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Traditional Roast Turkey Recipe

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With less than ten days until Christmas make sure you're armed with this straightforward recipe for the perfect turkey. You'll find more recipes to complete your festive feast in HELLO! out now.

Serves:

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: weight dependent

Ingredients

1 x Gressingham free-range turkeySalt and freshly ground black pepper

christmas turkey

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 190C, 375F, Gas 5 and remove all packaging from the turkey.
  2. Remove the giblet bag from the neck cavity (use the giblets for red wine gravy). Weigh the turkey to calculate cooking time.
  3. Place the turkey in a roasting tin, season to taste with salt and pepper then cover loosely with foil.
  4. Cook in the centre of the preheated oven. Cook turkeys weighing less than 4kg/9lb for 20 minutes per kg/2¼lb plus 70 minutes.  For turkeys more than 4kg/9lbs, cook for 20 minutes per kg/2¼lb plus 90 minutes. If using stuffing, stuff the neck cavity only and allow 20 minutes extra cooking time per 500g/11lb 2oz of stuffing.
  5. Remove the foil for the last 30 minutes of cooking to allow the turkey to brown.
  6. After cooking remove the turkey from the oven, cover with foil and leave to rest for 5-10 minutes before carving. This retains more of the juices for a more succulent meat.