There's nothing worse than a dry, flavourless turkey. Yes, your turkey is the star of the show, the pièce de résistance, the dish that everyone has been waiting for. So, there is always going to be that guaranteed pressure to get it right. Basically, in the words of Ru Paul, "whatever you do, don't f*ck it up."
Michelin-starred, celebrity Chef Tommy Banks, owner of The Black Swan at Oldstead, Roots York and premium at-home delivery service, Made In Oldstead reveals that the best way to avoid this mistake is to cook the breasts and thighs separately.
In short, because the brown meat has a longer cooking time than the breast, it's best to separate the two so that the thighs can have a longer cooking time while the white meat rests.
“When roasting the whole bird, the key is to cook the legs longer than the breast," Tommy says.
"Once the breast is cooked, remove the bird from the oven, remove the legs and then put them back in. This stops the breasts drying out."
Other top tips for roasting a turkey:
Choose the right size turkey. Buy about 500g turkey per person.
Adjust the cooking time based on the size of your bird. A 5 1/2 - 6kg turkey needs 3 to 4 hours in the oven. But a 3 1/2kg will likely only need 2 hours 45 minutes. Read our full explainer for more info.
Bring the turkey to room temperature. While the oven is preheating, bring your bird to room temperature. This ensures even cooking.
Use a roasting rack. Though you don't technically need one, a roasting rack allows the air to circulate around the bottom of your turkey in the oven, which means that soggy skin is way less of a risk.
Start with a super hot oven, then reduce the temperature. We like to blast the turkey with extremely hot heat (230°C) for the first 30 minutes to get the skin really crispy, then we drop the temp to 175ºC so that it doesn't burn.
Use more butter than you feel comfortable with. Before the bird goes in the oven and while it roasts, add A LOT of butter. It's key for crispy, flavourful, golden skin.
Brine your turkey. Brining is great for maximum flavour. A proper brine will set you up for success and a dry brine takes a little bit of thought but not that much extra work and you'll end up with a turkey that's juicy, flavourful, and has extra crispy skin. We like to dry brine our turkey for around 2 days before. This gives the salt plenty of time to soak into the meat and start tenderising your bird. We tend to use about a tablespoon of salt for every 1.8kg. We also mix in a tablespoon of sugar to help crisp the skin even more! It won't taste sweet but will make a big difference.
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Vicky is our Food & Drink Director, where she oversees strategy and content across all of Hearst's brands, from recipe development to fun video franchises and everything in between.
With almost a decade's experience, Vicky was previously Editor of Delish UK, and Digital Food Editor of Good Housekeeping and she lives and breathes food content creation.
Outside of work, Vicky loves learning about wine, eating her way around the world, and hanging out with her dog Pickle.
