Roast Turkey - How to get the meat to fall off the bones Roughly, my procedure for roast turkey is:


start with a frozen turkey
a couple of days of partial thawing in the fridge
soak in brine for 12-24 hours to complete thawing and get it more-or-less brined
cook for 1 to 1.5 hours at 450
cook for 4 hours or so at 275


The resulting turkey is always good, but sometimes it results in a very "loose" bird with the meat falling nicely off the bones.  The meat-falling-off-the-bones bird doesn't look as nice for presentation, but I don't care about that.  I find it way easier to process.

So I'd like to achieve that meat-falling-off-the-bones state every time, but I don't.  I feel like my process is close enough to being the same every time, but I never know if I'm going to get the desired results.

Yesterday's bird was not as desired, and I noted that it had been brined for only about 12 hours.  This made me wonder if longer brining helps achieve what I'm wanting.  Other times I've just thought it needed to cook for longer, but doing so didn't seem to help.
I would assume that cooking at low heat for a long time would help get the right texture, kind of like how cooking a pork shoulder for 8 hours low and slow turns it into pulled pork. You might also want to add some liquid for your turkey to braise with - If it doesn't have enough moisture, the meat will tighten up, dry, and contract. If you braise it, it will absorb some cooking liquids. Not sure if braising a turkey is a great idea, though.