On Christmas Eve, it is customary to gather at the table with the whole family, prepare delicious dishes, and set a generous and tasty table. The feast should symbolize prosperity and the beginning of a new life. One of the best Christmas table decorations is a turkey. It is an ideal option for the main hot dish. Turkey meat is dietary, very tasty and loved by many. Moreover, turkey is a traditional Christmas dish in many countries of the world.
Today we have chosen for you 2 of the tastiest Christmas turkey recipes, which all guests will definitely like. But to begin with, you should learn a couple of secrets that will help make the dish perfect.
Advice on choosing and preparing food
When choosing a carcass, give preference to a turkey, since turkeys have firmer meat.
A turkey weighing 4.5-5.5 kg is enough to feed 8-10 people.
Buy fresh turkey two days before cooking. Make sure that the skin is light, smooth and not slippery, and the meat is firm and elastic. The belly is wet and shiny, the eyes are bulging, transparent and without cloudy spots. Before cooking, burn the bird, remove the remaining feathers and cut off the excess fat.
Thaw the frozen bird slowly. This can be done in two ways. Put the bird directly in the package in a cool place with a temperature not higher than 16 ° C or immerse it in cold (not higher than 15 ° C) water. The second method is faster.
A turkey weighing 4.5-5.6 kg will thaw 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.
Fruits, mushrooms, chestnuts, liver, dried fruits, nuts, rice, potatoes, vegetables, rice, buckwheat are usually used for filling. Fill the turkey with stuffing, not very densely, and sew up the hole. Poultry is often stewed in wine or champagne.
The turkey will be more tender and tasty if it is marinated before baking. As a marinade, water, wine, honey, champagne, cognac with sugar, spices, herbs, lemon, garlic are used. 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 marinated in the refrigerator, take it out of the cold an hour before baking so that the turkey gets used to room temperature. Then the bird will quickly warm up in the oven, and the meat is guaranteed to be tasty and juicy. Never heat a cold turkey
To make the turkey breast juicy, put it on a baking sheet with the breast down, put it in a sleeve or foil. If you cook the bird without a sleeve and foil, pour the resulting juice over the carcass during baking.
Bake the bird in the oven at a temperature of 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 – 4.5 hours, 9 kg – 6 hours. Cooking time is calculated simply: 450 g of weight takes 20 minutes. If the bird is stuffed, the weight of the stuffing is also taken into account.
You can check the readiness of the turkey with a special meat thermometer by piercing the thick part of the thigh without reaching the bone. If the indicator is 90°C, the turkey is ready.
If there is no thermometer, replace it with a needle. Insert it into the fleshy part of the leg, collect the juice that will stand out and look at the color. If it is pink or bloody, bake the turkey for another half hour. If the juice is clear or pale golden, the bird is ready.
A whole turkey in the oven
Ingredients (for 12-13 people):
- 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
Preparation:
Gut the turkey, wash, dry and rub with salt and pepper and melted butter mixed with seasonings.
Wash, dry and cut the lemon in half. Peel the garlic. Put the products inside the carcass.
Pour the broth into a deep pan and place a rack on the pan, on which you will place the turkey.
Put the carcass in an oven heated to 180 degrees, calculate the required time for cooking the turkey and bake until done.
After half the cooking time, turn the carcass 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
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.
Preparation:
Wash dried apricots and figs, dry them and finely chop them. Mix them with cinnamon, salt, wine, pepper, barberry and olive oil.
Rub the resulting mixture over the meat so that it is abundantly covered with dried fruits and spices.
Wrap the turkey in foil and send to bake in an oven heated to 180 ° C for 20-35 minutes.
10 minutes before readiness, open the foil so that everything browns.
For the cranberry sauce, cover the cranberries with hot water to defrost them. Then rub 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 the turkey with the cranberry sauce.
