We had a lovely Christmas meal with friends yesterday. The only downside of someone else doing the heavy lifting in the kitchen is that you don’t get all the leftovers to enjoy. I know some people complain about having a week of turkey themed meals after Christmas Day but, as it is bird I typically only bring to the table once a year, I’m happy with that. The solution therefore was to have my own turkey waiting in the fridge, ready to cook up today.

The two main challenges with turkey are that it is typically a big bird (even the “small” one I picked up outweighs the biggest chickens I’ve seen by quite a margin) and that it contains different qualities of meat that require different cooking. The breast can easily dry out but the legs, dark muscle from carrying all that weight around, need longer to be properly done.

My solution was to divide and conquer. Off came the legs, roasted low and slow in a covered dish with a fair amount of wine and water in the bottom. Out came the backbone, lower ribs and other easy to remove bones to join the gizzard making stock in the slow cooker. Then the rest, wings separated from the body, tucked in another pan to go in a bit later after the oven had been turned up.

It all worked very well. The legs were done earlier than expected and were set aside to cool and then get bagged up for the freezer. Even the main part cooked quicker than I expected but benefited from a good long time to rest and that created space for the other roast veg and stuffing to have space in the oven. We’ve had our own turkey dinner, smaller than yesterday but still delicious, and I’ve got plenty of leftovers both for the next few days and for longer term storage in the freezer alongside the legs.