TOP-6 recipes with photos of cooking turkey for Christmas, whole and in pieces, in foil and sleeve … Secrets of chefs. Video recipes.
Comfort, warmth, aroma, bright lights, cheerful mood … - Christmas. This holiday is good for everyone. On this day, it is customary to gather at the table with the whole family, prepare hearty tasty dishes, set a generous and delicious table. The feast should symbolize abundance and the beginning of a new life. One of the best Christmas table decorations is the turkey. This is ideal for a hot main course. Turkey meat is dietary, very tasty and loved by many. Moreover, it is turkey that is a traditional Christmas dish in many countries of the world. However, many do not prepare it, considering it a laborious process. However, in reality, cooking a Christmas turkey is a surprisingly simple job. We offer TOP-6 step-by-step recipes and a detailed video on how to cook a Christmas turkey!
Turkey for Christmas - cooking features
- When choosing a carcass, give preference to a turkey, because turkeys have tougher 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 her skin is light, smooth and not slippery, and the meat is firm and elastic. The abdomen is moist and shiny, the eyes are convex, transparent and without cloudy spots. Singe the bird before cooking, remove the remaining feathers and cut off excess fat.
- Thaw frozen poultry slowly. This can be done in two ways. Place the bird directly in the package in a cool place with a temperature not exceeding 16 ° C or immerse it in cold (not higher than 15 ° C) water. The second way is faster.
- A turkey weighing 4.5-5.6 kg will defrost 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.
- Most often, the whole turkey is baked in the oven. But it is also stewed in pieces, boiled, fried in a pan, baked on a spit, in foil, stuffed.
- Fruits, mushrooms, chestnuts, liver, dried fruits, nuts, rice, potatoes, vegetables, rice, buckwheat are usually used for the filling. Fill the turkey not very tightly with the filling, but sew up the hole. Often the bird is stewed in wine or champagne.
- A turkey will turn out to be more tender and tasty if marinated before baking. Water, wine, honey, champagne, brandy with sugar, spices, herbs, lemon, garlic are used as a marinade. Keep the turkey in the marinade for up to three days.
- If you will not marinate the carcass, grate it inside and out with a mixture of garlic, salt, olive oil, rosemary and other spices.
- If the poultry is marinated in the refrigerator, remove it from the cold one hour before baking to allow the turkey to get 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 cook cold turkey
- To make the turkey breast juicy, lay it breast-side down on a baking sheet, place it in a sleeve or foil.
- If you are cooking poultry without sleeves and foil, water the carcass with the resulting juice during baking.
- Bake the poultry in the oven at 190 ° C, with air circulation at 170 ° C.
- Poultry weighing 4.5-5.6 kg is baked - 3-3.5 hours, 6.75 kg - 4.5 hours, 9 kg - 6 hours. The cooking time is calculated simply: it takes 20 minutes for 450 g of weight. If the poultry is stuffed, the weight of the filling is also taken into account.
- You can check the readiness of the turkey with a special meat thermometer, piercing the thickest part of the thigh with it, before reaching the bone. If the indicator is 90 ° C, then the turkey is ready.
- If there is no thermometer, replace it with a spoke. Insert it into the fleshy part of the leg, collect the juice that stands out and look at its color. If it is pink or bloody, roast the turkey for another half hour. If the juice is clear or pale golden, the bird is ready.
- To properly slice the finished whole bird, first cut off the legs where the thigh joins. To do this, hold the turkey with a fork in the top of the breast and cut it between the leg and the breast. Cut the wings off by making a cut from the edge of the breast towards the wing, feeling for the joint with a knife. Cut off the breast, holding one side of the bird with a fork. Then cut it into thin slices diagonally.
- Do not throw away the turkey offal. From the heart, liver and stomach, prepare the broth and cook the soup.
Whole turkey in the oven
Whole-roasted turkey is a traditional American dish and a great recipe to feed 12-13 people.
- Caloric content per 100 g - 129 kcal.
- Servings Per Container - 12
- Cooking time - 4 hours 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- 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
Cooking whole turkey in the oven:
- Peel the turkey guts, wash, dry and rub with salt and pepper and melted butter mixed with seasonings.
- Wash the lemon, dry it and cut it in half. Peel the garlic. Put the food inside the carcass.
- Pour the broth into a deep baking sheet and place the wire rack on the baking sheet, on which place the turkey.
- Send the carcass to a preheated oven to 180 degrees, calculate the right time for cooking the turkey and bake until tender.
- After half the cooking time, turn the carcass over to the other side.
- When an hour is left until readiness, pour the butter over the carcass so that the skin acquires a beautiful golden color.
Turkey with dried fruits and cranberry sauce
Turkey meat baked in the oven with dried fruits turns out to be incredibly tender and with a divine taste. Simple, tender and incredibly tasty!
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 tablespoon
Cooking turkey with dried fruit and cranberry sauce:
- Wash dried apricots and figs, dry and chop finely. Toss them with cinnamon, salt, wine, pepper, barberry and olive oil.
- Grate the meat with the resulting mixture so that it is abundantly covered with dried fruits and spices.
- Wrap the turkey in foil and send to bake in a preheated oven to 180 ° C for 20-35 minutes.
- 10 minutes before cooking, open the foil to brown everything.
- For cranberry sauce, pour hot water over the cranberries to defrost. Then grind them 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.
Chunks of Christmas turkey
Chunky Christmas turkey is a real holiday dish that is especially popular in America at Christmas and Thanksgiving.
Ingredients:
- Whole turkey - 4 kg
- Bulb onions - 1 pc.
- Carrots - 1 pc.
- Orange - 1 pc.
- Garlic - 1 head
- Butter - 100 g
- Coriander seeds - 1.5 tsp
- Bay leaf - 2 pcs.
- Carnation - 10 pcs.
- Ground black pepper - 1 tsp
- Salt - 10 tsp
- Sugar - 100 g
- Water - 3-4 l
Cooking Christmas turkey in chunks:
- Wash the turkey, pat dry with a paper towel and chop into pieces.
- Marinate it 2 days before cooking. To do this, pour water into a saucepan, boil it, salt, add sugar and salt and all the spices. Leave the marinade to cool.
- Unload the turkey into this marinade and add the peeled onions and carrots, cut into rings.
- Leave the carcass to marinate for 2-3 days at a temperature not higher than +5 degrees. The water should completely cover the carcass.
- Then remove the turkey from the marinade, dry and put on foil.
- Combine soft butter with black ground pepper and thickly lubricate the poultry skin with this mixture.
- Place the orange, cut in half, inside the turkey, and stick the clove buds into the rind. Also add unpeeled but washed garlic cloves. You can put onions and carrots inside, with which the turkey was marinated.
- Wrap the turkey well in foil and send to the preheated oven to 220 degrees. Bake for 45 minutes, then lower the temperature to 180 ° C and bake until tender. Open the foil for 20 minutes, increase the temperature to 230 ° C and brown the bird.
Baked turkey in the sleeve
Christmas turkey is the best meat dish you can choose for an enjoyable holiday dinner. It will be twice as delicious if the poultry is cooked in a roasting sleeve.
Ingredients:
- Turkey - 1 carcass
- Carrots - 1 pc.
- Onions - 1 pc.
- Thyme - 1 bunch
- Parmesan - 50 g
- Lemon - 1 pc.
- Garlic - 5 cloves
- Butter - 2 tablespoons
- Salt to taste
- Ground black pepper - to taste
Cooking roasted turkey in a sleeve:
- Peel the turkey, wash, dry and carefully separate the skin on the breast and back from the meat so as not to damage it.
- Toss separately the grated Parmesan cheese, melted butter, finely chopped garlic, salt and black pepper. Place the resulting mixture under the skin.
- Heat oil in a skillet and add diced carrots and onions. Cook them for 5 minutes and place inside the bird along with a bunch of thyme.
- Pour lemon juice on the carcass, place in a baking sleeve and send to a preheated oven to 200 degrees.
- After 30 minutes, reduce the temperature to 180 ° C and roast the Christmas turkey until tender.
Turkey with rice in foil
Turkey with rice is a hearty version of the dish. But since the turkey meat is dry, so the filling must be ready, otherwise it will take all the juice from the meat, which will make the poultry even drier.
Ingredients:
- Turkey - 1 pc. weighing 7.5 kg
- Basmati rice - 1 kg
- Dried apricots - 300 g
- Raisins - 100 g
- Dried figs - 200 g
- Onion - 2 onions
- Carrots - 2 pcs.
- Garlic - 4 cloves
- Butter - 200 g
- Vegetable oil - for frying
- Honey - 3 tbsp. l.
- Parsley - 1, 5 bunch
- Salt to taste
- Pepper to taste
Cooking turkey with rice in foil:
- Wash dried apricots, figs and raisins, soak in hot water for 15 minutes. Place dried fruits on a sieve and chop finely.
- Wash, dry and chop the parsley.
- Wash the rice and boil in salted water until half cooked.
- Peel the onions, carrots and garlic, cut into strips and fry in a pan in vegetable oil for 4 minutes.
- Combine all the products, salt and pepper, add soft butter and mix everything.
- Stuff the turkey with the cooked filling, stacking it as tightly as possible, and secure the cut with wooden toothpicks. Then brush the turkey with honey.
- Wrap poultry tightly in cling foil and place on baking sheet
- Send it to a preheated oven to 200 ° C and bake until tender. 45 minutes before the end of baking, reduce the temperature to 180 ° C, unfold the turkey from the foil and continue baking until golden brown.
Turkey in the oven
This traditional Spanish recipe is simple to make and the oven-baked turkey is juicy and tender. And the elegant decoration will give a festive look.
Ingredients:
- Turkey - 3-4 kg
- Pork lard - to taste
- Brisket - 300 gr.
- Bulb onions - 1 pc.
- Apple - 1 pc.
- Orange - 1-2 pcs.
- Prunes - 3-4 pcs.
- Dried apricots - 3-4 pcs.
- Sweet wine - 50 ml.
- Poultry broth - 1 glass
- White bread - 4 slices
- Salt to taste
Cooking turkey in the oven:
- Wash the turkey, peel and boil after boiling for 10-15 minutes. Remove carcass from broth and refrigerate.
- Place the wine in a syringe and inject it into different parts of the breast and legs.
- For the filling, cut the bacon, brisket, prunes, apple and dried apricots into small pieces. Soak the bread in the broth. Stir all ingredients and season with salt.
- Stuff the inside of the turkey with this mixture and sew up the hole.
- Rub the carcass with salt and place on a baking sheet. Put it to bake in an oven preheated to a temperature of 220 ° C until tender and golden brown.
