How to make the juiciest, tastiest Thanksgiving turkey, according to science

Kenji López-Alt says spatchcocking the turkey is the best way to overcome the common problem of light meat overcooking by the time dark meat is ready. Viktoria Agureeva/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Viktoria Agureeva/Getty Images

Turkey is the usual centerpiece of the Thanksgiving dinner, but it’s all too easy to end up with a dry, tough, flavorless bird. For NPR science correspondent Maria Godoy, it got so bad that several years ago, her family decided to abandon the turkey tradition altogether. Can science help her make a better bird this year? That’s what she hopes as she seeks expert advice from food science writers and cookbook authors Nik Sharma and Kenji López-Alt.

Want to know what other delectable food secrets science has to offer? Email [email protected] and we just might find out for you!

This episode was produced by Rebecca Ramirez, edited by Sara Sarasohn and fact-checked by Margaret Cirino. Stu Rushfield was the audio engineer.