Roast turkey with cranberry stuffing and pigs in blankets
Serves: 12
Prep time: 1 hrTotal time: 
Recipe photograph by Maja Smend
Roast turkey with cranberry stuffing and pigs in blankets
Serves: 12
Prep time: 1 hrTotal time: 
See more recipes
Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
805Kcal
Fat
48gr
Saturates
20gr
Carbs
11gr
Sugars
2gr
Fibre
1gr
Protein
65gr
Salt
4gr
Rosemary Shrager
Chef, cookery school doyenne, reality show survivor and TV judge, Rosemary Shrager has been teaching people to cook in her inimitable extrovert style for more than 40 years.
See more of Rosemary Shrager’s recipes
Rosemary Shrager
Chef, cookery school doyenne, reality show survivor and TV judge, Rosemary Shrager has been teaching people to cook in her inimitable extrovert style for more than 40 years.
See more of Rosemary Shrager’s recipes
Ingredients
For the turkey
- 1 x 6kg free-range turkey, at room temperature, giblets removed
- 50g soft butter
- 9 rashers of streaky bacon
For the cranberry stuffing
- 75g soft butter
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 5 rashers of streaky bacon, finely chopped
- 500g sausagemeat
- zest of 1 lemon
- 100g fresh white breadcrumbs
- 1 tsp dried sage
- 100g curly leaf parsley, finely chopped
- a good pinch of ground cloves
- 1 medium egg yolk
- 125g cranberries
- a drizzle of oil, for greasing
For the pigs in blankets
- 24 rashers of streaky bacon
- 24 chipolatas
For the gravy
- 40g butter
- 2 celery sticks, roughly chopped
- 1 carrot, roughly chopped
- 1 onion, roughly chopped
- 3 bay leaves
- 3 peppercorns
- 1.5 litres hot chicken stock
- 150ml dry white wine
- 1 tbsp plain flour
Step by step
Get ahead
Stuff the turkey, make the stuffing balls and the pigs in blankets the day before; chill overnight. Bring the turkey to room temperature before you roast it – allow 3 hours.
- For the cranberry stuffing, first melt 25g of the butter in a small pan and soften the onion in it over a low heat, this will take 8-10 minutes. Tip the onion into a large bowl and add the bacon, sausagemeat, lemon zest, breadcrumbs, sage, parsley, cloves, egg yolk; mix well. Season well; mix in the remaining butter. Add the cranberries, and mix gently again.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4. Remove the wishbone from the turkey, then take a third of the stuffing and push it under the skin. Bring the excess skin over the stuffing to hold it in place; secure it with a skewer. Smother the 50g of soft butter over the turkey; season the skin well. Lay the bacon over the turkey breast. Roll the rest of the sausagemeat into stuffing balls, you will have about 20; chill.
- Transfer the turkey to a trivet set in a large, deep roasting tin; pour in 450ml boiling water. Roast the turkey, uncovered, for 1 hour, then cover the tin with kitchen foil and return it to the oven for a further 2½ hours, basting the turkey every 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, start the gravy. Melt the butter in a large pan over a medium heat. Add the washed giblets and vegetables, and fry for 8 minutes, until golden. Add the bay leaves, peppercorns and the chicken stock, and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain the gravy base into a jug – you should have about 1 litre. Cool slightly, then discard the fat from the surface.
- To make the pigs in blankets, first roll out the bacon in batches between two pieces of baking paper, using a rolling pin, to stretch it. Wrap each rasher around a chipolata.
- To check if the turkey is cooked, pierce the thickest part of the leg with a knife – if the juices run clear, the turkey is ready. If not, pop it back in the oven for a further 15 minutes. When ready, transfer it to a platter; cover loosely with kitchen foil and rest for 45 minutes-1 hour. Set aside the tin and juices for the gravy later.
- Increase the oven temperature to 200°C, fan 180°C, gas 6. Bake the stuffing balls and pigs in blankets on a large oiled baking tray for 45-50 minutes. This is the time to roast your potatoes.
- Put the turkey tin over a medium heat, add the wine and bubble to reduce. Sprinkle in the flour, whisking until smooth. Add the gravy base, bit by bit, and simmer for 10 minutes; then strain, season and warm through.
