How To Cook A Roast Turkey - Three Delicious Recipes

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Turkey is a Christmas Day tradition, but it's not a meat most of us tend to eat on a regular basis. It can be easy to overcook your poultry, which causes it to dry out and lack a juicy flavour.

Prep time: 20 minutes Cooking time: 5 hours, including chilling and simmer time Serves 10

Ingredients 1 turkey, about 6kg 1 bay leaf 2 onions 1 carrot 100g unsalted butter, softened Fresh parsley and thyme 2 lemons

Method 1. Remove the giblets on Christmas Eve and put everything except the liver in a pan, along with the bay leaf, one onion, the carrot and a few sprigs of parsley and thyme. Add 700ml water and cover the pan. Simmer for two hours, skimming the surface occasionally. Strain, cool and refrigerate.

On Christmas Day, wipe the inside and outside of the turkey with damp kitchen paper. Prick the other lemon with a fork and put in the turkey cavity with a sprig of thyme and the other onion.

Carefully lift the skin around the neck so you can get your hand underneath, then rub half the herb butter between the skin and the flesh. Rub the rest over the skin. Put the turkey in a roasting tin, breast-side up. Cover loosely with foil. Pre-heat the oven to 190°C/170°C Fan/Gas 5.

Calculate the cooking time, allowing 20 minutes per kg, plus 90 minutes. For birds up to 4kg cook for 20 minutes per kg, plus 70 minutes. Baste every hour. Remove the foil for the last 30 minutes to crisp the skin.

Test if the turkey is cooked by piercing the thickest part of the thigh and the breast with a skewer. If the juices run clear, it's cooked. If they are pink, return the turkey to the oven for another 20 minutes and keep checking until cooked.

Move the turkey to a platter, tilting the bird so that the juices in the cavity run out into the roasting pan. Cover with a double layer of foil, then with a tea towel wrung out in hot water. Leave to rest in a warm place for 30-60 minutes.Pour off most of the fat from the roasting tin and make gravy using the giblet stock, or with a stock cube.

Prep time: 15 minutes Cooking time: 17 hours, including overnight cooking Serves 10

Ingredients 6kg turkey 1 bottle of wine (white or red) 2 pints of good stock (chicken, beef or vegetable) Seasoning, to taste

Method (timings are given for lunch to be served at 1.30pm) 1. Set your oven at 80˚C, 176˚F, Gas Mark 1 and at around 7.30pm on Christmas Eve, place your turkey on a rack in a roasting pan, crown side up. Pour over the wine, stock and seasoning (if using) and bring to the boil on your hob. Cover tightly with foil and place in the oven.

At 10am on Christmas morning, turn the oven up to 200˚C (or move to another oven set at that temperature). Keep the foil over the bird until noon then remove it to let it go golden. Baste at 20 minute intervals.

At 1pm the turkey will be done but check with a skewer inserted into the thickest part of the breast – all juices should run clear – then take the bird out of the oven and cover with a double layer of foil to rest until you start carving – no sooner than 1.25pm.

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How To Cook A Roast Turkey - Three Delicious Recipes

Turkey is a Christmas Day tradition, but it's not a meat most of us tend to eat on a regular basis. It can be easy to overcook your poultry, which causes it to dry out and lack a juicy flavour.