You generally take the foil off your turkey for the last 30–60 minutes of roasting so the skin can brown and crisp while the inside finishes cooking.

Simple rule of thumb

  • Keep the turkey loosely covered with foil for most of the roasting time to help it stay moist.
  • Remove the foil during the final 30–45 minutes (up to about 1 hour for a big bird) so the skin can turn golden and crisp.

Using temperature as your guide

  • Start checking the turkey with a meat thermometer as it nears the end of its estimated cook time.
  • Many cooks remove the foil when the turkey is roughly within the last hour of cooking, or when the breast is around 145–150°F so it can finish and brown uncovered until it reaches 165°F in the thickest part of the thigh and breast.

If things look too pale or too dark

  • If the turkey still looks pale when you uncover it, just leave it uncovered and keep roasting until the skin is nicely browned and the internal temperature is safe.
  • If it starts browning too fast after you’ve removed the foil, you can loosely tent it again to prevent burning while it finishes cooking.

Quick resting tip

  • After you take the turkey out of the oven, many chefs tent it loosely with foil and let it rest about 20–30 minutes so the juices redistribute before carving.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.