Your're so right Marianne--I treat this like any other stuffing--dressing are cooked outside..
bird.
It was part of a Cook's Illustrated article on "safely" cooking a turkey with the stuffing inside. (Which I never do).
Here's the article:
How to Roast a Stuffed Turkey
Printer Friendly
Written: Nov 1997
Stuffing the turkey can lead to overcooked white meat and potential safety problems. The solution? Preheat the stuffing, brine the bird, and use dual oven temperatures.
The Problem: There is something undeniably festive about a stuffed roasted turkey, and for many people the holidays just aren't the holidays without one. Every year, though, we are warned that for health and safety reasons, turkeys are best roasted unstuffed. Despite these warnings, many cooks continue to stuff their holiday bird. For the sake of flavorful, moist, turkey-infused stuffing, these cooks sacrifice perfectly cooked breast meat and risk food-borne illness from underdone stuffing.
The Goal: We wanted to find a way to safely and successfully roast a stuffed turkey, making sure that the breast meat would be succulent and the stuffing fully cooked. Before we began, we decided to limit our turkey to a maximum of 15 pounds, because it is just too difficult to safely stuff and roast a larger bird.
The Solution: Heat the stuffing in the microwave before placing it in the bird to give it a head start on cooking. Brine the bird to add flavor and moisture (brining will not, as we feared, make the stuffing soggy or overly salty). For even more insurance that the easily dried out breast meat will stay moist, roast the turkey breast-side down for the first three hours to protect it from the direct heat of the oven, then flip and finish breast-side up until done (and browned).
Stuffed Roast Turkey
Serves 10 to 12
Roast Turkey
2 cups kosher salt or 1 cup table salt
1 turkey (12 to 15 pounds gross weight), rinsed thoroughly, giblets, neck, and tail piece removed
2 tablespoons butter , melted
Stuffing
12 cups prepared stuffing (see related recipes)
1 tablespoon butter , plus extra to grease casserole dish and foil
1/4 cup turkey stock , or chicken stock, or low-sodium canned chicken broth
1. To Brine the Turkey: Dissolve salt in 2 gallons cold water in large stock pot or clean bucket. Add turkey and refrigerate or set in very cool (40 degrees or less) spot for 8 to 12 hours.
2. To Prepare Stuffing: Prepare selected stuffing, keeping dry and wet ingredients separate until ready to stuff the bird. Refrigerate until ready to use.
3. To Stuff and Roast the Turkey: Remove turkey from salt water and rinse both cavity and skin under cool water for several minutes until all traces of salt are gone. Pat dry inside and out with paper towels; set aside. Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Set heavy-duty V-rack, adjusted to widest setting, in pan.
4. Place half of mixed stuffing in buttered medium casserole dish, dot surface with butter, cover with buttered foil, and refrigerate until ready to use. Microwave remaining stuffing on full power, stirring two or three times, until very hot (120 to 130 degrees), 6 to 8 minutes (if you can handle stuffing with hands, it is not hot enough). Spoon 4 to 5 cups stuffing into turkey cavity until very loosely packed (see illustration 1 below). Secure skin flap over cavity opening with turkey lacers or skewers (see illustrations 3 and 4). Loosely tie the legs together with kitchen twine (illustration 5). Tuck wings behind back, brush entire breast side with half the melted butter, then place turkey breast side down on V-rack. Fill neck cavity with remaining 1 to 2 cups heated stuffing and secure skin flap over opening as above. Brush back with remaining butter.
5. Roast 1 hour, then reduce temperature to 250 degrees and roast 1 3/4 hours longer. Remove pan from oven (close oven door) and with wad of paper towel or turkey lifter in each hand, (see related Quick Tip), turn breast side up and baste (temperature of breast should be 145 to 150 degrees). Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees; continue roasting until breast registers 160 degrees, thigh registers 175 to 180 degrees and stuffing registers 165 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, 45 minutes to 1 1/4 hours longer.
6. For Remaining Stuffing: When turkey comes out of oven, add the 1/4 cup stock to dish of reserved stuffing, replace foil, and bake until hot throughout, about 20 minutes. Remove foil; continue to bake until stuffing forms golden brown crust, about 15 minutes longer.
7. Remove stuffing from turkey and carve. Serve, passing stuffing separately.