Recipes for cooking turkey in the oven. Turkey dishes

An oven-baked turkey is considered a traditional American dish, a festive table decoration not only for Thanksgiving, but also for Christmas and Easter. Why not try cooking this bird for you too? You can use the whole carcass, as well as its individual parts: drumsticks, wings, breast. Learn how to bake a turkey using foil, parchment or a special sleeve.

Cooking a delicious bird is not so difficult, given the subtleties and nuances. In the article, we consider recipes for cooking turkey in ovens of varying complexity.

Basic principles

When baking turkey in the oven, it is important to achieve tenderness and juiciness of meat. To do this, the bird must be pickled in advance and stuffed with various spices. It is important to remember that in no case should you lower the temperature during baking meat, otherwise it will come out dry and hard. Dishes from turkey in the oven should be cooked at a temperature not lower than 180 degrees.

Another simple secret to making juicy turkey is to use foil or parchment paper. Thanks to them, juice does not flow from it and soaks all the meat well.

You can prepare a juicy turkey in the oven in several ways:

• bake with slices;
• whole turkey;
• separately fillet with vegetables or as an independent dish.

How to choose a carcass

The taste of turkey-cooked dishes in many ways depends on how fresh you use the bird. It is not recommended to buy the product in advance and subject it to freezing. You can determine the freshness of a bird by its skin. It should be light and thin.

When choosing semi-finished products, pay attention to the cut of meat. It should not be weathered or dry. When pressing the meat with a finger, the pit should be restored immediately. Otherwise, we can conclude that the meat is not the first freshness or has been frozen.

But in the case of a frozen bird, so that it does not lose its beneficial properties and taste during cooking, it is necessary to defrost it slowly, without resorting to using a microwave oven or hot water. This must be done a day before you are going to cook.

Rinse the meat and put in a bowl. Put it in the refrigerator, best on the lower shelf - away from the freezer.

Turkey preparation

After the carcass unfreezes, in no case should it be sent immediately to the oven for baking. Pre-rinse it and clean well with a knife from all that is superfluous. Divide if necessary. Pickle in any marinade you like.

For the same reason, you cannot buy ready-made turkey dishes. Since you do not see the process of preparing meat, you do not know where and how it was stored, and you also cannot imagine what the conditions for its transportation were. It is best to cook the bird yourself.

It takes time to cook the whole turkey in the oven. Many housewives stuff the bird. As the filling, you can use vegetables, fruits, dried fruits, mushrooms, other meat. You can’t stuff the bird beforehand and leave it, for example, at night. This is best done immediately before being sent to the oven.

Next, consider the recipes for cooking turkey in the oven.

Christmas turkey

This is a fairly simple option for cooking turkey in the oven. The poultry meat should be juicy, and the crust is fried. The secret of this dish is also in an unusual sauce.

The required set of products:

• Turkey - carcass up to four kilograms.
• One lemon.
• Half a packet of butter.
• A tablespoon of any wine.
• One carrot.
• Celery is medium sized.
• Sea salt.
• A mixture of ground peppers.

Cooking process

1. Soften the butter. This can be done by putting it for a while in a warm place, or melt in a water bath. Salt the oil and rub well with a fork.
2. Next, proceed to the preparation of the carcass. We wash it well from all sides. Push the skin on the breast and fill in the oil. This is necessary so that the brisket is tender and juicy. We grease the bird with the remains of oil from its internal side. Rub the skin with salt.
3. Rinse lemon, dry with a paper towel. Cut it into two halves. Press a little so that the juice stands out. We lay both halves inside the carcass. You can sprinkle it lightly on top.
4. We cross the legs of the turkey. On the opposite side we make incisions, season and leave for half an hour in a cool place.
5. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees. Grease a baking sheet with butter. We spread the bird on it and send it to the oven for 30 minutes. After that, we lower the temperature to 180 degrees. Next, cook the carcass for at least three hours. Every half hour we take out and pour over the juice that is released during the baking process.

In the meantime, we begin to prepare the sauce:

1. Wash the carrots, peel and cut into small pieces.
2. Rinse celery, dry well on a paper towel. Cut it into small pieces.
3. Place both ingredients in a pan and fill with a liter of water. We send to the stove and cook until done. You can slightly boil the vegetables.
4. Leave to cool without draining the water.
5. During the preparation of the bird, juice will be allocated, which must be watered periodically. Part of the meat liquid should be added to the vegetable broth. Then, together with vegetables, beat it well with a blender until a homogeneous mass is formed. Salt and pepper at your own discretion.
6. We get the finished bird and serve the resulting sauce to it.

We looked at the simplest recipe on how to cook a turkey in the oven. Enjoy your meal!

Juicy bird with fruit

Another recipe for turkey in the oven, which will require a little more time than the previous one.

The main ingredients:

• One carcass of a turkey.
• Half a packet of butter.
• A bunch of fresh herbs (you can use any).

Ingredients for brine per liter:

• A quarter of a teaspoon of fine salt.
• The middle head of the onion.
• Three hundred grams of sugar.
• Up to 10 peas of black pepper.

Ingredients for the filling:

• Finely chopped walnuts.
• Raisins.
• Any dried fruit.
• Five fresh apples.

Process

Consider how to cook a turkey in a fruit oven:

1. The bird must be pickled for one day.
2. For this, we wash the carcass, clean it of the remaining feathers or “hemp” from them.
3. For brine, you need up to six liters of water.
4. Pour water into the pan, dissolve the salt and add pepper. Peel and finely chop the onion. We send to the pan. The contents of the pan are brought to a boil, turn off and cool. We send the turkey to the brine and set it to marinate in a cool place.
5. After it is pickled, remove the carcass from the brine and leave the excess liquid to the glass.
6. At the next stage, thawed and soft butter is mixed with finely chopped greens. Salt a little bit. Pour under the skin of the turkey on the chest. Can be soaked from the inside.
7. For the filling we use peeled apples. Crush the nuts with a knife. Dried fruits pre-fill with hot water and let stand for about fifteen minutes. After washing and drying. Mix all the ingredients for the filling and lay inside the bird.
8. Legs are tied together. Above the carcass, grease liberally with butter or any other oil.
9. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Put the turkey in a baking dish, send to the oven and cook for at least three hours.
10. In order for the turkey to become juicy, throughout the entire process of baking, take it out of the oven and pour over the allocated juice.

Oven turkey fillet with cream sauce

In this case, drumsticks can be used instead of fillets. It is better to use the pulp of one part of the carcass without mixing. Since they have different cooking times. The brisket is cooked faster and can get dry.

Ingredients:

• One kilogram of filet.
• A glass of greasy cream (you can use sour cream).
• A tablespoon of soy sauce.
• A few cloves of garlic.
• Salt (it is better to use sea).
• A bunch of any fresh greens.
• Onion.
• Three tomatoes.
• Peppercorns

Cooking method

1. The turkey fillet in the oven can be baked whole, or can be cut into small pieces. In both cases, we rinse it under running water, peel it and wipe it with a paper towel until it dries completely.
2. For the sauce, mix the cream (sour cream), soy sauce and finely grated garlic.
3. By blanching, peel the tomato and cut into rings.
4. Peel and chop the onion.
5. We prepare the prepared fillet in a form, fill it with sauce. On top we lay out the rings of tomatoes and onions. Add pepper peas.
6. We send to the oven preheated to 220 degrees. The baking time depends on what pieces of meat you cook. Forty minutes are enough to bake turkey in the oven with slices. Before serving, you can sprinkle the dish with finely chopped herbs.

Turkey drumstick with rosemary and fennel

Fennel will give the meat a pleasant aroma. If you do not like this spicy herb, you can replace it with any other.

Ingredients for cooking turkey drumstick in the oven:

• Turkey drumstick - 2-4 pcs. (depending on size).
• Bacon.
• A kilogram of young potatoes.
• A couple of carrots.
• Five tomatoes.
• A mixture of ground peppers.
• Fine iodized salt.
• The juice of one lemon.
• A bunch of fennel.
• A pair of garlic cloves.
• A tablespoon of refined oil.

Cooking sequence

It’s quite easy to cook turkey with potatoes in the oven. The secret lies in exquisite spices.

1. At the first stage, we are engaged in marinade.
2. Peel and grate the garlic. Stir with lemon juice. A little salt.
3. Wash the drumstick, clean and dry.
4. Rub the marinade and leave for several hours.
5. Meanwhile, wash and clean the vegetables.
6. Cut the carrots into slices. Potatoes and tomatoes are used whole.
7. Cut the bacon into long, thin strips so that it can completely wrap the drumstick.
8. Fennel shred as small as possible.
9. Wrap each drumstick in bacon. We spread in the center of the baking sheet or form. On the sides we place vegetables, poured on top with oil. Sprinkle all with fennel.
10. We heat the oven to 190 degrees. Cover the form with foil. We send the turkey drumstick to the oven.
11. After fifteen minutes, the foil must be removed and the temperature increased to 220 degrees. Bake until golden brown.

The turkey with vegetables in the oven is ready. You can get and serve. This dish will pleasantly surprise you and your guests.

Turkey in the sleeve in the oven

We use turkey thigh fillet, which is much juicier than brisket. In the recipe we use sour cream and butter, but if you want the dish to turn out dietary, you can not use the above ingredients, it will still turn out to be tender and juicy.

Ingredients:

• One kilogram of turkey meat from the thigh (boneless).
• Half a glass of sour cream.
• A tablespoon of butter.
• One orange.
• A teaspoon of mustard.
• A tablespoon of olive oil.
• One and a half teaspoons of rosemary.
• A pinch of thyme.
• Ground pepper - half a teaspoon. You can use white.
• A few cloves of garlic.
• Iodized salt.

Do not forget to buy a sleeve in advance in which you want to bake meat.

How to cook

1. Wash my orange and wipe it. Rub the zest on a fine grater. Squeeze the juice.
2. Mix olive oil with orange juice, mustard and spices.
3. We clean the turkey, wash it under running water and cut it in several places.
4. At the next stage, we tie the sleeve on one side to a knot, you can use a silk thread. We lay the meat and pour the marinade. The marinade must be evenly distributed over the entire surface of the meat.
5. We tie the second end of the sleeve and hold it in a cool place for about three hours.
6. After carefully untying one side of the bag so that the marinade does not leak, we take out the meat and put the pieces of butter into the cuts made earlier.
7. Finely chop the garlic. Coat the meat with sour cream and return to the sleeve. Then send garlic and orange zest. The package is again hermetically tied and sent to the oven preheated to 200 degrees for half an hour. After the package, cut and leave the meat to bake until cooked, while reducing the temperature to 180 degrees.

The turkey in the sleeve in the oven, cooked according to this recipe, will turn out to be very juicy and tender. Enjoy your meal!

Turkey with potatoes and vegetables

Tasty and nutritious dish. We use vegetables by season. In this case, a winter set of products is indicated. To cook turkey in the oven with potatoes and vegetables, we need:

• A pound of turkey.
• Half a small pumpkin.
• Potatoes - two or three pieces.
• One carrot.
• A few cloves of garlic.
• Beans - a few pods.
• Dry Provence herbs.
• Paprika, small iodized salt and a mixture of ground peppers to your taste.
• A couple of tablespoons of olive oil.
• One tablespoon of soy sauce.

Cooking steps

1. Wash the fillet under running water and wipe it with a paper towel.
2. We spread it in a container, sprinkle with paprika and pour over soy sauce. All mix well.
3. We cover the container with a lid and send it to a cool place. In the meantime, we are preparing vegetables.
4. My vegetables, peeled and diced. Cut beans in half. We cut garlic into thin plates. We send all the ingredients in one container and mix. Sprinkle with Provencal herbs and salt.
5. We get the fillet and mix with vegetables. Add olive oil. We lay out all the components in a baking dish and cover with foil.
6. We send for forty minutes to the oven, preheated to 200 degrees. After we remove the foil and bake for about half an hour. We check potato readiness with a fork.

Turkey prepared with this recipe in the oven with vegetables and potatoes can be sprinkled with finely chopped greens before serving.

Tricks and useful secrets

In order for the turkey (whole) baked in the oven with potatoes, vegetables or mushrooms to be tasty and juicy, it must be greased with fat. Moreover, this should be done not from the outside, but from the inside, and it is best to lubricate the meat under the skin.

During cooking, a large amount of fat accumulates in the form. It can be used to make sauces.

If fat is not needed at a particular moment, then it can be frozen and used for cooking in the future.

Honey or sugar, which is added to the marinade, can add sweetness to turkey meat.

If you do not know how long it takes to cook turkey dishes, calculate it yourself, based on the fact that for every half a kilogram it takes only eighteen minutes. The weight of the filling is also taken into account.

Another secret of juicy meat is the correct position of the bird on a baking sheet. The carcass should be placed breast-down. Although be prepared for the fact that this technique can spoil the appearance of the bird.

To get a crispy and crispy crust, but not bring the tips of the legs and wings to the state of the coals, wrap them in foil. You can also hide them in incisions on the carcass.

The longer you pickle the meat, the juicier and more tender it will be.

To prevent the brisket from becoming too dry, put pieces of oil under the skin. The oil can be mixed with herbs and spices, which will give the dish a light aroma.

And, of course, the main secret of a delicious dish is fresh products. The “younger” the meat, the more tender and juicier it will be after baking.

Be sure to use the recipes indicated in the article in order to cook delicious turkey in the oven. Enjoy your meal!