The New Year is coming very soon, so the table should be decorated to the highest standards. There are many recipes that can be prepared for the New Year's table. But the main dish is meat. Now I will tell you all the nuances of preparing a meat dish. A common dish is “oven baked turkey” and it is not difficult to prepare. To prepare, you need to know a few simple and useful tips.
Turkey for Christmas - cooking features
- When choosing a carcass, give preference to turkey, because... Turkeys have tougher meat.
- A turkey weighing 4.5-5.5 kg is enough to feed 8-10 people.
- Buy fresh turkey two days in advance. Make sure that her skin is light, smooth and not slippery, and that her meat is dense and elastic. The abdomen is moist and shiny, the eyes are convex, transparent and without cloudy spots. Before cooking, singe the bird, remove any remaining feathers and trim off any excess fat.
- Thaw frozen poultry slowly. There are two ways to do this. Place the bird directly in the package in a cool place with a temperature no higher than 16°C or immerse it in cold (no higher than 15°C) water. The second method is faster.
- A turkey weighing 4.5-5.6 kg will defrost in water in 19 hours, in a cool place - in 22-24 hours; weighing 6.75 kg - in 30 hours and 36 hours, 9 kg - in 39 and 45 hours, respectively.
- Most often, the whole turkey is baked in the oven. But it is also stewed in pieces, boiled, fried in a frying pan, baked on a spit, in foil, stuffed.
- For the filling, fruits, mushrooms, chestnuts, liver, dried fruits, nuts, rice, potatoes, vegetables, rice, buckwheat are usually used. Fill the turkey with the stuffing, not very tightly, and sew up the hole. Often the bird is stewed in wine or champagne.
- The turkey will be more tender and tasty if you marinate it before baking. Water, wine, honey, champagne, cognac with sugar, spices, herbs, lemon, garlic are used as a marinade. Keep the turkey in the marinade for up to three days.
- If you do not marinate the carcass, rub it inside and out with a mixture of garlic, salt, olive oil, rosemary and other spices.
- If the bird is marinating in the refrigerator, remove it from the cold an hour before baking to allow the turkey to adjust to room temperature. Then the bird will quickly warm up in the oven, and the meat is guaranteed to be tasty and juicy. Never cook cold turkey
- To ensure juicy turkey breast, place it breast side down on a baking sheet and place it in a sleeve or foil.
- If you cook a bird without a sleeve and foil, pour the resulting juices over the carcass while baking.
- Bake the bird in the oven at 190°C, with air circulation at 170°C.
- A bird weighing 4.5-5.6 kg is baked for 3-3.5 hours, 6.75 kg for 4.5 hours, 9 kg for 6 hours. Cooking time is calculated simply: 450 g of weight requires 20 minutes. If the bird is stuffed, the weight of the filling is also taken into account.
- You can check the readiness of the turkey with a special meat thermometer by piercing it through the thickest part of the thigh, not reaching the bone. If the reading is 90°C, the turkey is ready.
- If you don't have a thermometer, replace it with a knitting needle. Insert it into the fleshy part of the leg, collect the juice that comes out and look at its color. If it is pink or bloody, roast the turkey for another half hour. If the juice is clear or pale golden, the bird is ready.
- To properly cut a cooked whole bird, first cut off the legs where the thigh joins. To do this, hold the turkey with a fork inserted into the top of the breast and cut between the leg and breast. Cut the wings by making a cut from the edge of the breast towards the wing, feeling for the joint with a knife. Cut the breast, holding one side of the bird with a fork. Then cut it into thin pieces diagonally.
- Don't throw away the turkey giblets. Prepare broth from the heart, liver and stomach and cook soup.
Whole turkey in the oven
Whole oven-roasted turkey is a traditional American dish and a great recipe to deliciously feed 12-13 people.
- Calorie content per 100 g - 129 kcal.
- Number of servings - 12
- Cooking time - 4 hours 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- Turkey - 1 pc.
- Ground black pepper - to taste
- Lemon - 2 pcs.
- Spices and dry herbs - to taste
- Butter - 50 g
- Salt - to taste
- Broth - 2 tbsp.
- Garlic - 6-8 cloves
Cooking a whole turkey in the oven:
- Clean the turkey from the entrails, wash, dry and rub with salt and pepper and melted butter mixed with seasonings.
- Wash the lemon, dry it and cut it in half. Peel the garlic. Place the food inside the carcass.
- Pour the broth into a deep baking sheet and place a wire rack on the baking sheet on which to place the turkey.
- Place the carcass in a preheated oven at 180 degrees, calculate the required time to cook the turkey and bake until done.
- After half the cooking time, turn the carcass over to the other side.
- When there is an hour left until it is ready, pour butter over the carcass so that the skin acquires a beautiful golden color.
Turkey with dried fruits and cranberry sauce
Turkey meat baked in the oven with dried fruits turns out incredibly tender and with a divine taste. Simple, tender and incredibly tasty!
Ingredients:
- Turkey breast (with skin) - 1 pc.
- Cinnamon - a pinch
- Dried apricots – 200 g
- Dried figs – 100 g
- White wine – 100 ml
- Olive oil – 50 ml
- Barberry - 1 tsp.
- Salt - to taste
- Ground black pepper - to taste
- Cranberries (frozen) – 200 g
- Sugar - 1 tsp.
- Honey - 1 tbsp.
Preparing turkey with dried fruits and cranberry sauce:
- Wash dried apricots and figs, dry and finely chop. Mix them with cinnamon, salt, wine, pepper, barberries and olive oil.
- Rub the resulting mixture onto the meat so that it is generously covered with dried fruits and spices.
- Wrap the turkey in foil and bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 20-35 minutes.
- 10 minutes before cooking, open the foil to brown everything.
- To make the cranberry sauce, pour hot water over the cranberries to defrost them. Then grind them through a fine sieve and put on fire.
- Add sugar and honey to the heated cranberries and simmer the sauce over low heat until it thickens.
- Serve turkey with cranberry sauce.
Basic subtleties of roasting carcasses
As soon as the carcass is defrosted, it will undergo processing. Leave it at room temperature for an hour, this way it will heat evenly in the oven.
How long to bake a turkey with and without convention. Bake at t - 190 degrees. But, if you have a convection oven, set the degree to 170. Important! While baking under foil, use a toothpick to make small holes in the meat. This will distribute the steam evenly so the turkey will be juicier.
Notice that a golden crust begins to appear, pierce it with a fork. The juice will penetrate inside under the foil and the meat will be juicy. If you cook without it, then during the first hour, water with broth or lemon juice every 25 minutes. We do not recommend lubricating with mayonnaise or vegetable oil. Otherwise, your bird will quickly burn on the outside and be raw on the inside.
Turn the pan in the oven with the turkey every half hour. This way the dish will cook evenly.
Christmas turkey pieces
Chunky Christmas turkey is a truly festive dish that is especially popular in America at Christmas and Thanksgiving.
Ingredients:
- Whole turkey – 4 kg
- Onion - 1 pc.
- Carrots - 1 pc.
- Orange - 1 pc.
- Garlic - 1 head
- Butter - 100 g
- Coriander seeds - 1.5 tsp.
- Bay leaf - 2 pcs.
- Cloves - 10 pcs.
- Ground black pepper - 1 tsp.
- Salt - 10 tsp.
- Sugar - 100 g
- Water - 3-4 l
Cooking Christmas turkey in pieces:
- Wash the turkey, dry with a paper towel and chop into pieces.
- Marinate it 2 days before cooking. To do this, pour water into a saucepan, boil it, add salt, sugar and salt and all the spices. Leave the marinade to cool.
- Place the turkey in this marinade and add peeled onions and carrots cut into rings.
- Leave the carcass to marinate for 2-3 days at a temperature no higher than +5 degrees. The water should completely cover the carcass.
- Then remove the turkey from the marinade, pat dry and place on foil.
- Combine soft butter with ground black pepper and thickly lubricate the skin of the bird with this mixture.
- Inside the turkey, place an orange cut in half and insert clove buds into the peel. Also add unpeeled but washed garlic cloves. You can place the onions and carrots with which the turkey was marinated inside.
- Wrap the turkey well in foil and place in a preheated oven at 220 degrees. Bake for 45 minutes, then lower the temperature to 180°C and bake until done. In 20 minutes, open the foil, increase the temperature to 230°C and brown the bird.
How to grease and stuff a turkey?
If you bake a turkey in foil , then the side dish can be varied. You can use simple fillings:
2. Thinly sliced potatoes.
7. Mushrooms, fried or canned.
8. Minced pork with fried onions.
10. Kukusa or figs.
You can also place the side dish on a plate. For example: lemon slices, onions, herbs, olives.
Chef's recommendations! During cooking, use fragrant herbs and sourness. After drying, brush with lemon juice or apple cider vinegar. This way it will be more aromatic and juicy.
Roasted turkey in the sleeve
Christmas turkey is the best meat dish you can choose for a nice holiday dinner. It will be twice as tasty if you cook the bird in a baking bag.
Ingredients:
- Turkey – 1 carcass
- Carrots - 1 pc.
- Onions - 1 pc.
- Thyme - 1 bunch
- Parmesan – 50 g
- Lemon - 1 pc.
- Garlic – 5 cloves
- Butter - 2 tbsp.
- Salt - to taste
- Ground black pepper - to taste
Cooking a baked turkey in a sleeve:
- Clean the turkey, wash it, dry it and carefully separate the skin on the breast and back from the meat so as not to damage it.
- Separately, mix grated Parmesan, melted butter, finely chopped garlic, salt and black pepper. Place the resulting mixture under the skin.
- Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the diced carrots and onions. Fry them for 5 minutes and place the bird inside along with a bunch of thyme.
- Pour lemon juice over the carcass, place in a baking sleeve and place in a preheated oven at 200 degrees.
- After 30 minutes, reduce the temperature to 180°C and bake the Christmas turkey until cooked.
Turkey with apricot and tequila glaze
We will need:
- one very large gutted turkey
- 1.7 l. chicken or turkey broth
- 5 coffee spoons of tequila
- 50 gr. butter
- 2 tbsp. l. apricot jam
- Chili peppers – 5 pcs. (dried)
- 2 teeth garlic
- Dried apricots
- fresh cilantro for garnish
- salt, oregano
- syringe
Take a small saucepan, pour 2 small cups of broth into it, add dried chili peppers and bring to a boil, then turn off the heat and keep in boiling water for 5-10 m.
In a metal ladle, mix ¾ cup of broth, add tequila and butter, and add salt. This mixture must be injected into various parts of the turkey using a syringe.
Next, take the broth with peppers, add dried apricots, dry herbs, garlic, salt and pepper. Blend everything with a blender until smooth.
Spread some of this mixture onto the carcass. Place it on a wire rack in an oven preheated to t220 C, and place a deep sheet of broth on the bottom of the oven.
Bake for about one hour. Reduce heat to 170 C and bake for about two more hours, topping with broth every quarter of an hour. If you notice that the top of the bird is starting to burn, cover it with foil.
Turn off the oven. Remove the leaf with the broth from it, strain it into a bowl with chili pepper puree, cook over high heat until thickened, season to taste.
Serve turkey with chili sauce, garnished with apricots and fresh cilantro.
Turkey with rice in foil
Turkey with rice is a hearty dish. But since turkey meat is a bit dry, the stuffing must be ready, otherwise it will absorb all the juice from the meat, which will make the bird even drier.
Ingredients:
- Turkey - 1 pc. weighing 7.5 kg
- Basmati rice – 1 kg
- Dried apricots – 300 g
- Raisins – 100 g
- Dried figs – 200 g
- Onions - 2 onions
- Carrots - 2 pcs.
- Garlic - 4 cloves
- Butter - 200 g
- Vegetable oil - for frying
- Honey - 3 tbsp. l.
- Parsley - 1.5 bunches
- Salt - to taste
- Pepper - to taste
Cooking turkey with rice in foil:
- Wash dried apricots, figs and raisins and soak in hot water for 15 minutes. Place the dried fruits in a sieve and chop finely.
- Wash the parsley, dry and chop.
- Wash the rice and boil in salted water until half cooked.
- Peel the onion, carrots and garlic, cut into strips and fry in a frying pan in vegetable oil for 4 minutes.
- Combine all the products, add salt and pepper, add soft butter and mix everything.
- Stuff the turkey with the prepared stuffing, placing it as tightly as possible, and secure the cut with wooden toothpicks. Then coat the turkey with honey.
- Wrap the bird tightly in cling foil and place on a baking sheet.
- Place it in a preheated oven at 200°C and bake until done. 45 minutes before the end of baking, reduce the temperature to 180°C, unwrap the turkey from the foil and continue baking until golden brown.
Turkey baked in the oven with sweet potatoes and chestnuts
Why with chestnuts? Products that are non-traditional for Russian cuisine are increasingly appearing in stores. I became interested myself. I bought it and tried it. Cooked and fried. I really liked the roasted chestnuts. The taste is unusual. Chestnuts can be used as a side dish, replacing pasta and mashed potatoes. They go well with mushrooms, sweet potatoes, carrots, cabbage and Brussels sprouts. And then the idea came to stuff the turkey.
Ingredients:
- turkey - 4 kg.
- chestnuts ̶ 500 gr.
- sweet potato ̶ 500 gr.
- butter
- salt pepper
- garlic ̶ 2 cloves
- leek
Preparation:
- Finely chop the leek and garlic and fry in a frying pan.
- Then cook the chestnuts. Don't forget to make an X-shaped cut in advance.
- This is done so that during cooking or frying they do not explode from internal pressure.
- To do this, put them in a saucepan and fill with cold water, after the water boils, cook for 4 minutes, then take out one at a time and immediately peel and remove the inner film. Nuts can be roasted in the oven. Cover a baking sheet with baking parchment, lay out the nuts and bake at 200 degrees. The peel will open up and peel easily. Leave some of the roasted chestnuts to decorate the dish.
- Next, prepare the sweet potato puree. Cook like regular potatoes, puree, salt, pepper, add butter.
- In a large bowl, carefully combine chestnut puree, mashed potatoes and roast.
- Fill the turkey with this stuffing and secure the edges of the belly with chopsticks.
- Place the dish in an oven preheated to 180 degrees and bake for 2 hours. Baste the turkey every 20 minutes with its juices.
- To find out if the bird is ready, pierce it in the thickest part; if clear juice comes out, the dish is ready.
The dish can be served hot or cold.
In this article I tried to collect and show recipes for cooking turkey that I use myself. If you find something interesting for yourself, I will be glad. If you have interesting recipes, share them in the comments.
Author of the publication
offline 6 days
Turkey in the oven
This traditional Spanish recipe is easy to make and the oven-roasted turkey is juicy and tender. And the elegant decoration will give it a festive look.
Ingredients:
- Turkey – 3-4 kg
- Pork lard - to taste
- Brisket - 300 gr.
- Onion - 1 pc.
- Apple - 1 pc.
- Orange - 1-2 pcs.
- Prunes - 3-4 pcs.
- Dried apricots - 3-4 pcs.
- Sweet wine - 50 ml.
- Poultry broth - 1 cup
- White bread - 4 slices
- Salt - to taste
Cooking turkey in the oven:
- Wash the turkey, peel and boil after boiling for 10-15 minutes. Remove the carcass from the broth and cool.
- Place the wine in a syringe and release it into various parts of the breast and legs by injection.
- For the filling, cut lard, brisket, prunes, apple and dried apricots into small pieces. Soak the bread in the broth. Mix all ingredients and add salt.
- Stuff the inside of the turkey with the mixture and sew up the hole.
- Rub the carcass with salt and place on a baking sheet. Place it to bake in an oven preheated to 220°C until cooked and golden brown.
