Christmas truly isn't Christmas without a big juicy turkey with golden crisp skin!
If you're looking to steal the show with a traditional roast turkey this Christmas, look no further.
You'll want to buy the best quality turkey you can afford to ensure it has tender meat and gives you that deliciously crisp skin everyone always craves. Perfect for serving alongside classic trimmings of roast potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and cranberry sauce.
Looking for a twist on tradition? Find all our favourite turkey recipes here.
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Yields:
8 serving(s)
Prep Time:
20 mins
Cook Time:
4 hrs 40 mins
Total Time:
5 hrs
Cal/Serv:
540
Ingredients
For the turkey
5
kg turkey with giblets reserved for stock
1
lemon, halved
A couple of bay leaves
75g
butter, melted
16
good-quality herby chipolatas, each twisted in two, then halved
16
rashers thinly sliced pancetta
8
each small red onions and banana shallots, some halved
1
head of garlic, separated into cloves
Bunches of watercress and fresh herbs, to garnish
For the stuffing
125g
butter
2
medium onions, finely chopped
4
celery sticks, finely chopped
225g
fresh granary or seeded loaf breadcrumbs
125g
porridge oats
175g
mixed unsalted cashews, brazils, almonds, and hazelnuts, roughly chopped
2Tbsp.
chopped fresh thyme or lemon thyme
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp ground cumin
2
medium eggs, beaten, and 1 egg yolk
Directions
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan) mark 4. To make the stuffing, melt the butter in a frying pan, then fry the onions and celery gently for 10min until soft but not coloured. Tip into a bowl with the breadcrumbs, oats, nuts, thyme, lemon zest and juice, cumin and beaten eggs. Season and mix together. Halve the mixture. Set one half aside. Beat the egg yolk into remaining stuffing and mix well, then roll into small walnut-sized balls. Cover and chill.
Step 2
Remove the turkey from the fridge 45min before stuffing to take the chill off it. Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan) mark 4. Put turkey on a board and lift the neck flap. Use your fingers to ease the skin gently away from the flesh. Spoon in the stuffing, taking care not to overfill. Turn the turkey over on to its breast, pull the neck flap down and over the stuffing and secure with a wooden skewer.
Step 3
Put the lemon halves and bay leaves inside the turkey cavity, then put into a large roasting tin. Season all over and secure the legs with string. Soak a 2m square piece of butter muslin in the melted butter, fold in half and wrap loosely around the turkey to cover it completely. Roast for 31/2hr or 15min per 1lb of the stuffed weight of the turkey.
Step 4
Meanwhile, loosely wrap each little sausage with a halved pancetta slice. Remove the muslin from the turkey. Add the bacon rolls, red onions, shallots and garlic cloves to the roasting tin.
Step 5
When the turkey is cooked, lift the bird (you may need someone to help you at this stage) and tip any juices out into the roasting tin. Transfer to a warm platter, along with the sausage and bacon rolls. Cover loosely with foil and leave to rest on a warm platter, covered in foil and a clean tea towel for 30-40min while you make the gravy (see page 000). To serve: Stuff the turkey cavity with a bunch of peppery watercress or mixed herbs. Prepare ahead: Make the bacon rolls up to two days before. Cover and chill. Make the stuffing up to the end of step 1. Put the half without the egg into a freezerproof container, then label and freeze for up to one month. Freeze the stuffing balls on a tray until firm, then transfer to a freezerproof container, label and freeze for up to one month. To use: Thaw overnight at cool room temperature. Complete the recipe.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
