for roasting the bird breast side down for the first half of cooking. This technique lets the breast meat collects the juices from the rest of the turkey, leaving the meat very moist.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/southwestern-turkey-with-chipotle-gravy-3364365 Photos and Recipe By: Food Network

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6. Barbecued Turkey

This detailed recipe will bring you through every step on how to barbecue a turkey with a goal grill. The key is indirect heat. You can do this on a gas grill, but keep the indirect heat idea. Light up one half of your gas grill and keep the turkey on the other side. Every 30 minutes, turn the turkey so it evenly cooks. Barbecuing requires time, skill, and experimentation. If you’re trying out a new cooking technique this Thanksgiving, it’s a great idea to have a trial run.

http://www.justalittlebitofbacon.com/grilled-tuscan-style-turkey/#recipejump Photos and Recipe By: Just A Little Bit Of Bacon

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7. Fried Turkey

Fried turkey is delicious! It sounds fatty, but the flesh cooks at such a high temperature, the meat doesn’t absorb the oils. This recipe calls for injecting a marinade. You can buy marinade injectors at kitchen supply stores- they look like giant needles. In your marinade, use melted butter as a base and add in your spices. Keep it traditional with a little citrus and sage, or go wild with Creole seasoning. The addition of an outside rub kicks the flavors up even more. Be careful with frying, as it is a potential fire hazard.

http://ohsodelicioso.com/how-to-fry-the-best-in-the-world-turkey/ Photos and Recipe By: Oh So Delicioso

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8. Aromatic Lemon, Apple and Herb Turkey

Cook this incredibly flavorful and gourmet turkey for Thanksgiving this year. With lemon, apple and herbs, you can be confident that this bird will be a hit with your relatives.

http://www.flirtingwithflavor.com/turkey-recipe-aromatic-lemon-apple-and-herb-turkey/#more-22 Photos and Recipe By: Flirting with Flavor

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9. Juicy Slow Cooker Turkey Breast

Needing a simple Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner? Pop a turkey breast in the crock pot and follow these simple instructions.

http://www.recipetineats.com/juicy-slow-cooker-turkey-breast/ Photos and Recipe By: Recipe Tin Eats

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10. Super Juicy Turkey Baked In Cheesecloth and White Wine

If you’re really looking to outdo yourself this year, this is the turkey for you. The white wine adds dimension to the turkey flavor while the cheesecloth holds in all that moisture and flavor.

https://www.fivehearthome.com/maple-glazed-turkey-with-bacon-and-sage-butter/ Photos and Recipe By: Five Heart Home