The perfect Turkey

Ingredients

Turkey

Dollop of olive oil

2 cloves of garlic finely chopped or better squeezed

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

Chopped parsley

Tarragon

Soft butter (I’m using 200 g per my 6-7 kg bird)

Salt and pepper

Description

Method

My friend bet that if I write a post about how to make the perfect turkey that won’t be too dry or chewy, she’d go swimming with me in the Irish Sea on Christmas day. By the way, I would’ve written a whole blog post on the subject of the benefits of cold water swimming but I’m afraid there have been way too many of those, nothing new would be brought by me - just do it, peeps, it’s good for you!

Alesia

Dec 22, 2021

1 step

Start the night before the big day. Season it with salt and pepper in the cavity, put inside halved 1 lemon, 1 tangerine and 1 onion.

2 step

Gently separate the skin of the turkey with your hands, try no to tear it. Place the butter mixture inside the skin, carefully slide it to cover all of the surface that you managed to separate, use the rest of the butter mixture to cover the whole bird. Leave in the fridge overnight.

3 step

Take out 1 hour before placing it in the oven, heat the oven to 220 degrees C.

4 step

Place the turkey in the oven and set the temperature down to 180 degrees C and cook for 25 minutes per kg (e.g. my 6 kg will spend 2,5 hours in the oven - just enough for my traditional Christmas sea swim).

5 step

When cooking time is over, take out and let it set for 2 hours before serving.

So back to our queen (or king :)) of the Christmas table - da turkey! I usually order mine from organic producers all around Ireland. This year it comes from Rock Farm Slane. Organic means shorter time in the oven - about 25 minutes per kg. Otherwise it’ll overcook but usually the cooking times instructions are written on the box.

Over the years I tried everything - I soaked my turkey in brine overnight, or salted it inside and outside also overnight, covered it with butter, but the perfect recipe is as follows. First of all though make sure to choose the fresh turkey as opposed to frozen one - the quality of the turkey is the key.

Happy Christmas!