Christmas beer can turkey
Electus

Best recipe review

A memorable Christmas special

5/5

Had this every Christmas for 7 years. Unfortunately our new oven is not big enough to do this anymore. Shame :(

Paul R Smith
A 5.6 kg beer can turkey
Servings:Serves 8
Calories per serving:1680
Ready in:3 hours 45 minutes
Prep. time:15 minutes
Cook time:3 hours 30 minutes
Difficulty:Average difficulty
Recipe author:Chef
First published:13th November 2013

We used our Grillpro Stainless Steel Chicken Roaster to cook this year's Christmas turkey (with a Tex-Mex rub). This is really just a personal aide-memoir, so we can create the same delicious meal again next year!

For the Tex-Mex rub and beer-can chicken recipe, follow the original.

We had a 5.6 kg Bernard Matthews (frozen) turkey. Fully defrosted.

We used the small oven of our Smeg Opera cooker, the contraptions that supper the oven shelves were removed to make available space wider.

Remove any giblets, cut off and discard the Parson's nose.

It was cooked for 3 hours, 10 minutes at 190° C (375° F - gas 5) then rested for 30 minutes in the same oven, with the heat switched off. Bottom heat *only* was finally used as the ovens top heating element was too close to the top of the bird.

The Grillpro Stainless Steel Chicken Roaster was placed in a tray that was kept 1/2 filled with water to prevent burning of the fat that dripped and the top of the bird had a 'hat' of tin-foil.

The oven needed opening every 20 minutes of so, just to release the excess steam.

The turkey was sublime. We did not have to carve the turkey, honestly, I just placed it very heavily on the chopping board and it fell apart, yet the skin was still crispy as you can see. Even my, almost lifetime vegetarian mother was tempted into a lapse.

Big bird

This year we had an even larger bird, 6.5kg. At first it looked as though it would never fir in the oven, however after it was fully de-frosted and a little more of the protruding neck bone was removed, it fitted in - just. Surprisingly it only needed an extra 20 minutes over a bird 1 kg lighter. It was sublime.


Ingredients

Printable 🖨 shopping 🛒 list & 👩‍🍳 method for this recipe

Method

  1. Cooked for 3 hours, 10 minutes at 190° C (375° F - gas 5)
  2. Baste regularly to ensure a crispy skin

Cooking times

5.6 kg whole turkey - fully de-frosted

  • Wing tips wrapped in tin-foil
  • A sheet of foil placed loosely over the top of the bird.
  • Cooked for 3 hours, 10 minutes at 190° C (375° F - gas 5)
  • Bottom element only to prevent top burning.
  • Rested for 30 minutes (or more) in the same oven, with the heat switched off.

6.5 kg turkey - fully de-frosted

  • Wing tips wrapped in tin-foil
  • A sheet of foil placed loosely over the top of the bird.
  • Cooked for 3 hours, 30 minutes at 190° C (375° F - gas 5)
  • Bottom element only to prevent top burning.
  • Rested for 30 minutes (or more) in the same oven, with the heat switched off.

Cooking without the GrillPro gizmo

I've cooked chickens many many times without the gadget without any problems, you just need a method to ensure the bird does not fall over as the flesh cooks and starts to fall away from the bird. Sitting it upright in a large pan has worked for me before now.

See also

Browse Cookipedia's recipes with Pinterest

Almost all of Cookipedia's recipe pictures have now been uploaded to Pinterest which is a very convenient way to browse through them, all in one huge board, or by individual categories. If you're a Pinterest user you'll find this feature useful.

#turkey #christmasbeercanturkey #foil #smeg_opera_cooker #frozen #ovens #unusualrecipes #steam #fat #defrosted