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

Enlarge this image

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

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.

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 shortwave@npr.org 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.