I would like to cook 8 ounces of ground turkey in a Pyrex dish in the oven but have not tried this before and do not want to ruin the meat. So I thought I would ask for advice first. The catch is, I want to use the least amount of fat possible in the process. Thanks!
Baked Ground Turkey
turkey
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Best Answer
You haven't said what you plan to do with the cooked meat, so I'm guessing that you're asking here because you're not really sure how to proceed. I've got a couple suggestions. Cooking ground meat (or anything, really) in the oven tends to dry it out, so you'll want to think about ways to either minimize drying, compensate for it, or use it to good effect. And you probably don't want to just cook a lump of meat by itself -- think about ways to add flavor. Here are two options:
Meatballs. When you make baked meatballs, you spread the meat out and give it a lot of surface area, so it cooks more quickly. All that surface area also means that there will be some drying, but that gives the meatballs a tasty outer surface that browns a bit and adds flavor. Most meatball recipes call for breadcrumbs and milk -- you add the milk to the breadcrumbs in a mixing bowl and let them sit for a bit so that the breadcrumbs soak up the milk. The breadcrumbs help to bind the meatballs together, but they also help to keep the meatballs moist and tender inside. Meatballs also give you an opportunity to add flavor -- I usually add some sautéed chopped onion (which really only need a light shot of cooking spray cook nicely in a nonstick pan), salt, pepper, and herbs like thyme, oregano, sage, or rosemary.
Meatloaf. Meatloaf is very similar to meatballs -- you could really use the same mix for either -- but the shape is obviously different. Forming the meat mixture into a single large shape, or cooking it in a loaf pan, reduces the surface area and slows down the drying, but you'll need to cook it longer (maybe an hour compared to 15 minutes or so for meatballs) at a lower temperature.
Eight ounces really isn't enough to make either meatballs or meatloaf -- you'd only get 8 or 10 meatballs. For such a small amount, I'd look for a quicker cooking method like grilling or broiling, and shape the meat to cook quickly. If you really want to cook in the oven, consider shaping the meat into burgers and broiling.