A little while ago I hosted a giveaway which included a hamper full of goodies for a perfect Christmas roast, including a Seldom Seen Farm free range turkey through from Forman and Field (who support gourmet and independent food producers) and Knorr UK. The winner was a lovely Fabulicious Food reader called Liz, who will be enjoying her gourmet hamper on Christmas Day. We’ll be enjoying ours, too, but as soon as I received this recipe for Marco Pierre White’s Turkey with Orange and Smoky Bacon Baste, I wanted to give it a test run. So this week we enjoyed a free range roast chicken, using Marco’s baste, along with some of Knorr’s new Gravy stock pots, which we thought made a quick and tasty sauce. I’m sharing the recipe with you now in advance of Christmas, as we’ll soon be knee-high in present wrapping, delivering and swapping so there won’t be much time to post.
Marco Pierre White’s top tip is to mix the turkey roasting juices with your Knorr gravy pots for a more intense flavour. You should also try to rest your bird, by taking it out of the oven as soon as it is cooked, placing it onto a clean plate, wrapping it back up with foil and leaving it to sit for up to 45 minutes. More juices should come out of the turkey whilst it is relaxing and resting, so pour all of those juices into your gravy, too.
I’d really recommend using a good quality bacon from your butcher for the baste and real butter. Forman and Field recommend Emmett’s Mild Cure Back Bacon and Longman’s Farm Butter. Perhaps you have a farm shop nearby that you could support? You don’t want bacon that is over-processed and full of water.
Here’s Marco Pierre White’s Recipe for Roast Turkey with Orange and Smoky Bacon Baste, printed with permission from Knorr UK
Serves 8
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 4½ – 5 hours
Ingredients:
- 4.5-5.5kg oven-ready turkey
- 200g (7oz) butter
- Finely grated rind of 1 or 2 oranges
- 3 smoked bacon rashers, finely chopped
- 2tbsps chopped fresh herbs, such as parsley and thyme
- Black pepper
- Stuffing of your choice
- 2 Knorr Chicken Gravy Pots
Method:
- Carefully loosen the skin over the turkey breasts.
- Mix together all the ingredients for the baste and spread under the skin over the breast.
- Press any chosen stuffing into the neck end of the turkey and tuck the neck flap under the birds back secured with a small skewer.
- Place the turkey in a large roasting dish and cover with foil.
- Cook in preheated oven at 220°C, 200°C fan oven, Gas 7 for 30 minutes then reduce the heat to 170°C, 150°C fan oven, Gas 3 for 2½-3 hours.
- Remove the foil, baste well, increase the oven temperature to 200°C, 180°C fan oven, Gas 6 for a further 30-45 minutes until well browned and thoroughly cooked through.
- Transfer to a large serving plate, cover loosely with foil and leave to stand for up to 45 minutes (to relax the meat and make carving easier).
- Add the Gravy pots to the roasting tin with 550ml warm water. Stir continuously with a whisk and bring up to a boil. Boil for 1 minutes.
- Serve with roast potatoes, your choice of stuffing, seasonal vegetables and cranberry sauce.
Spot the copper pan! Pop over to my latest review and giveaway page to win your own mini saucepan.
Disclosure: I will be receiving a gourmet hamper from Forman and Field and Knorr UK. I purchased my own ingredients in order to test this recipe before posting it. I was not required to write a positve review of either the Forman and Field or Knorr Products, which I have written about and reviewed before.
With many thanks in advance to Knorr and Forman and Field for my seasonal hamper and for sending a gourmet Christmas dinner box to my winner.