In a previous article we gave you a few tips on how to choose the perfect turkey for your Christmas lunch. Today we continue the series with a few tips about how to prepare your turkey to make sure it’s perfectly tender. 

To get a juicy turkey you have to prepare it well and you cannot take it straight out of the packaging and slam it in the oven. The preparation won’t take too long and it will the make a world of difference.

Tip 1
Contrary to popular belief you should not stuff the cavity of the bird. Simly add an apple and a few sliced onions to add flavour and leave it at that. 

Tip 2
Next up is the buttering. Gently pull away the skin from the breast starting at the neck end (not the large hole the other end) making sure not to break the skin.  When it is loose enough massage 200g of unsalted butter, under the skin, across both sections of the breast. Doing this will keep things nice and moist as your turkey cooks. 

Tip 3
If you do want to stuff your turkey, you can do this from the neck end.  You can evenly put a layer of stuffing in-between the loosened skin and the newly buttered breast. As long as you have not gone overboard with the stuffing this should not affect cooking times.

Tip 4
Get the roasting tin ready by lining it with sheets of foil so that you can easily make a foil parcel to cover the whole bird.  The key to cooking your turkey is to use steam as much as possible rather than dry heat.

Tip 5
Put the turkey in the pan, butter the outside of the skin, add some salt and pepper and for some extra indulgence you can even cover the top of the turkey with streaky bacon.  Pour a cup of water into the bottom of the tin and cover the end of the drumsticks with some foil to prevent burning.   

You are now ready to bring the foil together so that you form a foil parcel where air can easily circulate, creating steam and better cooking conditions. Coming up next is the final part of this instalment: cooking your turkey.