Roast turkey with bacon
This Roast turkey with bacon is a classic Christmas dish, served with roasted potatoes, brussels sprouts, braised cabbage and cranberry sauce. Instead of butter, you can use dairy-free spread or margarine, and the butter can be mixed with chopped herbs (such as rosemary, tarragon, thyme). You can findturkey stuffing recipes here>> If your turkey is bigger than 3kg – you’ll need to calculate a different roasting time. Seehow to roast a turkey>>
Ingredients
Method
- Using your fingertips, separate the turkey skin from the breast meat – be careful not to tear it! Rub the turkey meat thoroughly with butter under and over the skin.
- Fill the turkey neck with stuffing. Lay the bacon strips over the turkey breast, slightly overlapping. Put half an onion or orange in the cavity, together with a sprig of rosemary, thyme or some sage leaves.
- Put the turkey in a large roasting dish, then bake in a preheated oven at 220 ° C for 30 minutes, then baste it with the cooking jus.
- Set the oven temperature to 180 ° C and cook for 2 hours, basting it every half hour. Cover with foil if it’s getting too brown, but take off the foil for the last few minutes for the bacon to crisp up.
- Take it out of the oven and prick it at the thigh with a knife. If the released juice is not clear, roast for another 10 minutes and test again. Alternatively use a meat thermometer – it should be 76C at the base of the thighs.
- Transfer the turkey to a platter, cover with foil then wrap with tea towels.
- Rest for at least 30 minutes before carving.
- While the turkey is resting, make a gravy from the cooking jus and prepare your side dishes.