If you’re braving your turn as Christmas chef this year, here are our tips and tricks for cooking the perfect turkey
Turning out a beautiful Christmas dinner to an appreciative crowd feels fantastic. Carving into your turkey and realizing that it’s still raw, or – even worse – dry as bone? Not so much. There are as many recipes for cooking turkeys as there are cooks in the world, but here are some of our favourite tricks to help you turn out a beautiful meal.
Oven performance can also vary widely, so we also suggest that you keep an eye on the temperature with a meat thermometer (all of our Kelly Bronze Turkeys will be supplied with one). Take regular readings from the thickest part of the breast.
We always suggest letting meat come up to room temperature before putting it into the oven. This allows the heat of the oven to penetrate the meat more evenly, which means less moisture loss.
Cook your turkey upside down! This is an increasingly popular method of cooking which helps keep the breast meat moist. You can turn the bird over and cook it right side up from halfway through cooking.
Let the cooked turkey rest before serving. This allows the meat to relax away from the heat of the oven and for the juices to redistribute, making every mouthful juicy and tender and giving you time to perfect your potatoes. It also makes carving slices easier!
If you find the skin loses its crispness during the resting period, peel it off, pop in back in a baking tray and give it ten more minutes in the over to crisp up again.
