Mary Berry’s roast turkey crown with orange and thyme.
From turkey to sprouts, prawns to mince pies, here are some festive recipes to try this Christmas. Eat, drink, and be merry!
Don’t forget Boxing Day and all those lovely leftovers. Try making a tray bake or even a macaroni cheese!
One way to make cooking turkey at Christmas less stressful is to not cook a whole bird. Whole turkeys can be difficult to store and can take a long time to cook. They are easy to overcook or undercook as different parts of the turkey take different lengths of time to cook. Also, cooking a whole turkey can result in lots of waste, as many people prefer the white breast meat to the brown leg and thigh meat.
Instead, choose to cook a turkey crown. Breast meat for everyone, easy to cook, no stuffing, and you don’t have to get up at 5 o’clock in the morning to get it in the oven.
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👨🍳 Recipe Tips
Don’t forget the caramelised red onions, sticky sweet and the perfect accompaniment.
Easy Roast Turkey Crown
Ingredients
- 2.2 kg turkey crown
- 2 tsp thyme leaves chopped
- 50 g butter softened
- 2 small oranges one thinly sliced, one cut in half
- 1-2 tbsp vegetable oil
Conversions
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C Fan/Gas 6.
- Loosen the skin on the turkey crown by pushing your fingers (or rubber spatula) between the skin and the meat, moving it around to get to the tricky places and taking care not to tear the skin.
- Mix the thyme leaves with the softened butter until well combined, then smear the mixture underneath the skin of the bird. Arrange the orange slices in two neat rows under the skin, on top of the herb butter.
- Place one of the orange halves under the skin at the neck end of the bird, and any orange trimmings in the neck cavity.
- Transfer the turkey crown to a small roasting tray. Rub all over with the oil and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Roast in the oven for about 1½-2 hours, or until the juices run clear when the turkey is pierced in the thickest part with a skewer and no traces of pink remain. During cooking, check the turkey every 30 minutes, baste occasionally and cover with aluminium foil if it is browning too quickly.
- About 15 minutes before the end of cooking, squeeze the juice from the remaining half-orange over the turkey. Return the turkey to the oven, uncovered, to allow the skin to crisp up.
- Transfer the turkey crown to a serving platter and set aside to rest, covered in foil, for 30 minutes. Reserve the meat juices left in the roasting tray.
You may also like one of my other favourite recipes …
Grandads Cookbook may reference or include sections of text and images reproduced courtesy of:
- Mary Berry
- easypeasiefoodie.com