How do you get your Thanksgiving turkey to come out golden brown all over?

There are a few ways to achieve this. 1: do not put it in a cooking bag (it stews it). 2. Make sure you DRY the meat out thoroughly. In fact, you can leave the turkey in the fridge overnight uncovered. Wet skin does not brown nicely. 3. Grease it up-- olive oil, canola oil, butter, etc. 4. Keep liquids off it-- don't baste. Basting doesn't do anything anyway-- you can't get juice into the bird by pouring it on top of the bird just like you can't get water in your stomach by taking a shower. Basting just prolongs cooking time by letting heat out of the oven, thus drying out the bird more. So no basting. I put mine in a 450 degree oven for about 20 minutes breast first!-- check it, Turn it after 20 minutes so legs are in the back. If it's not too brown let it go for 10 more minutes ( a lot depends on how hot your oven is). Then lower to 350 and cook the rest of the way. Check it every hour, if it starts to get too brown in spots throw some foil over it to shield it. But this way the skin comes out nice, brown & crisp.

Reynolds foil tent.