No Fuss Roast Turkey {with Easy Herb Butter}

Roast turkey on the Christmas dinner table.

5 from 13 votes

No Fuss Roast Turkey {with Easy Herb Butter}

This is a simple guide to making a delicious Christmas turkey, without any fanfare or fuss. Get your weight and timings right, throw in a bit of butter lathering and bacon covering, and you’re good to go.

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Family Food

Servings: people

Author: Sarah Rossi

Ingredients

4 kg Whole turkey or turkey crown
250 g Smoked streaky bacon

For the Herb Butter:

250 g Salted butter At room temperature
20 g Fresh thyme Leaves removed from stalks and finely chopped
20 g Fresh rosemary Leaves removed from stalks and finely chopped
2 Lemons Zested
1 Orange Zested
Plenty of sea salt and black pepper

Instructions

Remove the turkey from the fridge and set aside. Put the herb butter ingredients in a bowl and mash together well.
Remove the giblets (if your turkey has them) and put the turkey into a well-lined roasting tin or a foil tray placed on a baking tray (to support it). Pat the turkey dry with kitchen roll, then use a small sharp knife to gently part the skin from the breasts at the highest point. Using a clean hand, separate the skin from the meat. Repeat on the other side of the bird too.
Push about half of the herb butter under the skin of the turkey. You can use your hands on top of the skin to help push it down. Spread the rest of the butter over the top of the skin. Lay the bacon rashers carefully over the turkey breast (I like to criss-cross them as this helps to stop them falling off as they cook). Cover loosely with tin foil.
When you're ready to cook, preheat the oven to 180℃ fan/200℃/Gas Mark 6 and cook according to the timings above (or on the turkey packaging), basing the cooking time on its weight.
Baste the turkey every hour or so. If, an hour before the end of the cooking time, the outside of the turkey or the bacon are not turning brown, remove the foil to allow for a crispy finish.
When the turkey is cooked through, remove it from the oven but leave it in its tray (lots of juices will come out). Set aside somewhere not too chilly in the kitchen and keep it covered with foil. Pop a clean bath towel or a couple of clean tea towels on top of the foil to keep the heat in and let it rest for about 1 hour.
When you're ready to serve, pour the resting juices from the tray into your gravy (if you wish). Place the turkey on a platter and carve.

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Notes

Basting: Basting the meat with the cooking liquid helps to stop it drying out. Be aware that if you open the oven often the turkey may take longer to cook as the heat escapes.

Cooked bacon: We use the bacon to add flavour and keep the turkey breasts moist. By the time the bird has cooked the bacon can be a little over cooked and hard. You can discard it if you like, but we always eat it crumbled over the meat!

Tin foil: I like to cook covered in tin foil in the oven, to make sure that the bird is not cooking too quickly. If an hour before the end of the cooking time you feel that the outside of the turkey and/or the bacon isn't crispy, take the foil off to allow a crispy finish on the outside.

What size to buy: The smallest you can buy - about 2kg - will feed about 4-6 diners. The next sizes up - between 3-4kg - will feed about 6-8 people.

According to Copas Turkeys, the bigger birds rations are as follows:

4kg serves 8-10 people
5kg serves 10-12 people
6kg serves 12-14 people
7kg serves 14-16 people
8kg serves 16-8 people
9kg serves 18-20 people

Cooking time: Weigh the turkey first so you get your timings correct. Preheat the oven to 180℃. According to the Food Standards Agency, you should cook your turkey by these guidelines:

Allow 45 minutes per kg plus 20 minutes for turkey under 4.5kg
Allow 40 minutes per kg for between 4.5-6.5kg
Allow 35 minutes per kg for over 6.5kg

Temperature: Use your meat thermometer to gauge whether your turkey is cooked or not. Always check the thickest part of the meat (usually the thigh). It will be ready when its temperature is recorded at either:

At 65°C for 10 minutes
At 70°C for 2 minutes
At 75°C for 30 seconds

Preparing in advance: Prep up to step 3 in the recipe up to 24 hours before you’re ready to cook the turkey. Cover and chill it overnight, then cook as normal in the morning. Remember that a fridge-cold turkey may take a little longer to cook than a room temperature one.

Thawing a frozen turkey: Plan this WELL in advance! Turkeys are hefty birds and take some thawing out - large ones can take up to 5 days! If you are cooking a frozen turkey, check the packet instructions beforehand, however most do need to be defrosted.

According to official guidance from the Food Standards Agency, you should always defrost your turkey in a fridge rather than room temperature. You’ll need to put it in a container in case any liquid comes out to avoid cross-contamination (and a messy fridge!)

If you don’t have thawing instructions, allow about 10-12 hours per kg for a complete thaw.

Room temperature: Remove the turkey from the fridge and leave it at room temperature for about an hour before you’re going to cook it. This stops it from reacting and shrinking in the hot oven.

Take out giblets: These are basically the innards of the turkey and they’re usually inside the bird in a bag, so you just need to pop them out. You don’t need them for your turkey, but they’re great for additional flavour in your gravy if you want to go the extra mile.

How to rest your turkey: When the turkey is cooked through do the following:

Remove from the oven but leave in its tray (lots of juice will come out)
Put it on the side somewhere not too chilly in the kitchen
Keep the tin foil covering
Pop a clean bath towel or a couple of clean tea towels on top of the tin foil to seal and keep the heat in.
When you're ready to serve, pour the juices into your gravy (if you wish)
Put on a platter and carve.

Carving: You can either carve it the traditional way, which is to remove the legs and wings and carve along the grain of the breast. OR you can remove the breasts by cutting them out of the carcass in one whole piece and slicing it on a board.

Start on one side of the breast and cut downwards diagonally until you reach the centre. For the legs and wings, carve the meat until you get to the joint, then put your thumb in the gap and pull the joint away.

Nutrition