Poultry
Cooking your Christmas Turkey
General Notes
Take your meat out of the fridge an hour before you start cooking to allow it to come to room temperature.
TURKEY
Up to 15 lb/6.5kg weight: 18 – 20 minutes per lb/40 minutes per kg, plus 20 minutes
Over 15 lb/6.5kg weight: 15 minutes per lb/35 minutes per kg, plus 15 minutes
You should allow at least 60g/2 oz butter, 3 tablespoons olive oil and lots of salt and pepper to smooth over the outside of the bird before cooking. Take a large piece of foil, and place in your roasting tin. Put your turkey on the foil, and wrap and seal the foil to make a large parcel. Then cook, using one of the following methods:
- Normal Roasting: Preheat oven to 190 ºC/Fan 180ºC/Gas 5. Put turkey in, and roast for the appropriate amount of time, using the timings above. Uncover/remove the foil 90 minutes before the end of the cooking time to allow the bird to brown.
- Slow Roasting: This is a great method if you want to cook the bird overnight for an early lunch, or just would like the bird out of the way so that the oven is free for other things. Preheat oven to maximum. Put wrapped turkey in for 30 minutes to start the cooking process. Drop the oven temperature to 120ºC/Fan 100ºC/Gas ½. Allow 45 minutes to 1 hour per lb. Uncover, and raise temperature to 190ºC to brown if required for another 30 minutes or so.
Remove from oven, cover loosely with foil, with a couple of tea towels over the top and allow to rest in a warm place for at least half an hour before serving.