I have used Alton Brown's brined turkey recipe the past two years in my BS with excellent results. There is no need to change anything in the recipe for convection, but the cooking time will be slightly faster than without convection -- assuming you use a roast thermometer and go by temperature there is really nothing to it. Fair warning: high temperature roasting does make a bit of a mess in the oven.

Here is a link that might be useful: Alton Brown brined turkey

recipe looks lovely. I guess my big concern is the cooking time and temp change from a regular oven to the BS convection. Don't want to have a dry turkey! (or a burnt one for that matter).

Each oven performs a little differently, sometimes even in the same line for the same manufacturer (your's could be calibrated a little differently than someone else's). Your real concern is getting the turkey cooked completely through on the inside while getting nice browning and caramelization on the outside. The first time you're doing this in your oven, you'll want to check it more frequently than normal. I'd check it at 30 minutes, then 60 minutes, then every hour (more frequently towards the end of cooking). You want to check early on the see that it is browning gradually and not too much too early. Once you get close to the browning you desire, you can turn the oven down to 300-325 (275 & switch to conventional bake if it's reached full browning) to let it finish cooking through without burning. If you have the temp too low it will cook through, but look like it needs to visit the tanning salon - If you've reached this point, you're out of luck because getting additional browning for flavor will overcook it and make it dry.

The government and often the people who sell you the turkeys will tell you to cook it till a meat thermometer reads 180 degrees. They're not confident you will place the thermometer correctly and they don't want to get sued. I can practically guarantee if you do this it will be over cooked. And those pop-up thermometers - by the time it pops up the turkey is generally overcooked as well. Your best bet is to place your thermometer all the way in to the pelvic crease of the thigh, but still inside the thigh close to the bone (not hanging out in the cavity). Ideal placement is where the tip of the thermometer is right at the inside of the joint where the thigh bone connects to the body - that is the part that gets done last. Take it out at 165 degrees (170 if you're feeling borderline paranoid, 180 if full paranoid) and cover it loosely with foil and let it rest 15 - 20 minutes so it can carry over cook slightly and so the juices can reabsorb back into the meat. Voila! you're on your way to a happy turkey day.

ya_think - Thanks for the correction and the great link!

Thank you so much! Very helpful. Happy Thanksgiving and happy cooking to you all!

we did a 21 pound bird in my new bluestar yesterday. oven temp set at 325, no convection blower, and we removed it when the probe stuck deep into the thigh read 150.

it was perfect. dark meat was fully cooked and very tender, breast was still moist enough to cut thicker slices.

we used a free-range organic turkey that we bought fresh from ho-ka farms. great results. perhaps the best turkey ever.

Edlakin, I agree that it is best to forego convection when cooking a turkey. It is such a lean bird that the fan dries it out.

yeah, i've played around with using it for some or all of the process. i think it's best to leave it off. it's also interesting to experiment with using the infrared broiler to render the skin at either the very beginning or very end of the process.

Edlakin, I'm stunned - what temp did it carry over to? I thought the final temp after carry over had to go to at least 160 to be safe.

yeah, 160 is what i was shooting for. i let it rest for about 20-25 minutes and it carried over to about 162.

I'm cooking our Thanksgiving turkey this very moment.. (we do it Saturday after due to family that has to work, etc..) SO anyway.. this is our first home, and the first thanksgiving we've held.. and I've never ever made a turkey before.. SO this is what I did.. and tell me if it's going to turn out disastrous or not! I preheated my electric roaster to 450F and rubbed butter, s&p, and paprika on turkey(its 18 lbs).. i browned it for about 30 minutes.. then i turned it down to 325.. and i also have a box of chicken broth in the bottom of the roaster. I started this whole process around 11:30am.. it's not 3:13pm.. and I'm hoping it's done by 4:30pm.. any ideas if it will be or not?? It's been cooking at 325F for about 3 hours now.. and I keep finding sites that say about 4 hours to cook.. i also just turned it up to 350 to be totally sure it cooks all the way

I roast at 500 degrees a la Barbara Kafka, linked. No stuffing. Perfect every time. Moist. I use a fresh organic free-range turkey, out of the fridge a couple hours first to break the chill. Simple, perfect, & rather quick though it takes guts to do it the first time.

Love her instruction to first clean the oven...

Here is a link that might be useful: Barbara Kafka's Roast Turkey Edict