Roast turkey
Turkey can be a dry meat, so the key is to try and keep the turkey moist throughout the cooking process.
The first step is to coat the bird in melted butter. I find that the easiest way to do this is to melt the butter in a microwave and to use a brush to apply to the bird. If you don't melt the butter, and the bird and/or the butter are cold, this becomes a pretty impossible task!
The next step is to cover the crown of the bird in streaky bacon, which will release more fat over the turkey as it cooks. Finally, I like to create a turkey tent with a cork and foil. This helps to retain moisture, promotes even cooking, and prevents the surface from browning too quickly and drying out.
For the turkey
1 turkey
Butter
Seasoning
Streaky bacon
- Weigh the bird and calculate the cooking time. Allow 20 minutes per kg + 70-80 minutes. (The turkey will also need to rest for 30-40 minutes so don't forget to include this in your timings).
- Take the turkey out of the fridge.
- If the bird is from a supermarket, then remove any plastic covering and the giblets from the cavity. Leave for 1-2 hours.
- Pre-heat the oven to 200°C.
- Line a roasting tin (appropriate for the size of the bird)with turkey foil and then lay the turkey in the bottom of the tin.
- Melt a large knob of butter in the microwave on a low heat.
- Using a pastry brush (or in my case a paint brush!) to brush the melted butter over the top of the bird. Repeat until there's a nice layer of butter covering the bird. Season.
- Carefully lay the streaky bacon over the top of the bird, overlapping a little so there are no gaps.
- Place a cork (champagne corks work best!) on top of the bird, and then carefully lay a large piece of turkey foil over the top of the bird to create a tent.
- Tuck the edges of the foil under the roasting tin.
- Place the turkey in the hot oven for 30 minutes, then reduce the heat to 180°C for the remaining cooking time.
- 30-45 minutes before the end of the cooking time, remove the foil tent. Baste the turkey and return to the oven.
- Once the bacon is crispy, remove from the top of the bird and place in foil to keep warm. Baste the turkey again and return to the oven until the turkey turns golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and pierce the flesh and check that the juices run clear.
- Place the turkey on a heated carving tray or similar and cover in foil to rest for 30-40 minutes.
