Jamie Oliver's fool-proof Christmas turkey recipe is 'quick and flavourful'
Every cook has hopes of dishing up a tasty and succulent turkey this Christmas - and legendary TV chef Jamie Oliver has shared his recipe for a shop-stopping bird that will wow your guests.
Cooking a Christmas dinner is a mammoth task for anyone, with different cooking times and various dishes to prepare - all often while hosting family. Thankfully, Jamie Oliver's fool-proof recipe should take the pressure off the most important part of any Christmas dinner - because what's a festive feast without a turkey?
The recipe, which Jamie claims will "blow your mind", is all down to his "Christmas-flavoured butter".
Cooking the delicious turkey on his Channel 4 show Jamie's Quick and Easy Christmas, the food guru takes you through cooking a delicious bird step by step with his recipe.
Ingredients:
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- A free range turkey
- A generous handful of dried cranberries
- A generous handful of fresh thyme
- A pack of unsalted butter
- Five rashers of smoky streaked bacon
To start off with, Jamie makes his Christmas-flavoured butter. Kicking off with the dried cranberries and thyme, he chopped it all up finely before adding salt and pepper.
Leaving the butter out of the fridge for an hour until soft, he kneads the butter into the cranberries and thyme mix. For those cooking multiple festive foods on the run-up to the big day - he said you can make the butter weeks before and pop it in the freezer.
Taking his seven-kilogram turkey, he places a spatula between the turkey meat and skin from the back of the bird. Jamie then smothers the butter in those pockets - by doing this, "the bird will baste itself". He then stuffs them with extra thyme too.
"This will flavour the bird, but also the juice that comes out will flavour the gravy later on," he explained. And for those who love gravy, the chef advised cooks to use the giblets which will give the most "incredible flavour".
He sat the bird on excess thyme and the giblets and wrapped it tightly in foil. Cooking times will vary depending on the size of your bird. As Jamie's is a free-range turkey, it's a "higher welfare bird" which means it will take round 25 to 30 minutes per kilo to cook. But for a standard bird, there's less fat, so it has to be cooked for a little longer - so 35 to 40 minutes per kilo. He estimated his would take roughly three hours in total.
Cooking at 180 degrees, he cooked it for two hours before taking it out and spooned over the homemade gravy and juices over the bird. Next, he takes the bacon and dipped in the juices before placing over the top of the turkey. Jamie stressed it has to be smoked bacon and dipped it in the juices.
Cooking for the final hour, the bacon should cook and crisp up, and when ready to take out, the most important step is to let it rest. By doing this, it lets all the moisture "go back to the right place" - leaving you with wonderfully tender meat.
According to Jamie, there are a few ways to tell if it's cooked or not. One is to use a thermometer, another is to check if the juices are clear, or to pinch the thigh meat, and if it pulls away from the bone, it's ready. Enjoy!
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