Nothing screams comfort food more than a traditional roast. This sweet honeyed turkey is a true celebration of simple produce brought to life by perfect seasoning, sweet aromatic orange, and decadent honey, which also adds very welcome natural antiseptic properties.
I
ngredients
1kg turkey crown
1.5 oranges, ½ cut into wedges, ¼ sliced, remaining juiced
½ tbsp runny honey, plus extra for drizzling
Handful thyme sprigs leaves picked from one, two left whole, plus sprigs to serve (optional)
½ tsp soy sauce
1 bay leaf
250g carrots, peeled and cut into long batons
250g parsnips, peeled and cut into long batons
Method
- Get your turkey crown out of the fridge around two hours before you want to cook it. Heat your oven to 200C°/ 180°C fan/ gas mark 6.
- In a bowl, stir the orange juice together with the honey and the picked thyme leaves, the soy sauce, and a good grinding of black pepper.
- Loosen the skin of the turkey breast. Insert two slices of orange, a bay leaf, and thyme sprig under the skin, on both sides of the breast, then pour in some of the juice mixes and smooth the skin back over.
- Place the orange with the carrots and parsnips into a roasting tin. Pour over about a third of the remaining orange juice mix and roast everything in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove, give the veg a stir, and drizzle over another third of the juice mix, then return to the oven and do that again one more time, roasting the turkey for a total of one hour, 30 mins (covering with foil halfway through if it begins to colour too much).
- Remove the turkey from the roasting tin and place it on a board covered with foil, then turn the oven up to 220°C/ 200°C fan/ gas mark 8. Toss the veg in a drizzle of honey and put the tin back in the oven to caramelise the veg for 25-30 minutes, leaving the turkey crown to rest. Serve the crown on a platter surrounded by the glazed roots, orange wedges, and extra thyme sprigs, if you like. Remove the sticky skin from the breast before carving the meat to serve as a side.
