Cookin Up The Big Bird

Before Christmas fades away with a distant memory of frantic present shopping I want to share my courageous efforts of cooking up my very first Turkey on Christmas Day.

After trying to wimp out and buy a turkey roast roll stuffed and marinated on my pre Xmas trial - it cooked perfectly in the Weber BBQ but when it was carved it just fell apart probably because it was stuffed so there wasn't enough meat to hold it all together. Don't get me wrong it tasted delicious but the dream of walking in on Christmas Day with a grand big turkey did not look like a plate of turkey mush!

 

We picked out a 3.8kg turkey buffet from Woolies that was fresh from the fridge, I didn't want frozen as it takes days to thaw out. A turkey buffet is a turkey that has the rib cage and wings removed but the drumsticks remain - this means more meat and easier to carve but the downside is you can't stuff it, but to solve this problem we made a stuffing cake.

 

So Xmas Morning we got up early and put the Weber BBQ on to heat up for about 40 minutes (ok that's a lie I was staying at my parents house and my lovely Mum got up to light up the Weber so I could sleep in after one too many vinos Xmas Eve!)

Mr P prepared the turkey - washed and patted dry with paper towel, rubbed all over with olive oil, plenty of cracked salt and pepper, half a lemon put inside with a few cloves of peeled garlic and fresh thyme.

 

Once the Weber was hot and ready to go the bird went in with a tray underneath to catch the juices for the gravy. I read a tip about putting some scrunched up foil on both sides of the bird to stop it from getting too hot and burning which protected it perfectly.
 

 

Checked it after an hour to make sure it wasn't burning, a check 45 minutes later and the juices ran clear so it was ready to take out, covered it with foil and let it rest. So it took a total of 1.45 hours for a 3.8kg turkey that's not as long as I thought, pretty happy with that!  

 

 

Now for the stuffing because there is no cavity in this turkey we made a stuffing cake. The stuffing was made by browning an onion in a bit of oil, then adding the onion to breadcrumbs, 2 eggs, chopped dried apricots and cranberries, pinenuts and fresh thyme until it held together. Spooned the stuffing mix into a foil container and then put it into the Weber for about 30 minutes until it was crunchy on top. It was absolutely delicious.

 

 

I was so stressed about cooking this big turkey, especially in the outside Weber but it turned out perfectly ... moist on the inside with a crispy skin on the outside and got lots of ohhs and ahhs when we walked in on Xmas Day!

It has shown me not to be scared of failure and play it safe ... taking the challenge worked out just fine!
 

[All images my own]