MY CHRISTMAS TURKEY...

I love a good challenge, i really do and roasting a whole turkey is nothing short of that. First of all our turkeys are nothing like the oyinbo turkeys, ours have suffered and trekked and have rhino skin! So, treating them like oyinbo turkey might leave you with a emmm...not cooked through bird.

For this challenge of mine i had to consult with an amazing cook, miss @ajikespecial and she saw me through. Muah!

5Kg Whole Turkey
Turkey Giblets (Feet, Neck, Gizzard and all that jazz)
1 Cup of Butter
2 Lemons
Salt and Pepper
Garlic
Poultry Seasoning
2 Tablespoons Paprika
1 Tablespoon Onion Powder
1 Sprig of Fresh Rosemary
1 Carrot
1 Celery Stalk + Leaves
1/4 Cup Chopped parsley
2 Onions

For a bird this big that would require a long cooking time, step 1 should always be a brine. The only container this bird could fit into was a cooler so into a cooler it went.

I covered it with brining mix and since it couldn't fit into my fridge i put it into the deep freezer with the lid off. Even for the cooler the turkey was still a tad big so from time to time i would go and turn it over to make sure it got a fairly even submersion all round. Don't worry about it being in the freezer if its a cooler, the insulation of the cooler won't let it freeze.

After 18 hours the skin had plumped up and even touching the bird you could tell that it was slightly softer. Now comes the work.

Make a dry rub of spices by mixing salt, pepper, paprika, poultry seasoning, garlic and onion powder and set aside.

Use a pair of kitchen scissors or a knife and make a little cut from the bottom area and then from the neck. Get your hands in there and carefully pry skin away from muscle.

Take dry rub and massage under the skin, the skin of a turkey is really thick so if you put your spices just on top, chances are you won't get much flavour on the inside.

PS. You might wanna wear a glove depending on how much pepper you're packing in that rub, my hands were burning for quite a while...

Roughly chop 1 onion, celery, parsley and carrot and transfer to a bowl, add about a third of your butter and a tablespoon of dry rub and mash it all together.

Now stuff your bird, bottom side first and then from the neck. These vegetables are not going to be eaten, we are just using them to further flavour the inside of your bird and to keep it nice and moist.

Seal using metal or wooden skewers (if you have any).

Using a paper towel, pat dry the top skin of your turkey. Mix remaining butter with dry rub to make a paste and rub over the turkey. If you don't dry off the skin of the turkey first the butter will not stick to the skin. You can also use a bit of vegetable oil to substitute the butter.

Back into now dry, now empty cooler and back into the freezer overnight.

I woke up bright and early, pre-heated my oven, brought turkey out to return to room temperature or close (about 1 hour). Spiced the turkey giblets and cooked down to make a nice stock (about 4 cups in volume) and set aside.

Got out a roasting pan, poured in stock, lemons cut into quarters, 1 chopped onion and 3 cloves of fresh garlic. Put a roasting rack in the pan (this elevates whatever your grilling off the liquid in the pan and catches the drippings from the turkey), then gently placed the turkey.

Now traditionally, for the turkey's that lived on Old McDonald's farm, cooking time would be 20 minutes per kilo plus 90 minutes but for this Nigerian backyard fowl i'd nearly double that. My bird was a 5kg bird, so i gave i total cooking time of a little over 5 hours.

Yeah, so where was i?

Place turkey on roasting rack, breast-side up and cover with a sheet of foil, scrunching and sealing it into the edges of your pan (in my pic it isn't completely covered, that was before my dear friend said to cover completely and maybe even double up...oops!). The foil is to stop the bird from browning too fast while it cooks. Place roasting pan on the lowest level of your oven.

Allow to go steady for 4 hours on medium temperature then take off the foil. If you have a cooking thermometer, stick it into your bird and if your internal temperature hits 82C/180F, your bird is cooked. To test if you have a nice moist bird, stick a table knife carefully where the thigh is attached to the body of the bird, if a clear juice oozes out, you have succeeded.

Turn up the heat. Using a turkey baster or soup laddle scoop some of the stock from the pan and pour over bird, you can also brush over with some melted butter or oil if you want a really crisp skin. Return into the oven and allow it to roast uncovered for 45 minutes to an hour.

When roasting, the juices in the meats move close to the skin, always allow resting time before cutting into it or you will lose all the juices and be left with a dry piece of meat. About 30 minutes will allow the turkey rest properly and have the juices redistribute.

While turkey rest, transfer stock from pan to pot, add a cup of water and allow to simmer for about 5 minutes. take off the heat and strain.

Making a roux by melting equal quantities of butter and flour in a pan on high heat till you have a smooth paste, pour in strained stock little by little and turn down heat.

Allow to cook till it just begins to thicken up then take off the heat.

Serve with turkey slices.

Enjoy.

I sure did!

:)