Roast turkey with citrus butter

Moist and golden, this Christmas turkey will be the crowning glory of your festive feast. It’s simple to make and guaranteed to impress friends and family.

• Prep: 15 mins
• Cook: 4 hrs and 10 mins
• Easy
• Serves: 8

Ingredients

Roast turkey with citrus butter Method

Step: 1 Turn the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Pat dry throughout the turkey with kitchen paper. Now measure the weight of the bird and calculate the cooking time at 40 mins per kg.

Step: 2 Meet the butter with the zests and herbs, and flavor well. Slowly push your fingers under the turkey’s skin, starting from the neck end of the bird, easing the skin away from the flesh over both the breasts and the tops of the drumsticks. Expand the butter under the skin, pushing it in as far as you can, and then even the skin back into place. Halve the lemon and orange to put in the turkey gap along with bay leaves and 2 onion halves.

Step: 3 Massage turkey all over with oil and spray with salt. Arrange the remaining onions in the bottom of a big roasting pan to act as a trivet for the bird. Set the turkey on top and completely wrap both the bird and tin with foil to make a tent. Cook according to your calculated cooking times.

Step: 4 Thirty minutes before the cooking time ends, take out the turkey and turn high the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas. Remove the foil and take it back to the oven for a further 30 minutes until golden.

Step: 5 To test the turkey whether it is cooked, pierce the fattest part of the thigh with a skewer – the juices that run out should be clear and not pink. If the juices are pink keep cooking and re-check at 10 to mins intervals. If you like your turkey meat almost falling off the bone, then twitch the leg – it should give a little if the meat is ready. Keep cooking and basting till it does.

Step: 6 Lie the turkey, covered loosely with foil, for at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour before serving. Strain and keep the cooking juices and keep the onions in the pan for making gravy, and then serve.