Regarded as the centrepiece of the Christmas table, the turkey can make the whole cooking experience much more daunting.
But with the right recipe, it doesn’t have to be overwhelming, as food blogger Sarra Rossi discovered.
Sharing her advice on the blog Taming Twins, the home cook who specialises in “fuss-free family food” claimed: “I am here to tell you that roast turkey does not have to be complicated or stressful to be delicious, cooked on time, and cooked all the way through! This is how you serve up your roast turkey with zero fuss.”
Sarra’s seven-ingredient recipe works for both turkey crowns and whole birds, but she urged that two things are done regardless of which one you follow.
One of which is to whip up a flavoured butter and lather it under the turkey’s skin, and the other is to buy a good meat thermometer.
Method
Cooking the turkey is easy with Sarra’s method. She said: “This is a simple guide to making a delicious Christmas turkey, without any fanfare or fuss. Get your weight and timings right, throw in a bit of butter lathering and bacon covering, and you’re good to go.”
Start by combining the butter ingredients in a bowl and mash them together. Remove any giblets from the turkey and place the whole bird in a well-lined roasting tin or tin foil tray on a baking sheet for extra support.
Pat the raw turkey dry with a kitchen roll, then use a small sharp knife to gently part the skin from the breasts at the highest point of the bird.
With a clean hand, separate the skin from the meat and repeat on the other side. These pockets are where the butter will go.
Take half the butter and push it in, down under the skin of the bird on both sides. Spread to rest over the top of the turkey by massaging it in.
Next, lay the bacon rashes over the bird in a criss-cross pattern to help them stay put, then cover the entire turkey with foil.
When the turkey is ready to be cooked, leave the oven to preheat to 180C for a while. Cook according to the timings on the packaging of the turkey based on its weight.
Baste the turkey every hour or so while the bird cooks, taking care not to leave the oven open for more than a few seconds at a time. Then when it’s ready, remove from the oven, cover the tin foil with a clean tea towel (or three), and leave to rest for around one hour.
Sarra said: “Use your meat thermometer to gauge whether your turkey is cooked or not. Always check the thickest part of the meat (usually the thigh). It will be ready when its temperature is recorded at either at 65C for 10 minutes, 70C for two minutes, 75C for 30 seconds.”
