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Roast Turkey

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This is a great way of cooking the Christmas turkey. As turkey can be a very dry meat the sausage meat in the stuffing helps to baste the turkey from the inside keeping it very succulent and juicy. Any good butcher will do all of the boning of the turkey for you, which makes this recipe a bit easier. Cooked and prepared chestnuts are available from most supermarkets at this time of year and make a very interesting, festive stuffing.
Make sure that you keep all of the bones from the turkey, these will make a fantastic stock that can then be reduced to make your Christmas gravy.

SERVES 8-10
Ingredients;

1 turkey 3.5-4.5kg in weight, boned

1 onion, finely diced
100g butter
2tblsp sage, chopped
1 chicken stock cube
150g breadcrumbs
100g chestnuts, chopped
175g good quality sausage meat
Seasoning

Method;

Ask your butcher to bone and roll the turkey legs and to remove all of the sinew, and to bone the breast. You should have two rolled legs and two breasts with no bones. Keep all of the bones for the gravy.

For the stuffing;

Place a pan over medium heat and add the onion and the butter cook until the onion is soft, add the sage and chicken stock cube and cook for a further 3mins. Remove from the heat and stir in the breadcrumbs, making sure that the breadcrumbs absorb all of the melted butter. Add the chestnuts and sausage meat and season to taste. Leave to cool while you prepare the turkey.


For the turkey;

Pre heat the oven to 180c.
Season the turkey legs well with salt and pepper. Roll the legs into a long cylinder shape, making sure the skin is on the outside and tie with kitchen string; this will help the leg hold its shape while cooking. Place in a large roasting tray and cook in the pre heated oven. The legs take 2 and half hours to cook.

Lay the breast skin side down on a chopping board and with a knife slice the turkey up the middle to butterfly them open. The butcher may do this for you. Season the inside of the turkey and place the stuffing in the centre. Roll up into a cylinder shape and tie with kitchen string, very tightly. After the legs have been cooking for 1 hour place the breast in the tray along with the legs and roast for a further 1 and a half hours.

Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 20mins.

To serve the turkey;

Slice the breast meat and the leg meat. Place a slice of leg and a slice of breast along with a selection of roast potatoes, mash, roast carrots, Brussels sprouts, red cabbage and gravy.

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