Juicy roast turkey — dry brine, herb butter and a thermometer
Juicy 5 kg roast turkey for Christmas: dry brine, herb butter, minutes per kilo and the exact thermometer temperature. Pan gravy included.
What Christmas roast turkey is and what keeps it juicy
Roast turkey is the main course of Christmas dinner in many Chilean homes: a whole bird of about 5 kg, dry-brined 24 hours ahead with fine salt, rubbed under the skin with herb butter, garlic and orange zest, and roasted first at 200 °C and then at 170 °C, counting 35 minutes per kilo. What keeps it juicy is not the stuffing but the dry brine, the thermometer (it comes out when the thigh reads 74 °C) and a 30 to 40 minute rest before carving. It serves 10 and comes to the table with its gravy and cold salads; the site's turkey calculator gives the size and the schedule for your number of guests.
Instructions
-
Dry-brine the turkey 24 hours ahead
Take the turkey out of its packaging and pat it very dry, inside and out; do not rinse it, because the water splashes bacteria around the kitchen. Mix the salt with the pepper and rub it all over the turkey, inside and out, paying extra attention to the breast and thighs. Set it on a rack over a tray on the bottom shelf of the fridge, uncovered, for 24 hours (12 at minimum): the salt dissolves into the meat and keeps it juicy, and the skin dries out so it turns crisp.
-
Make the herb butter
Mix the soft butter with the crushed garlic, thyme or rosemary, orange zest, paprika and a little pepper. Take the turkey out of the fridge 1 hour before roasting (never more than 2 hours) to take the chill off the center.
-
Assemble the turkey and the pan
Loosen the skin over the breast and thighs with your fingers, without tearing it, and spread half of the butter underneath; the rest goes on top of the skin. Fill the cavity with the quartered onion and orange, the whole garlic, the rosemary and the bay leaves. Tie the legs with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body. Put the onion, carrot and celery in the roasting pan, pour in the stock and set the turkey on top, breast up.
-
Roast at 200 °C, then drop to 170 °C
Heat the oven to 200 °C (390 °F) with the rack in the lower part. Roast the turkey for 30 minutes to color the skin, lower to 170 °C (340 °F) and continue for about 2 and a half hours more: the rule is 35 minutes per kilo in total, so about 3 hours for 5 kg. When the breast skin is well browned (around the hour and a half mark), cover the breast with foil. If the pan dries out, add half a glass of stock or water.
-
Check the temperature with a thermometer
From the hour and a half mark, measure the thickest part of the thigh with a kitchen thermometer, without touching the bone: it must read 74 °C (165 °F). The breast is perfect between 72 and 74 °C. Clear juices when you pierce it are a good sign, but the thermometer rules. When it reaches 74 °C, take the turkey out, even if the calculated time has not passed.
-
Rest for 30 to 40 minutes
Move the turkey to a board, cover it loosely with foil and let it rest for 30 to 40 minutes. The juices spread through the meat (if you carve right away they end up on the board) and the temperature climbs another 3-5 °C. Use that time to heat the sides and make the gravy.
-
Make the gravy from the pan juices
Strain the pan juices into a pot, skim the fat off the surface with a spoon and heat over medium. Dissolve the flour or cornflour in 4 tablespoons of cold stock, add it to the pot together with the white wine and the rest of the hot stock, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring, until thickened. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper.
-
Carve and serve
Cut the string, separate the thighs and wings at the joint and slice the breast against the grain into 1 cm slices. Serve on a warm platter with a little gravy over the top and the rest on the side.
Nutrition information
| Calories | 450 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 52 g |
| Carbs | 1 g |
| Sugars | 0 g |
| Fat | 27 g |
| Trans fat | 0 g |
Values per serving (1 of 4).
Frequently asked questions
How much turkey should I buy per person?
Allow 500 to 600 g of raw, bone-in turkey per person: a 5 kg turkey feeds 8-10 guests and leaves a little for sandwiches. With many children, 450 g per person is enough; if you want plenty of leftovers for the following days, buy 700 g per person.
How long does a frozen turkey take to thaw?
In the fridge, 10 to 12 hours per kilo: a 5 kg turkey needs 50 to 60 hours, so for Christmas Eve dinner take it out of the freezer on the morning of the 21st and leave time for the dry brine. Do not thaw it at room temperature: the surface spends a long time between 5 and 60 °C, the danger zone for bacteria, while the center is still frozen. If you are short on time, submerge it in its sealed bag in cold water and change the water every 30 minutes: 5 kg takes about 5 to 6 hours.
How long and at what temperature should I roast it?
First 30 minutes at 200 °C (390 °F), then 170 °C (340 °F), at about 35 minutes per kilo in total: roughly 3 hours for 5 kg. That is a guide; every oven and every turkey is different, so the thermometer rules: 74 °C (165 °F) in the thickest part of the thigh, without touching the bone. With a fan oven, lower the temperature by 10-15 °C and start checking earlier.
How do I keep the breast from drying out?
With four habits: dry-brine 24 hours ahead, put butter under the skin, cover the breast with foil once it is golden and take the turkey out as soon as the thigh reaches 74 °C. The breast cooks faster than the thighs, which is why it dries first; the 30-40 minute rest does the rest, because it lets the juices return to the meat.
Should I stuff the turkey?
It is better to cook the stuffing separately in a dish, about 40 minutes at 180 °C. Inside the cavity it slows the cooking: the center takes longer to reach 74 °C and, meanwhile, the breast dries out. If you stuff it anyway, do not pack it tight and check that the stuffing also reaches 74 °C. For the cavity, onion, orange and herbs are better: they perfume the meat and are discarded at the end.
Can I cook it the day before and reheat it?
Yes, although the skin loses its crispness. Roast it on the 23rd, let it rest and carve it; keep the slices in a dish with a little stock, covered, and refrigerate them within 2 hours of cooking. On the 24th reheat them covered with foil at 160 °C for about 30 minutes, until piping hot inside (74 °C). Eat leftovers within 3 days.
When should the turkey go into the oven for dinner at 9 pm?
For a 5 kg turkey, around 5:30 pm: about 2 hours 55 minutes in the oven (35 minutes per kilo) plus a 30 to 40 minute rest before carving. For another weight or another time, the site's turkey calculator gives the full schedule counted backwards, thawing included.
You might also like
– /5
No ratings yet — yours can be the first.
Ratings and comments will be available very soon.
Comments
No comments yet. Tried the recipe? Tell us how it turned out.