As is so often the way when it comes to cooking anything, buying the best quality ingredients that you can afford is key to making this dish taste spectacular. 👌🏼
If you are unable to use a fresh turkey, ensure that your frozen turkey is thoroughly defrosted before you start.
Whether you’re using a fresh or frozen bird, allow it to return to room temperature for before cooking, this is key to any meat as it has to relax before hitting any heat during cooking.
Resting the turkey is an important process which allows the meat to become tender and succulent as the juices inside the meat become more evenly distributed throughout the bird – so don’t skip this stage!
During the cooking process the turkey will absorb the heat from the oven and this absorbed heat will continue to cook the bird as it rests which can increase the internal temperature by up to 10C, hence why so many fail at the final stages and end up with a dry turkey for the big day. Depending on the size of the turkey the time vary a lot.
So as a guide, roast your turkey at…
- 180C / 160C fan / gas mark 4 /350F for 90 mins plus 20 mins per kg
- And for the last 30 minutes… turning your oven up to 220C / 200C fan / gas mark 7 / 425F (with no covering to get the best colour on the cooked bird!).