Unlock a Wickes Kitchen

Tasty turkey

Ingredients: Tasty turkey

  • Heritage turkey with the neck and giblets included
  • Cold-pressed rapeseed oil
  • Salt & pepper
  • Your choice of fresh herbs; try thyme, rosemary or sage

Cooking times by weight (approximate)

  • 4kg: 2 hours
  • 5kg: 2 hours 15 minutes
  • 6kg: 2 hours 30 minutes
  • 7kg: 3 hours
  • 8kg: 3 hours 30 minutes
  • 9kg: 4 hours
  • 10kg: 4 hours 30 minutes

Take the turkey from the fridge half an hour before cooking and place on the worktop loosely covered in foil. Remove the giblets ready to make the giblet stock for the turkey gravy (see recipe link below).

Preheat the oven to 220ºC/430ºF/gas mark 7 conventional or 200ºC/390ºF/gas mark 6 fan assisted.

Pour half an inch of hot water into the roasting tray, then place the turkey, breast side down, on the roasting rack inside the roasting tray.

Rub a small amount of cold-pressed rapeseed oil all over the turkey, then season with salt and pepper. The seasoning will stick to the oil.

Add any herbs you like into the cavity and season the cavity with salt and pepper. Do not cook stuffing in the cavity or you will overcook the turkey by the time the stuffing is cooked; cook your stuffing separately.

Cover the turkey with foil. Connect the food sensor to the oven and insert the probe into the thickest part of the breast.

Important note: if the turkey has been dry-plucked, set the core temperature to around 68-70ºC; if the turkey has been wet-plucked, set the core temperature to 75ºC.

Cook at 220ºC conventional (200ºC fan assisted) for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 180ºC (160ºC fan assisted) for the remainder of the cooking time.

Forty-five minutes before the end of the cooking time, take the roasting tray out of the oven, remove the foil and carefully turn the turkey breast side up. Put the roasting tray back in the oven to brown and crisp the skin.

When the turkey reaches the correct core temperature, take it out of the oven and place it on a warmed platter to rest for at least one hour uncovered in a warm place in the kitchen. You now have an hour to roast the potatoes and any thing else you would like to roast in the oven.

Once rested, the turkey is ready to serve. Enjoy with our gourmet giblet gravy and all of the trimmings (see links below for recipes).