On the eve of any major holiday, many hostesses begin to think about what to cook as a main dish. Turkey baked in the oven - the perfect contender for this honorable role. It is not by chance that it is one of the traditional Christmas dishes in different countries. Although, of course, it can be served not only at Christmas.
Cooking Features
Turkey is not the cheapest product, so it would be a shame to spoil it when cooking. Meanwhile, such a risk exists if you do not know how to choose and cook a turkey correctly.
- A young turkey is suitable for roasting. You can recognize it by weight, thickness and skin color. So, it usually weighs no more than 4 kg, the skin is light and not too hard.
- Experienced chefs advise buying a turkey just before cooking, because its meat is low-fat and, if it is frozen, and then defrosted, it can become completely dry. However, with proper defrosting this risk is minimal. Defrosting is considered correct when the meat thaws gradually. Therefore, a day before cooking, the turkey must be removed from the freezer and left to full thawing on the top shelf of the refrigerator.
- The fact that turkey has lean meat should also be taken into account when cooking. So, you can not exceed the required time of roasting turkey. Calculate how long it will take, based on the weight of the carcass: for 1 kg of bird weight, you need about 40 minutes of roasting at an oven temperature of 200 degrees. Before removing the turkey from the oven, you need to pierce it and see what color the juice flowing from it is: if it is still pink, bake the carcass for an extra half hour. In order not to increase the cooking time, the temperature in the oven should not be lower than 180 degrees.
- Given that a turkey is a large bird and it takes a long time for it to roast completely, it is likely that it will burn from above, and it will not bake inside. To prevent this from happening, it is often baked in sleeves or foil. Moreover, the foil is removed gradually, in connection with which the legs and wings of the turkey are packed into separate pieces of foil.
- Turkey will turn juicier if marinated beforehand, and when cooked use bacon, butter, sour cream.
You can bake a turkey in the oven without minced meat or with fruits, vegetables, cereals, and mushrooms. In this case, do not have to wrestle with what to apply to the turkey for garnish.
Turkey baked in whole foil
Composition:
- turkey - 4 kg;
- butter - 0, 2 kg;
- bulb onion - 100 g;
- vegetable oil - 100 ml;
- salt, pepper, rosemary - to taste.
Method of preparation:
- Soften the butter, combine it with rosemary, salt and pepper, put in the refrigerator until it hardens.
- Wash and dry the turkey carcass, check that there are no feathers on it.
- Cut oil into thin plates and, cutting and pulling the skin, hide pieces of oil under it. This should be done evenly over the entire surface.
- Cut the onion crisscross almost to the end, put it inside the carcass.
- Spread turkey with vegetable oil.
- Wrap the legs and wings in foil, then wrap the whole carcass in foil. Place on a baking sheet and place in an oven heated to 180 degrees. Bake for three hours.
- Remove the foil, leaving only the wings and legs covered, bake for another half hour.
- Remove the remaining foil and cook another 30 minutes.
The turkey meat prepared according to this recipe will be very tender and soft. Serve the dish with rice, buckwheat, boiled or baked potatoes, fresh vegetables.
Turkey with oranges in cranberry sauce
Composition:
- turkey - 4 kg;
- butter - 0, 18 kg;
- onions - 100 g;
- thyme - to taste;
- oranges - 0, 6 kg;
- cranberries - 0, 25 kg;
- bacon - 100 g;
- honey - 70 g;
- salt - to taste.
Method of preparation:
- Prepare the turkey carcass by washing it well and drying it with a towel.
- Mix the softened butter with salt and thyme, coat them with turkey from above and inside.
- Cut the onion and one orange into 4 pieces. Place inside the turkey.
- Put the turkey in a baking dish. Put in the oven, heated to 180-190 degrees.
- When the carcass becomes brown, cover it with foil and bake for 2, 5 hours. Every half an hour, lift the foil and pour the carcass with the melted juice.
- Peel the orange and disassemble into slices.
- Rub zest.
- Cut the bacon into small pieces.
- Melt the honey and mix it with orange slices, zest, cranberries and bacon.
- Put it on the turkey and continue baking the carcass under the foil for another 10 minutes.
- Remove the foil and cook the bird for another 10 minutes so that it will become covered with a brown crust.
Just such a turkey is often served at Christmas in England.
Turkey baked with apples and dried fruits
Composition:
- turkey - 4 kg;
- butter - 150 g;
- greens (rosemary, parsley, dill) - 50 g;
- salt - 0, 2 kg;
- sugar - 150 g;
- onion - 0, 5 kg;
- black pepper peas - 50 pcs .;
- water - 5 l;
- apples - 2 kg;
- dried apricots - 100 g;
- prunes - 100 g.
Method of preparation:
- Boil 5 liters of water, dissolve salt and sugar in it, add peppercorns and onions cut into 4 parts.
- Place the gutted turkey carcass in the resulting brine for 6-8 hours.
- Take out the carcass, pat dry with a towel.
- Cut dried apricots and prunes in half. Cut the apple into medium lobules, removing the core from it.
- Place dried fruits and apple slices inside the turkey.
- Put the butter in a warm place to soften it. Crush greens with a blender. Mix greens with butter. Spread them a turkey.
- Place the turkey in the baking form with the breast down. Cover with foil.
- Bake at 180 degrees for 2, 5 hours. Every half an hour, water it with trapped fat.
- Place the apples around the turkey, remove the foil and continue to bake for another hour.
A turkey made according to this recipe will decorate a table set for any occasion.
Turkey baked in the oven - a tasty and satisfying dish and not too high in calories. It looks festive, meanwhile, preparing is simple, albeit long enough.
