Carving Turkey - are ALL the juices supposed to still be clear?

Where did you insert the thermometer? Did you let the bird rest, covered, for 15-20 minutes after taking it out of the oven? 177 should have been plenty to assure all the meat was cooked.

I recommend using a probe thermometer that stays in the meat throughout the cooking. Mine can be set to a pre-determined temperature; it beeps when the temp is reached. Take the bird out but don't remove the probe thermometer! Cover the bird with foil and set aside for 15-20 minutes. The temperature will actually rise about 5 degrees more. When you see the temp start to fall, you can remove the probe and start carving.

Resting is ESSENTIAL to juicy meat of all kinds, whether it's a turkey or a steak. If you cut it immediately after cooking, the juices will all run out. Result: very dry, tough meat.

The covering with foil is essential during the resting period. That maintains/increases the temperature and let's the meat "settle" so it is easier to carve. Without the foil it cools too fast. Now I am no expert at cooking turkeys so I may have missed a point here so if anyone can counter sink this let me know. Also let me know if I am incorrect about any of this.

Any way you look at it, even the best thermometer only measures the temperature at the place where it is. That may not be enough.

Your thigh may have reached 177 F, but that doesn't mean that the rest of the bird did. Factors to consider include the placement of the probe, whether the turkey was on a rack, whether the turkey was stuffed (a bad idea, IMHO) and whether your oven heats evenly.

For instance, if your turkey were sitting on roasting pan, the pan itself may have prevented sufficient heat from entering the lower parts so that a thigh may be 177 F, but the bottom areas were significantly cooler. Or, if you stuffed the turkey, the stuffing will be unsafe until the center of it reaches about 165 F (depending upon which food safety expert you rely) and it will absorb heat from other parts of the turkey. So, your thigh may be 177, but the interior of the turkey may be considerably cooler. Or, your oven may be hotter on one side than the other (bad element, bad convection, door leak, etc.) and one thigh could register 177 F, but the other side could be much cooler.

The problem, of course, is that turkeys have an odd shape and contain two different kinds of meat, that are properly cooked when they reach two different temperatures. Stuffing compounds that problem, by throwing off the thermodynamics and requiring that the heat reach all the way through the turkey, a hard thing to achieve without seriously overcooking the exterior portions.

Does any of the above help?

I'm not sure if the "thick part of the thigh" means the same thing to everyone so I can't comment on whether or not you had the temperature probe in the correct position. If it was near a bone it would give you an inaccurate reading. My training has been to insert the temp. probe into the mid-portion of the breast about half way down the side of the bird at a position between the side and the drumstick. Another common error, besides getting the probe too near a bone, is not getting the probe in deep enough.
Hope there's something in all this that helps you identify what went wrong with your cooking method. ;)

I have this problem all the time with turkey and chicken. The undercooked area is invariably where the thigh meets the body of the bird. I usually pour the pink juices into the pan with the gravy and let it cook a few more minutes. If the thigh meat is visually too underdone the thigh goes into the pan as well.

Roasting the bird on its side (thigh side up) for 15 minutes or so in the begining - first one side then the other - helps, but for me it's too much trouble to flip a 16# bird. Post cooking the underdone bits is easier.

Jock

Turkey

Awesome Tip!