“Everybody is afraid to make turkey,” said Chef Stefan Beer. “It is very dry if you get it wrong.” But when we asked the new executive chef of Mezza9 at Hyatt Hotel to contribute a recipe to our readers for this Christmas season, he, almost without a thought, suggested a turkey recipe.

Let us backtrack a little. Chef Beer is a native Swiss. In his country, people don’t eat Turkey in Christmas. When he was posted to Shanghai some years back, he found himself studying how to make the best chow out of the fowl because many Chinese have acquired the American Christmas tradition. Therefore, he accumulated a lot of dos and don’ts of turkey making that he is now please to share.

What he is letting us in on today is what he thinks is the best out of all the turkey recipes he has created. It is also very detailed, including information such as the ideal turkey size and depth of the roasting pan. “I would be able to give this to my mother and she’ll be able to do turkey,” says Chef Beer.

But like any other skills, Chef Beer warns, perfecting a turkey recipe takes practice. To play it safe, you may only want to invite people who would love you unconditionally for your first Christmas turkey dinner!

Ingredients (for 10 servings)

1 piece Whole Turkey (fresh or frozen, neck and giblets removed) about 12 pounds

Some Clarified Butter (to brush the turkey skin)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Filling

1kg Chestnuts

2 cups of Butter

2 cups of Onion (minced)

1 cup of Celery (minced)

1 cup of Carrots (minced)

10 cups of Breadcrumbs

10g of Garlic (minced)

20g of Fresh Thyme leafs (chopped)

20g of Fresh marjoram (chopped)

10g of Fresh rosemary leafs (chopped)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Instructions

If the turkey was frozen, defrost the turkey like below described (General Tips Hint’s and Notes / Guidelines / Information’s)

Filling

1. With a sharp knife cut a cross on the flat side of each chestnut. Simmer, covered with water, in a saucepan for 5 minutes. Drain. While hot, remove the shells and inner brown skins. Cover with fresh water. Boil for 20 to 30 minutes until tender. Drain. Chop coarsely.

2. To prepare the stuffing, melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in onions, garlic, carrots and celery, and cook until tender. Thoroughly mix in breadcrumbs and chestnuts. Season with thyme, marjoram and rosemary salt and pepper. Check the seasoning

Cook the turkey:

Preheat oven to 175 degrees C

1. Wash turkey inside and outside with cold water, and pat dry with kitchen paper towel. Rub salt and pepper into body cavities.

2. Lightly fill the stuffing to the cavity. Allow 1/2 to 3/4 cup stuffing per pound of turkey. It is safer to understuff than to overstuff the turkey. Close skin with skewers or kitchen twine, and tie drumsticks together.

3. Place turkey breast side up on a rack in a shallow (about 5 cm deep) roasting pan. Insert meat thermometer in thigh. Add 1/2 cup water to the bottom of pan, if desired. Cover turkey loosely with a tent of heavy-duty aluminum foil.

4. Roast turkey 3 to 4 hours in the preheated oven (Remove the foil tent after 1 to 1 1/2 hours of cooking time to brown the skin and brush with butter to enhance browning if desired) until internal temperature of thigh reaches 80 degrees C and stuffing reaches 75 degrees C. Cooking time will vary (look below tips).

5. Remove from oven, place on platter, and allow the turkey to stand for at least 20 minutes before carving.

General Tips Hint’s and Notes / Guidelines / Information’s

How big a turkey should you buy? You’ll need at least 1 to 1.5 pounds of turkey per person if you’re buying the whole bird, fresh or frozen. Of course, it’s always best to go bigger (there are dozens of ways to use the leftovers).

It takes a full 24 hours to defrost every five pounds of frozen turkey in the refrigerator (the only safe method).

So 20-pound turkey needs to defrost for a full four days. Remove the giblets and neck from the cavity as soon as they can be removed (which will be before the turkey is fully defrosted).

Use a shallow turkey roasting pan. If you use a deep roasting pan, you wind up steaming the meat.

Just before roasting, stuff the body and the neck of the turkey. Do not pack in as the stuffing will expand during cooking. If packed in too tightly, it will be very dense instead of light. Sew the abdomen closed and sew the legs together close to the body so that the stuffing cooks evenly.

Never rely on the little plastic thermometer in some turkeys to pop out.

If you wait for it, the turkey will overcook. Instead stick an instant read thermometer several inches down through the skin between the thigh and the breast so the tip ends up about an inch above the joint. They turkey is ready when the thermometer reads 80 degrees C.

Let the cooked turkey “rest” after it has been removed from the oven.

While the turkey cooks, the juices are forced away from the heat to the middle of the turkey. Cover loosely with aluminum foil and let rest for 20 to 30 minutes after it is removed from the oven. This allows the juices to redistribute throughout the turkey. A moist turkey is easier to carve.

If you need your oven to reheat or cook side dishes, it’s better to serve the turkey at room temperature with hot gravy than to reheat it.
Reheating dries out the meat. The interior of a large turkey will stay quite hot for at least an hour.

Using A Cooking Bag:

This is an easy way to cook your turkey. It keeps all the juices and flavors in the bag and the turkey is automatically basted while it cooks. You end up with more juices than cooking the conventional way because they do not evaporate during roasting. The juices also do not burn and stick to the pan.

Approximate Turkey Cooking Times:

The roasting times are based on the recommendations above and on a 165 degree C. oven temperature. These times are approximate and should always be used in conjunction with a properly placed meat thermometer.

UNSTUFFED TURKEY

4 to 8 pounds………….1-1/2 to 3-1/4 hours

8 to 12 pounds…………….2-3/4 to 3 hours

12 to 14 pounds……………3 to 3-3/4 hours

14 to 18 pounds……………3-3/4 to 4-1/4 hours

18 to 20 pounds……………4-1/4 to 4-1/2 hours

20 to 24 pounds……………4-1/2 to 5 hours

STUFFED TURKEY

8 to 12 pounds…………….3 to 3-1/2 hours

12 to 14 pounds……………3-1/2 to 4 hours

14 to 18 pounds……………4 to 4-1/4 hours

18 to 20 pounds……………4-1/4 to 4-3/4 hours

20 to 24 pounds……………4-3/4 to 5-1/4 hours

Be sure the turkey is completely thawed. Times are based on fresh or completely thawed frozen birds at a refrigerator temperature of about 40 degrees F. or below.

Cooking times do vary because of many reasons – oven temperature may not be completely accurate, the turkey may be very cold or partially frozen, and/or the roasting pan may be too small which inhibits the flow of heat.

In Absence of a Meat Thermometer – Juices should be clear. Pierce the turkey with a fork in several places; juices should be clear with no trace of pink. NOTE: The old-fashioned way of wiggling the leg to see if it’s loose will give you an indication that the turkey is ready, but unfortunately, by the time the leg is truly loose, the turkey is sadly overcooked. The only reliable test for doneness is to check the internal temperature with a meat thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh, without touching the bone