Is it really possible to prepare good food this fast? Sure thing

With only a few variations on instructions, you can get a tasty turkey on the table.
By MARTY MEITUS
SCRIPPS HOWARD
Thanksgiving is still more than a week away, and most people already are planning how to cook the bird.
We have home movies in my family of my grandmother floating in (there was no sound) with this beautiful turkey on a platter. Everyone is smiling and happy (and blinking like mad, what with the klieg lights on the camera), but you get the idea that this was a family moment to remember.
Grandma had it easy.
There were probably only one or two ways to cook the bird back then.
Now it's deep-frying or brining, or open pan or oven bag.
And last year Safeway brought another method into play -- the "two-hour turkey." A turkey is cooked, unstuffed, at 475 degrees, with the whole process from roasting to resting taking about two hours. I used a fresh 12-pound turkey.
But does it work? And what about food-safety concerns?
I spoke to Diane Van, manager of the United States Department of Agriculture Meat and Poultry Hotline -- (888) 674-6854. The method, she says, is perfectly safe as long as the turkey reaches the correct temperature at the end of the cooking time.
"We don't recommend cooking anything under 300 degrees," she says.
Final temperature
The USDA recently revised its end temperature for turkey to 165 degrees in breast, thigh and wing, which makes it a lot easier to cook it at a high temperature without overcooking the bird.
I put it to the test, throwing the turkey in the oven at 5:30 p.m. Dinner was ready by 7:30 p.m.
My husband, that well-known foodie who thinks Skippy peanut butter should have its own national holiday, gave it a big thumbs-up. I thought it was a bit rubbery, but adding turkey juices from the pan helped. Although it wasn't the best turkey I've ever had, it would do in a pinch on Thanksgiving.
As with most cooks, I'm pretty set on my favorite method, which would be brining and then cooking at 325 degrees in an open pan as per Butterball's instructions. And even though the experts don't really want you to stuff the bird, I still do. Just make sure the center of the stuffing also reaches 165 degrees, Van says.
The Safeway two-hour turkey method is very specific, right down to the size of the pan. However, Van says to veer from the Safeway method in these ways:
UCheck the end temperature in the thigh, the wing, and the breast, rather than where Safeway says to check.
UThe end temperature should be 165 degrees, rather than 160 degrees. That also will ensure that the legs are cooked and keep you from having to cut them off and return them to the oven as per Safeway's suggestion, which is not only a nuisance but also could lead to cross-contamination.
The 165 degrees also will allow you to rest the turkey for only 15 to 20 minutes as you would for any turkey, rather than 40 minutes.
For more information, check out www.Safeway.com.
TWO-HOUR TURKEY
1 frozen turkey, 12 pounds, thawed, or 1 fresh turkey
1 to 2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
Coarse kosher salt
Coarse ground black pepper
1 cup fat-free chicken broth (optional, for drippings)
In the days before cooking: Clean oven to prevent smoking of burned-on grease at high heat.
Thirty minutes before cooking: Preheat oven to 475 degrees and use oven thermometer to check temperature.
Remove and discard truss that holds turkey legs together. Pull or trim off and discard lumps of fat in neck and body cavity. Remove giblets from cavity and save for gravy, if desired.
Rinse turkey inside and out. Pat dry with paper towels. Rub turkey skin all over generously with oil. Set bird breast down and sprinkle back with salt and pepper.
Place an adjustable V-shaped rack in a 13-by-16-inch roasting pan (set rack sides so the bird is a minimum of 2 inches from pan bottom). Put turkey, breast up, on rack; sprinkle breast with salt and pepper. Fold wing tips under.
Using aluminum foil, form caps over the tips of each drumstick. If wing tips extend beyond pan rim, fashion a foil collar underneath so drippings flow back into pan. Leave legs untied. Do not stuff or close body cavity.
Insert the oven-safe meat thermometer near center of breast through thickest part of breast to bone. You will still need to check the thigh, breast and wing temperatures at the end. The USDA prefers placing thermometer in the thigh during roasting.
Set pan on the lowest rack in a 475-degree oven (do not use convection heat.
Roast, checking after 45 minutes. Once the temperature has reached 140 degrees, begin checking every 10 minutes, until thermometer reaches 165 degrees in thighs, wings and breasts. (Despite the same weight, birds will still vary in cooking time.)
Halfway through roasting time, rotate pan in oven for even browning. If areas on turkey breast start to become browner than you like, lay a piece of foil over the dark spots.
If there's any smoke, check pan and wings for drips into oven; adjust foil under wings, or slide roasting pan onto a larger, shallow-rimmed pan.
Remove pan from oven, and loosely cover pan with foil to keep it warm. Let turkey rest 15 to 20 minutes.
Use drippings from pan and the 1 cup fat-free chicken broth to make gravy if desired.
Serves 6 to 8.
Nutritional information per serving: 320 cal., 12 g fat (3 g sat.), 129 mg chol., 0 carb., 241 mg sodium, 0 fiber, 50 g pro.
Adapted from Safeway Two-Hour Turkey recipe (www.safeway.com)