Christmas dinner traybake
A Christmas dinner traybake? It's the perfect way to have turkey and all the trimmings with minimal mess or effort!
Serves 6
INGREDIENTS
2kg turkey breast (known as a turkey crown), boned, rolled and wrapped in bacon (or you can use two smaller turkey breasts).
6 carrots, halved lengthways
1 white onion, halved
1 bulb of garlic, halved, plus 6 extra cloves
100g soft butter
Fresh thyme
Fresh rosemary
2 parsnips, quartered length ways
2-3 large potatoes, quartered (or cut into 6 if very large)
2 red onions, cut into wedges
Pack of stuffing balls (approx. 6)
6 big or 12 small pigs in blankets
200g sprouts
2 tbsp flour
Good splash of red wine
500ml chicken stock
Salt and pepper
Watercress, to serve
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 180c.
Add two of the carrots, the white onion, the halved garlic bulb and the fresh herbs to a roasting tray. This will form a trivet for your meat.
Season the turkey with salt and pepper and spread the top with butter. Lay the turkey on top of the vegetables and cook for approximately 1.5 hours or until the juices run clear.
While the turkey cooks, prepare the rest of the vegetables and add them all to a separate large roasting tray, along with the stuffing balls and pigs in blankets. Drizzle everything with oil and season well.
Once the turkey has been cooking for one hour, add the veg tray to the oven too. Time the vegetables to cook for 1 hour.
After the turkey has been cooking for a total of 1.5 hours, or until the juices run clear, remove from the oven. Leave the veg tray in to continue cooking for another 30 minutes.
Take the turkey from the pan, cover and leave to rest for 30 minutes.
To make the gravy, remove the herbs and garlic from the turkey tray and then mash together all of the remaining veg.
Put the tray of mashed veg on the hob over a medium high heat and once it starts to sizzle, stir in the flour and turn the heat down a little. Mix everything together and cook out the flour for a few minutes.
Gradually add the chicken stock while continuing to whisk everything together.
Add a good splash of red wine and keep mixing.
Bring to the boil and cook until the gravy reaches the desired thickness and then strain through a sieve over a pan.
Serve the turkey drizzled with gravy with the roasted veg and a handful of watercress.