Roaster Oven Cooking Times and Temperatures

The published method is a two-stage roast: preheat the roaster to 400°F, give the bird one hour at 400°F, then drop the dial to 350°F for the remainder. Total time is normally 15 to 20 minutes per pound, and a stuffed bird adds 30 to 45 minutes.

• 12 lb — about 3 to 4 hours total.
• 14 lb — about 3 hours 30 minutes to 4 hours 40 minutes. This is the ceiling for a 12-quart roaster.
• 16 lb — about 4 to 5 hours 20 minutes.
• 18 lb — about 4 hours 30 minutes to 6 hours.
• 20 lb — about 5 to 6 hours 40 minutes.
• 22 lb — about 5 hours 30 minutes to 7 hours 20 minutes. This is the ceiling for an 18-quart roaster.

Each of those is arithmetic on the published 15-to-20-minutes-per-pound figure, not an independent claim, and the spread between the two ends of each range is why you start earlier than you think you need to. Finish on temperature: the thickest part of the thigh muscle at 180°F.

If your bird is heavier than your pan’s rating, no amount of extra time fixes it. See what size roaster oven you need.

A precooked ham is a different job — you are warming it through rather than cooking it — and the published figure is 325°F, 15 to 20 minutes per pound, to an internal 160°F, with glaze applied during the final 30 minutes.

• 6 lb half ham — about 1 hour 30 minutes to 2 hours.
• 8 lb — about 2 to 2 hours 40 minutes.
• 10 lb — about 2 hours 30 minutes to 3 hours 20 minutes.
• 12 lb bone-in — about 3 to 4 hours.

Lid on for the bulk of the time, lid off for the glaze. The full method, and which roaster suits a ham best, is in roaster ovens for a ham.

Minutes per pound assumes a set of conditions that your kitchen will not quite match. These are the four variables that account for most of the difference.

• Starting temperature. A bird straight out of a cold refrigerator takes meaningfully longer than one that has sat out for the half hour most recipes assume. This is the single biggest cause of a turkey running late.
• Stuffing. Add 30 to 45 minutes for a stuffed bird, and the stuffing itself has to reach a safe temperature, which is slower than the meat around it.
• Opening the lid. Every time you lift it, the trapped heat and steam leave and the pan has to recover. A self-basting lid exists so you do not need to; use it that way and check once, late.
• Preheating, or not. The per-pound figure starts when the roaster is already at temperature. Putting a bird into a cold pan and starting the clock costs you the preheat twice.

Plan backwards from when people sit down, use the slow end of the range, and build in a buffer. A bird that finishes early is a solved problem if you can hold it warm — a bird that finishes late is not a problem you can solve at all. Our cooking timeline lays the whole day out hour by hour.

A roaster oven is unusual among cooking appliances in that it is also a decent holding cabinet, and on a day when nobody sits down on time that is worth more than speed. Food has to stay at or above 140°F, and the 40°F-to-140°F range is the one to stay out of. Two hours at room temperature is the limit.

So: bird out at temperature, tented and resting on a board. Sides into the roaster, dial at its lowest setting, lid on. A unit whose dial reaches 125°F does this gently; one that starts at 150°F holds safely but keeps cooking. Either beats leaving bowls on a counter.

For dedicated holding gear rather than borrowing the roaster, see how to keep food warm for a party.

Follow every number on this page and you will get a turkey that is correctly cooked, moist, and pale. A covered roaster traps steam by design — that is why the breast stays juicy and why the skin never crisps.

Budget ten to fifteen minutes under your wall oven’s broiler at the end, after the bird has hit temperature, and watch it the whole time. That is the step that makes a roaster-oven turkey look like an oven turkey. Technique in how to use a roaster oven, and the broader trade-off in roaster oven versus your oven.