Main

Brandy Butter & Bay Roast Turkey with Best-ever Gravy

The only recipe for Christmas turkey you'll ever need, plus a rich turkey gravy

30 minutes, plus resting prep, 2 hours 45 minutes cook

Serves 8-10

Ingredients

For the turkey:

5kg good-quality free-range turkey

About 300g stuffing mix (homemade or shop-brought)

2 onions

2 bay leaves, plus extra to garnish (optional)

2 tbsp brandy

For the brandy butter:

100g butter, softened

25g each icing sugar and light muscovado sugar, sifted

2 tbsp brandy

Freshly grated nutmeg

For the gravy:

200ml white wine

1 tbsp redcurrant jelly

1 litre good-quality chicken stock

1 bay leaf

3 tbsp cornflour, mixed in 3 tbsp cold water

For the stuffing:

Butter

1 onion, diced

75g diced apricots

A handful of chopped sage leaves

150g diced pancetta

50g fresh breadcrumbs

50g chopped pistachios

50g pork sausage meat

Method

Remove the turkey from the fridge 2 hours before you plan to cook it to allow it to come to room temperature. Pat the skin dry with kitchen paper.

To make the brandy butter, whisk the butter and sugars together, until pale and creamy, and then whisk in the brandy, a little at a time, until incorporated. Add a generous amount of nutmeg and a good pinch of sea salt.

You can either use homemade or shop bought stuffing. For homemade, combine the stuffing ingredients in a bowl. You only need 300g of stuffing mix so there will be leftovers, which you can roll into balls and serve alongside the turkey.

Heat the oven to 190°C/ Fan 170°C/Gas 5. Starting at the neck end of the turkey, use your fingers to ease the skin gently away from the breast. Adding a little at a time, gently spread the brandy butter under the skin, over the meat, being careful not to rip the skin. Next, put the stuffing inside the neck cavity. Turn the turkey over on to its breast, pull the neck flap down and over the stuffing and secure with a skewer or cocktail sticks. Weigh the stuffed turkey and calculate the cooking time, allowing 30–35 minutes per 1kg. Put one of the onions, halved, the bay leaves and the brandy into the main turkey cavity.

Make a trivet in a large, sturdy roasting tin with the remaining onion, roughly sliced. Tie the turkey legs together with kitchen string.

Roast for 30 minutes uncovered, then remove from the oven and loosely cover the tin with foil and return to the oven. Roast for the remaining calculated time, basting every 30min, adding a little water to the tin if the base is catching, and removing the foil for the last 30min of cooking time if the skin needs to crisp. To check the turkey is cooked, insert a fork into the thickest part of the leg and check that the juices run golden and clear. If there’s any red tinge to the juice, return the bird to the oven and keep checking every 10–15 minutes. Alternatively, check with a meat thermometer – the temperature needs to read 72°C when inserted into the thickest part of the breast or leg.

Transfer the turkey to a board (set aside the roasting tin for the gravy), cover well with foil and clean tea towels to help keep the heat in. Leave to rest in a warm place for at least 30min, or up to 1hr 15min.

To make the gravy, tip the meat juices from the roasting tin into a large jug, allow to settle, then skim off any excess fat with a spoon. Put the tin over a medium heat on the hob, add the wine and increase the heat, deglazing and scraping the base of a tin with a wooden spoon to dislodge any meaty bits. Pour this into a saucepan along with meat juices, redcurrant jelly, chicken stock and bay leaf and slowly bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10–15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add salt and pepper to taste. Strain, then return to the pan. Reduce the heat to low, gradually add the cornflour mixture, stirring continuously, until thickened. Keep warm over a low heat until ready to serve.

To serve, unwrap the turkey and transfer to a warm serving platter. Remove the skewer or cocktail sticks and garnish with extra bay leaves, if you like. Serve with the gravy.