The turkey retains a lot of salt from your brine. The stuffing will come out salty.

Same reason you can't use drippings from a brined turkey for gravy. Your gravy will be too salty.

No worries, it's worth it for the brined turkey being tastier and easier to cook. Just make gravy with separately prepared (or purchased) stock. Or buy it.

And leave your stuffing in a casserole pan, aka dressing.

Anonymous wrote:Don't stuff a brined turkey!

why?

Don't stuff a brined turkey!

Use a meat thermometer.

Last year my 18 pounder took 3.5 hours in my convection oven. The MT doesn't lie -- turkey was perfect.

Brined turkeys cook in less time than unbrined ones- so whatever is normal (20 mins / pound, as pp suggested?), then plan to reduce that by at least an hour- maybe more- but the cooked turkey can always rest while you're finishing up the other stuff. I wouldn't stuff it- there will be extra liquid from the brining. Icky.

butterball hotline is your friend.

as a general rule, it's about 20 minutes a pound at 350, i think. longer if you put stuffing in the cavity.

So, at 19 pounds you're looking at about six to seven hours.

Has anyone ever cooked a brined turkey this large? If so, how long did it take? And at what temperature?

TIA!!!