This Roast Chicken and Sticky Carrots recipe is sure to be a hit with everyone in your family at Thanksgiving, Christmas or any other occasion! The flavour from the lemon, parsley and honey coupled with a delicious roast chicken will leave your mouths watering and we can’t blame you!
We can imagine that most of you have now started to decide what food you are going to get ready for Christmas! This Roast Turkey with Cranberry, Bacon and Walnut stuffing sticks to the traditional turkey meat at this time of year but there is an incredible addition of flavour from the cranberry, bacon and walnut stuffing!
Ingredients:
- 1 Higher Welfare Turkey, around 4kg
- 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter
- 6 rashers of bacon sliced in to small pieces
- 3 shallots peeled and finely chopped
- 2 sticks of celery, chopped
- 1 sprig of rosemary
- 1 large handful of dried cranberries
- 800ml Dry Cider
- 1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon of ground allspice
- Sea Salt and Ground Black Pepper
- 1 handful of chopped walnuts
- Zest of 1 Orange
- 300g pork sausage meat
- 1 free-range egg
- 2 big handfuls of breadcrumbs
- 100g of softened butter
- 300ml Fresh Organic Chicken Stock
- 1 teaspoon of cornflour
Instructions:
Step 1-We recommend that you start with the stuffing as this is pretty straight forward. In a pan, melt the butter and then add the bacon, celery, rosemary and shallots. Put a lid on and cook for 10 minutes or so until the vegetables are soft. Then add the cranberries and half (400ml) of the cider. Once this has reduced by about a third, leave it to cool for 15 minutes. Once cool, add the allspice, salt and ground black pepper, nutmeg, walnuts, orange zest, sausage meat and egg and fold in the breadcrumbs.
Step 2-Next stage is to prepare the turkey for roasting, or as we call it, the exciting bit! Preheat your oven to 240 degrees celcius/475 degrees Fahrenheit/gas mark 9. Ensure the turkeys’ skin is dry by patting it with kitchen roll, then take around half of the stuffing and put it in the neck end of the turkey. Rub the skin with the softened butter and add more salt and ground black pepper to help crisp the skin. Place in a large roasting tin and cover the turkey completely with foil before placing it in the oven. Once the turkey has been in for around 15-20 minutes, turn the temperature of your oven down to 150 degrees celcius/300 degrees Fahrenheit/gas mark 2. Baste the turkey for a few minutes before allowing it to cook for another 2 and three quarter hours.
Step 3-Once you have an hour or cooking time left, take the foil off the turkey to help finish the cooking process. Check the turkey is cooked by piercing the meat at the thickest point. If the juices run clear then it is cooked. Take the turkey out of the oven, recover it with foil and place on a roasting rack to cool for 30 minutes.
Step 4-Add the fat from the meat to your roast potatoes, you can also cook the remaining stuffing to serve on the side or leave it for another time.
Step 5-Turn your oven back up to 200 degrees celcius/400 degrees Fahrenheit/gas mark 6. Add the remaining 400ml of cider to the meat juices in the roasting tin and enough chicken stock to comfortably cover the bottom of the roasting tin. Dissolve the cornflour in a little water and stir in to the roasting tin and simmer on the hob until it starts to thicken.
Source: Jamie Oliver
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