Cook a turkey crown by heating the oven to 190 degrees C. Smear the crown with butter. Season with salt and half your spice mix. Roast it skin-side upwards for 30 minutes. Add the glaze ingredients and the remaining spice mix. Cook for 60 minutes. Let it rest for 20 minutes.
Unless you’re American, the land where turkey is synonymous with Thanksgiving dinners, we like our turkey for Christmas. In fact, some estimates put turkey purchases in the UK to be 9-10 million every Christmas.
Christmas isn't Christmas without a cooked turkey being the brilliant centrepiece on the dinner table. However, most turkeys for sale are rather large and requires either inviting the whole tribe over for Christmas dinner or working out what you're going to do with all the leftovers.
The other way to solve this problem so here's how to cook a turkey crown.
How To Cook A Turkey Crown
The turkey crown is an elegant solution that lets you enjoy a traditional Christmas dinner with a smaller number of people. And it comes with the added advantage of no food waste. And let’s be honest, we should all do what we can in that area.
Turkey Crown Recipe
Equipment
- Oven
- Roasting tin
Ingredients
- 1 Turkey crown
- 50 grams Butter
- 1 teaspoon Chinese five spice, or ground cloves: a pinch
- 1 tablespoon Red wine vinegar
- 4 tablespoon Honey
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
Method
- Step 1: Heat up your oven to 190 degrees C or 170 degrees C. Run butter on the entire turkey crown. Season it well with salt and half the mix of the spices you have prepared.
- Step 2: Place the turkey crown on a roasting tin with the skin side facing upwards. Roast it this way for 30 minutes.
- Step 3: While the turkey crown is roasting, you should mix the glaze ingredients (honey, mustard and vinegar) with the other half of your spices.
- Step 4: Take the crown out of the oven. Take half of your glaze ingredients and brush them upon the turkey crown. Put it back in the oven and let it roast for about 60 minutes this time. Glaze it two more times till the turkey crown is completely cooked.
- Visually speaking, you know it’s done when the glaze looks caramelised and a bit sticky.
- Step 5: Take it out and let it rest for about 20 minutes before you get to carving, since it will still be cooking on the inside at this point. You will notice some juices in the roasting tin which you should save for the gravy.
- If you’re defrosting the turkey crown, the fridge should’ve been at 4 degrees C. And for that to defrost, you’ll need to allot 8 to 12 hours per kilo. If you left it out in a cold room (under 17.5 degrees C) you should give it 3 to 4 hours per kilo.
- For better results, you should rub 1 tbsp olive oil into the meat and cover it with foil before placing it in the fridge the night before.
- You know the crown is cooked when the internal temperature is 65 degrees C for top-quality stuff and 70 degrees C for standard or high-quality supermarket stuff. You want to use a meat thermometer for this and not the button that came along with the crown.
- Be mindful of the fact that the cooking time varies from oven to oven. Also remember that if you’re cooking other stuff in the oven with the crown, the cooking time will vary.
FAQs
How Do You Cook A Turkey Crown without It Drying Out?
This is exactly why we smeared butter on the turkey before placing it on the roasting tin. You can also add smoked bacon on top and it will keep the crown moist while it’s cooking.
When Cooking, Should You Cover the Turkey Crown in Foil?
You can do this when you put the turkey crown in the second time to roast it for 60 minutes. This is to keep the meat from turning brown too soon and burning. It will also keep the meat juicy.
Conclusion
You might find cooking a turkey crown easier than cooking a full turkey. And if you like how it turns out, you might want to consider turning this into your Christmas tradition.
