I'm having Christmas dinner at my house this year and doing a full turkey dinner. My house is really small and it's gonna be a full house so I'd like to make and slice up the turkey the day before and reheat it somehow the next day.
Any suggestions?
I started doing this a couple of years ago. It's SOOOOOO much nicer not to have be in the kitchen all day with preparing the turkey, as well as all the other stuff that goes along with it.
Here's the instructions I use:
Step 1. Roast the turkey.
Step 2. When done, cover it loosely with foil and let it rest for 30-45 minutes. This allows the juices to settle into the meat before it is cut. If you cut it too soon the juices will run out, resulting in a dry turkey.
Step 3. Carve the turkey.
- Cut the turkey breast in 3/4" thick slices. If you slice it too thinly, the turkey won't hold in the juices as well and remain as moist.
Step 4. Place the sliced turkey in a baking pan that will fit in your refrigerator. Keep the sliced pieces pressed together.
Step 5. Cover the sliced turkey with plastic wrap, pressing it down to close any air pockets. This also helps retain moisture in the turkey.
Step 6. Cover the pan with a lid or piece of aluminum foil and refrigerate.
Here's how to reheat and serve the turkey.
Step 7. Remove turkey from fridge and rest on counter for 30-45 minutes to allow it to return to room temperature
Step 8. Remove the plastic wrap and spread out the turkey slices in an even layer. For quick, even heating, it's best to spread the slices in a single layer, overlapping them slightly--don't stack them if you can avoid it.
Step 9. Drizzle chicken or turkey broth evenly over all of the sliced meat. You can use canned broth or make your own. Cover pan tightly with aluminum foil.
Step 10. Reheat the turkey without overcooking it.
If you've taken care to roast your turkey properly so that it has remained moist, you don't want to undo that by overcooking it and drying it out during the reheating process. There are two methods; choose the one that works best for you. With both methods, the turkey should be in an even shallow layer in a baking pan. If it's piled too high, the outside layers will overcook before the center layers are hot.
- FLASH REHEATING at a high temperature is a method often used by restaurants chefs. The concept is simple. Put room temperature food in shallow, covered pans, and put it in a 450 degree oven for approx. 7-15 minutes. It heats the food fast (in a FLASH) without cooking it further. This is the method I recommend if you don't need the oven set to a lower temperature for cooking other dishes at the same time.
- STANDARD REHEATING in a 350 degree oven is another option that normally will take 25-30 minutes for room temperature turkey to be heated through. This method is the best option if you have other dishes that need to cook in the oven at the same time at that temperature.
Either way, the important thing is to remove the turkey from the oven as soon as it's heated through completely without letting it overcook. Ovens and cooking times can vary, so I recommend checking on it about half way into the reheating process to help you gauge when to remove it from the oven.
Step 11. Transfer the hot turkey to a serving platter. I like to use a fish spatula for this--it's nice and long, so I can neatly transfer a whole row of turkey slices at once.
Step 12. Drizzle 2-3 tablespoons of hot broth over the turkey just before serving. There should be some hot broth in the bottom of the reheating pan that can be used for this.
I was just going to recommend this. The broth is essential to not drying out in the fridge and so there is moisture while reheating in the oven.
Nobody gives a damn about the freshly roasted turkey being brought to the table for grandpop to carve. It's more of a hassle than anything, and grandpop, who otherwise couldn't boil water, slashes the hell out of the poor bird. 
