With The Best Ever Giblet Gravy
There is nothing quite like Turkey Stress! It really is so easy to cook the perfect moist juicy turkey and reduce that Christmas day fear of a dry over cooked bird! It starts with the quality of life the Turkey has had, knowing your oven, minutes per lb and finally a long resting time, that's it.
TO COOK THE PERFECT TURKEY
To start you need a beautiful slow raised old fashioned breed turkey, this year I ordered a COPAS turkey, a bronze free range, out door living, rain forest diet, loved turkey that was raised to full maturity and game hung for two weeks. This turkey was magnificent, the size and shape of the bird echoed it's rooting lifestyle.
I follow the simple minutes per pound cooking rule, which for a turkey is 15 minutes per lb as a guide line but I do use a thermometer to test the temperature of the bird and I remove the turkey from the oven as soon as the centre reaches 65 degrees. I then rest the turkey for at least 1 hour covered in foil and a towel to insulate. This cooking method has always given me the most juicy moist succulent roasted turkey ever. This year I found that the minutes by lb cooking time was spot on with the turkey reaching 64 degrees so by the time I took the turkey out it was at 65 degrees.
I do like to loosen the skin from the turkey with the back of a spoon sliding between the skin and the meat, stuff that lots of seasoned butter to give that extra moisture in the meat while cooking.
TO ME THIS IS TURKEY COOKING LAW
This method results in a perfect cooked turkey every time.
15 minutes per lb
Probe temp max 65 degrees
OVEN TEMPERATURE
Pre-heat to 220 degrees
Place your Turkey un-covered into the oven and immediately turn the temperature down to170 degrees. Cook for 30 minutes, then cover well with tin foil and leave to cook.
Once cooked I then give my turkey a extra baste and sometimes using my Cajun injector, inject the cooking juices into the breasts. Now wrap up the turkey in generous amounts of foil and cover with a tea towel and leave to rest for one to one and half hours.
Drain off the cooking juices into a jug and now we can finish off the gravy.
THE MOST AWESOME GRAVY
1 knob of butter
1 dash of olive oil
1 onion chopped
2 carrots chopped
2 sticks celery chopped
Turkey giblets
2 bay leaves
10 black peppercorns
200ml dry white wine
2 ltrs water
In a large pan melt the butter and olive oil together, soften the onion, carrot and celery then add the giblets, bay and peppercorns and cook for 10 minutes then add the wine and reduce by half. Add 2 litres of water and simmer for an hour or so until the stock has reduced by half. You should be left with approx 1000ml. This is your base for the most awesome gravy.
I do this stage on Christmas Eve so on the day all I have to do is add some seasoned flour to my turkey pan, let it melt into the fat, you can always add a little more fat if needed, cook out for a minute or so and then add your stock and whisk to a smooth gravy, taste and season well.
GET AHEAD GRAVY
This is something you can do the day before and keep in the fridge ready to go on the day.
12 chicken wings
2 carrots rough chopped
1 onion quartered
3 sprigs thyme
1 bulb garlic halved
Glug olive oil
2 ltrs water
Pre heat your oven to 200 degrees C 392 F, place all the ingredients in a deep roasting tin and roast in the oven for 30-40 minutes until the skin on the wings is crispy. Add 2 ltrs of water to the roasting tin and cook for a further 10 minutes so that the water can de-glaze all the lovely caramelised bits on the bottom of the roasting tin. Remove the tin from the oven and then using a potato masher crush all the wings, garlic, onions and carrots in to the water creating the most wonderful flavours.
Drain in to a large bowl through a sieve and push all that wonderful liquid through the sieve. That is your fabulous base gravy made for the big day, just add this to your cooking juices on the day and following the gravy making tips above.
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