Turkey meat is often referred to as dietary because of its high protein content and a small amount of fat. However, you can cook from it really tasty and hearty dishes. Especially appetizing turkey is baked in the oven. The simplicity of cooking turkey in this way allows you to make it every day, at the same time, the dishes are beautiful and fragrant, so they can be served on the festive table.
Cooking Features
As already mentioned, the turkey is not just considered a dietary product - it is lean and meaty. However, this property creates difficulties in its preparation, because if you do not know some of the secrets, the dish may turn out to be too dry. To avoid this, you need to learn tips on cooking turkey.
- The first step is to choose the right meat. Do not expect that the old bird will turn out to be a delicate-tasting dish. Therefore, buying fresh roast turkey weighing up to 4 kg is best for baking. Another sign that the meat belongs to the young bird is not too thick white skin (in the old bird it has a yellow tint).
- When using meat that has not been frozen, there are more chances to get a juicy dish. However, from the frozen turkey you can cook the same, if you defrost it properly. Thawing meat at a low temperature is considered optimal, ideally on the top shelf of a refrigerator.
- A culinary sleeve or foil prevents the juice from flowing out, resulting in more succulent meat. When cooking turkey directly on a baking sheet or in a baking dish, it is advisable to use a fairly fatty sauce, for example, based on sour cream or mayonnaise.
- The butter will help to increase the juiciness of the meat if they lubricate the meat itself and not just the skin. That is, pieces of butter, it is desirable to place under the skin, which is easily shifted in turkey. But in order for the bird to be covered with a ruddy crust, it is necessary to lubricate its skin with oil.
Technology and baking time often depend on the selected recipe. Therefore, it is worth paying attention not only to the ratio of ingredients, but also to the instruction for preparing a dish.
Turkey Baked in Foil
Composition:
- turkey fillet - 0.5 kg;
- soy sauce - 50 ml;
- olive oil - 50 ml;
- salt, spice mix, basil - to taste;
- garlic - 4 cloves.
Method of preparation:
- Wash the turkey fillet, dry it with a kitchen towel. In several places make a knife deep narrow cuts.
- Mix salt with spices and dried basil, rub turkey fillet from all sides with the mixture.
- Peel the garlic, cut each clove in half, insert the garlic cloves into the cuts on the meat.
- Mix the oil with the soy sauce, leaving a little to lubricate the foil.
- Put the foil in a baking dish, oil it, put the turkey fillet, pour the sauce and marinate in the refrigerator for 3 hours.
- Remove from the refrigerator, wrap the meat well in foil.
- Heat the oven to 200 degrees and bake the turkey in it for 50 minutes. 10 minutes before readiness, tear and open the foil so that the meat slightly browned.
Turkey fillet baked in the oven according to this recipe, preferably served with a side dish of rice or vegetables. Boiled or baked potatoes will suit him as well.
Stuffed turkey breast baked in the oven
Composition:
- turkey breast - 1 kg;
- white mushrooms (fresh or frozen) - 0, 3 kg;
- butter - 100 g;
- onions - 100 g;
- vegetable oil - 20 ml;
- salt, spices - to taste.
Method of preparation:
- Wash breasts, blot with a towel. In each breast from two sides make an incision to make holes that resemble pockets.
- Wash, dry, and slice the mushrooms. If there are no white mushrooms, then you can use champignons, but in this case, the aroma of the finished dish will be less seductive.
- Remove the husks from the bulb. Cut the onion into small pieces.
- Melt butter in a frying pan, put onion in it and fry for 5 minutes.
- Add the mushrooms and fry them with the onions for 15 minutes.
- Spread the mushrooms into the “pockets”.
- Salt the breasts and sprinkle with spices.
- Prepare a piece of foil on each breast. Lubricate the foil with vegetable oil. Wrap your breasts in foil. Put in a baking dish.
- Place the breasts in an oven heated to 200 degrees. Bake for 40 minutes, then unfold the foil and continue baking for another 15-20 minutes.
Turkey-stuffed chicken breasts are good on their own, but with a side dish of buckwheat or potatoes, they will be even tastier.
Turkey drumstick baked in the sleeve
Composition:
- turkey leg - 1 kg;
- apple - 0, 2 kg;
- potatoes - 0.5 kg;
- garlic - 2 cloves;
- vegetable oil - 20 ml;
- salt, seasonings - to taste.
Method of preparation:
- Wash, dry turkey drumstick with napkins. Rub it with a mixture of vegetable oil, salt, seasonings and garlic passed through a press. Leave for 2 hours in the fridge to marinate.
- Peel the potatoes and cut them into slices, lightly salted and put inside the roasting sleeve.
- Place the turkey drumstick on the potatoes.
- Wash the apple, cut the core out of it. Cut the apple into slices. Spread the apple slices around the turkey leg.
- Tie the sleeve on both sides. Make a hole in it with a toothpick to allow steam out.
- Place the sleeve on a baking sheet and place it in a preheated 180 degree oven. Bake for one and a half hours.
A turkey drumstick baked according to this recipe should be served with the potatoes with which it was baked. Do not forget to put several apple slices in each plate.
Turkey fillet baked in the sleeve
Composition:
- turkey fillet - 0.5 kg;
- garlic - 3 cloves;
- adjika acute - 20 g.
Method of preparation:
- Turkey fillet, washed in cool water, pat dry.
- Fill in garlic by cutting openings with a knife and putting half a clove of garlic in them.
- Lubricate adzhika on all sides. This Caucasian adjika is quite salty and spicy, so you don’t need to add any salt or pepper.
- Put the fillet in a baking sleeve, tie it on both sides. After making a few small holes in the sleeve for the steam to come out, put it on the grate. Place a baking sheet under the grill in case the juice still leaks through the foil.
- Bake at 180 degrees for an hour.
Such a turkey will certainly appeal to lovers of spicy dishes.
Turkey Baked with Tomatoes and Cheese
Composition:
- turkey fillet - 0.5 kg;
- tomatoes - 0, 3 kg;
- sour cream or mayonnaise - 50 ml;
- butter - 50 g;
- salt, Provencal herbs - to taste;
- cheese (hard) - 100 g.
Method of preparation:
- Wash and dry the fillets. Each piece cut lengthwise into 2-3 pieces, repel them with a culinary hammer.
- Sprinkle each piece with salt and Provencal herbs.
- Grease the baking dish with butter, softening it beforehand. If desired, it can be replaced by vegetable.
- Put the fillet pieces in the shape, leaving a small distance between them (a centimeter will be quite enough).
- Smear each piece with a small amount of sour cream or mayonnaise.
- Grate the cheese on a fine grater.
- Wash and slice the tomatoes with a sharp knife. To make the circles thin and the juice does not flow out, the knife must be very sharp. Ideal for a special knife with small teeth for cutting tomatoes and citrus.
- Place the tomato mugs on the fillet pieces.
- Sprinkle each piece with grated cheese.
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and place a turkey in it. Bake 35-40 minutes.
The dish is prepared in portions, so it is convenient to serve it to the table. It is also able to decorate a festive table, whichever side dish you serve to it.
Turkey baked in the oven - a tasty dish that is suitable for an ordinary dinner, and for a festive feast. Moreover, it is not difficult to prepare it.
