Tell us how big the bird is and when you want to eat. We'll tell you the day and the hour to get it out of the freezer.
Awaiting your bird
Two answers and we'll do the counting.
Tell us the weight and when you're eating.
The timings are the USDA's: a day in the fridge for every 4 to 5 pounds, or half an hour a pound in cold water, changing the water every 30 minutes.
From the holiday kitchen
What the recipe cards don't say.
How long a turkey really takes
The number worth memorising is a day per four or five pounds in the fridge. A twelve pound bird wants three days. A twenty pounder wants five. Almost everybody guesses low, because a turkey looks like a big chicken and a chicken is done overnight.
This page uses the slow end of that range on purpose. If it tells you Saturday and you could have got away with Sunday, you have lost a shelf in the fridge for a day. If it told you Sunday and it wanted Saturday, you have a bird with ice in the cavity at five o'clock and twelve people arriving.
A fridge at the top of its safe range thaws slower than a cold one, and a bird packed in the middle of a full shelf slower still. Put it on the bottom shelf in a tray, where nothing it drips on is something you plan to eat raw.
The cold water method, and why it keeps you home
Half an hour a pound, in cold tap water, in the original wrapping so the water never touches the meat. A fifteen pound bird is seven and a half hours. That is the whole method, and it turns days into an afternoon.
The catch is the water. It has to be changed every thirty minutes, because the bird chills the water around it and a bath that has warmed up stops doing the job. So you are setting a timer fifteen times and being in the house for all of them. Plenty of people do it on the morning itself and it works fine.
Cold water only. Warm water thaws the outside into the range where bacteria are happy while the middle is still solid. And a bird thawed this way goes in the oven straight away rather than back in the fridge to wait.
What to do if it's still frozen on the day
Roast it frozen. This is allowed, it is safe, and it is the part nobody seems to know. Give it at least half again as long in the oven, keep the oven at 325°F or above, and go by a thermometer rather than the clock: 165°F in the thickest part of the breast and the innermost thigh.
The giblets are the only fiddly bit. You cannot get the bag out of a frozen bird, so roast it for an hour or so, then have another go once the cavity has loosened. Tongs, and mind the steam.
Dinner runs late and the bird is fine. That is a much better Thursday than the one where somebody tries to hurry it along in a warm bath.
Why the counter is the one place it can't go
A turkey left out thaws from the outside in. Long before the middle has given up its ice, the outer inch has been sitting between 40°F and 140°F, which is the range where anything already on the bird multiplies happily. Cooking kills the bacteria. It does not undo the toxins some of them leave behind.
It is the one method with a straight answer of no, which is why this page doesn't offer it with a warning attached. Cold water is nearly as fast and it is safe, so there is no occasion that needs the counter.
How long a thawed bird will wait for you
One to two days in the fridge once it's thawed. That's what turns this from an appointment into a window: you can move it a day or two earlier than the page says and nothing is lost, which is a relief if the timing lands at two in the morning.
It also means an early start is the safer mistake. Thawed on Tuesday for a Thursday dinner is fine. Thawed on Saturday is not.
And if plans change after it has thawed, you can refreeze it. The texture suffers a little, because the water that came out of the cells is going back in as ice, but it is safe, which is the part people worry about.