Cooking your bird properly is key to healthy holiday

When you’re cooking your turkey, you need to be aware of four safety issues: thawing, preparing, stuffing and cooking to adequate temperature.

Never leave a turkey out on the counter to thaw overnight. Bacteria can grow rapidly in raw turkey when its temperature is between 40-to-140 degrees.

The C.D.C. recommends it be thawed in the microwave, the refrigerator or in a sink of wold water that is changed every thirty minutes.

While preparing the turkey, make sure to wash hands and surfaces often and keep raw turkey separate from other items so illness-causing bacteria doesn’t spread.

If you’re stuffing your bird, do so just before cooking and make sure you cook a stuffed turkey at a temperature higher than 325 degrees.

While it’s cooking, it’s critical that you use a food thermometer. This will help ensure the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees – high enough to kill any bacteria.

And when you’re checking the temperature, make sure you’re checking in the correct spot.

“You’re probably going to check right in between the leg and the cavity of the body and then also in the thickest part of the breast,” Mike Folino, a Registered Dietitian, said.