Jacques Pépin's Steamed and Roasted Turkey Recipe (2025)

I have used this recipe for about 4 years and it is the most moist turkey every time. I have tried others and come back to this. It's very simple and has never failed. I have begun using just a turkey breast and have the same wonderful results.

Giving this a go this year, but with a much smaller, free-range bird (about 8 lbs). Any estimates of how much the steaming time would need to be altered?

I used to work in BAMBERGER'S TEAROOM...We served turkey club sandwiches, opened faced hot turkey sandwiches and turkey and stuffing for dinner..both with homemade gravy. With the leftovers, we made delicious turkey salad (for tea time for the tired shoppers). All the turkeys were poached, after the legs were separated....in a huge stock pot, which eventually made homemade soup. As each piece was cooked, the piece was removed and cooled. Breast, legs and thighs were moist and delicious.

This will be the third year in a row I've used this recipe for our thanksgiving turkey. It's delicious and really easy. I steam the turkey a day ahead and then keep it in the fridge overnight, mainly to have less stuff to do thanksgiving day but perhaps it also helps with crispy skin. The gravy is good as well, i usually mash the veggies and giblets in the roasting pan for a slightly less chunky gravy.

Excellent recipe. This is the best recipe I have found: always moist and delicious. If you have a smaller bird—say, a 12-14 pound one, you will have to watch that it does not become overdone. I frequently find that the bird is done (internal temperature at 160) within in an HOUR after the first 30 minute steam. I also find that potato starch doesn't always work well to thicken the gravy. If that happens, I get out the flour and mix it old style with cold water.

I have made this dish 4-5 times and ,in fact, I'm preparing it right now. It is the simplest turkey recipe I have ever used, and the only one that always turns out perfectly.

Aluminum is the third-most abundant element on earth. It's often in the dust when we breathe, and certainly in most of our plant foods. Even if boiling it out of a piece of metal were an effective way to get a lot of it into water, the human body has little trouble processing and disposing of it.

I can't wait to try this. I could almost see him with Julia Childs on TV making this and I could hear her saying "As a special treat, sauté the liver in a little butter, add salt and pepper and snack on it with a cold glass of white wine."

I have a steam oven that combines hot air with steam. Safer, more even, juicy and roasted. Thank you Swiss engineers for making this dish possible in one baking dish with no mess to clean up

We haven't tested it that way, but we don't foresee an issue.

I've used this method twice and have concluded that it's more or less foolproof. I do a different glaze and gravy, but the cooking technique for the turkey itself yields a remarkably quick, moist, and delicious result.

How do you make it in a steam oven - does anyone have a method that works well? Do you use a Miele combi-steam oven? Please do enlighten me...Thanks!

No, sir, you're not. I have problems both with using aluminium as to what may be extracted, and how it affects flavours. Aside from that, wadding up enough aluminium foil to be effective is a huge waste. Were I not able to find a stainless steel rack, I'd make one out of two layers of 4/4 maple an inch wide, held together at cross points with stainless steel screws.As to pouring off fat, any Southern cook knows one uses the fat to make the roux for the gravy.

My grandmother used to boil the bird before roasting it, 50 or so years ago. (I expect that in her younger days the birds were much tougher.) I thought this was kind of unsophisticated, but no!!

Prepared 14lb turkey in a big pasta insert pot with a tight foil tent. Clever using steam water as a base stock. Like the deep red/brown color the glaze gave to the skin.Issues: I may introduce some aromatics next time. I also prefer a smooth gravy, so I used a sieve to remove the chunks. The gravy refused to thicken using 2x of the cornstarch slurry, so I made a roux with a bit of butter and flour, which never fails.

My husband passed away this time last year. He did all the cooking so roasting a turkey was something new, but I used this recipe, and my turkey breast came out lovely! I had to fiddle a bit, and I guess because it was a breast and not a whole bird, I didn’t get the drippings I had hope for, but this is the recipe I will be using from now on! Thank you Jacques!

I used these cooking instruction with a dry brined Spatchcocked 15 lb Turkey. I steamed it on an induction cooktop that allowed me to steam the Turkey in a large roasting pan placed on 2 small induction burners that had been "joined" to act as one large burner. This worked to perfectly to steam the Turkey, fact the turkey was cooked to 160 degrees after only 60 minutes of steaming. I then put the Turkey in a 27" Convection Oven that had been preheated to 425 Degrees to crisp the skin to gold.

Cooked a 13 lb turkey with this method and was not impressed. Breast was still dry. But probably need to caveat that I don’t own a restaurant-size stock pot so our turkey was peaking out a bit from the lid. You would really need a massive stockpot to do this with the Turkey size they suggested. Going back next year to the dry brined turkey - we missed the crispy, salty skin this year.

I love Pepin's roast chicken, but this was quite a failure. Followed recipe religiously. Was just Meh. Gravy also Meh. I will revert to brining. Was so looking forward to this given how wonderful the chicken is.

I’ve made our Turkey like this for the last four years and it is so moist so delicious!! It’s literally the only way to cook a Turkey!

How much water for steaming? Should it touch the bird?

I don't know why this recipe doesn't get more love! It is not featured in "Thanksgiving turkey recipes," but it is the most reliable, quickest, and tastiest way to cook a turkey on the day. Nothing is underdone, because it is steamed; it is moist and juicy because it is steamed. The skin is crisp and flavorful because it is roasted. Give it a try. Our Thanksgiving collective has used this method now for a decade or more. Never fails!!

I, too, am wondering about a dry salt rub for the bird after steaming, during the overnight in the fridge as in Russ Parson’s method.

what is the timing for a turkey breast

I made this for this year’s Thanksgiving. While I appreciated the speed and ease of the cooking process, I found the turkey to be fairly flavorless. Perhaps because the glaze is only on the skin, there’s no seasoning for the meat, and the gravy as it were was ok at best. And like another reader commented, the potato starch did nothing to make the broth into gravy so I just made a flour roux.

I’ve followed this method with just a turkey breast and it’s the most delicious turkey breast meat. We host too many people to use this method every year (our pots cannot accommodate the size bird that we need!), but I use the glaze every year - it really gives the turkey that beautiful Norman Rockwell appearance.

Does this start with a brined turkey?

Any advice for a alt glaze that might be more palatable for kids/TG traditionalists? I love the idea of this one, but concerned too spicy for some? Thanks.

I can't wait to try this. I could almost see him with Julia Childs on TV making this and I could hear her saying "As a special treat, sauté the liver in a little butter, add salt and pepper and snack on it with a cold glass of white wine."