Fretting about how your Christmas turkey is going to turn out? Calm down, and pour yourself a Baileys – this Nigella Lawson recipe has got you covered – and relies on just on a simple request to the butcher.
Make a stuffed turkey you’ll remember forever with this simple butcher’s tip from Nigella Lawson. The celebrity cook has pulled out all the stops this Christmas, with her turkey breast and stuffing recipe that is guaranteed to go down a storm with the whole family. You can do most of the prep the day before, and only need around two hours cooking time. You need to go to a butcher to get a whole breast joint and you need to ask for it to be butterflied and boned to make sure the skin is left on,” Nigella warned. “I know it might sound a bit of a faff, but take it from me that stuffing a whole double-breast joint is very much easier than stuffing and rolling a single breast joint, as is more commonly found in supermarkets.”
Nigella Lawson’s turkey breast with Christmas stuffing
Ingredients (Serves 12)
Method
- In a small saucepan, add the cranberries and Marsala and bring to boil. Then, take it off the heat and leave to one side.
- Put the oil in a large frying pan and sauté the shallots for a minute or so, before adding the spices and sage and stirring everything together. Squeeze the sausages out of its skins, add it to the pan and break it up with a wooden fork and spatula. The meat should lose its pinkness after around five minutes.
- Then, take the frying pan off the heat and turn the contents into a large bowl, mixing in the cranberries and Marsala and then let the ingredients cool. You can cover with cling film and put in the fridge for up to two days at this stage.
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- When you’re ready to stuff the turkey breast, take the bowl of sausage meat from the fridge and pre-heat your oven to 200C/ Gas Mark 6. Uncover the meat and add the eggs, parmesan, and breadcrumbs – using your hands to mix well.
- Lay the butterflied joint out in front of you and find the small cavity in the centre. Spread the stuffing through here then upwards onto the wings – but don’t go all the way up. Steadily, fold one ‘wing’ over the other to close the joint then sit the turkey on a large roasting tin, breast bone (or where the breast bone would be) uppermost as it would look were it the whole bird, with the pointier bit furthest away from you.
- Now, thread two skewers through the base then smear the meat with duck or goose fat. Cook the turkey for 2-2½ hours then make sure it’s cooked through with a thermometer. It should read 75C. If you’re leaving to cool you can take it out a couple of degrees cooler, as it will retain heat and continue to cook once removed from the oven.
- Lift the meat onto a carving board and let it rest for around 20 minutes. Cut through the whole joint in wide slices right across; they will need to be quite thick, at least 1-2cm/½-1in, to keep the stuffing intact within the slice.
Turkey vs Yorkshire puddings: what’s the best part of a Christmas roast? Have your say in the comments section below
