What if for Christmas we tried a turkey? Yes, but not our traditional turkey, but the Thanksgiving turkey. Just to vary the pleasures a little and to get off the beaten track.
Our photographer is quite good at cooking, so today he’s the one to do it. But first we had to find a turkey, and head for the butcher.
As there won’t be many of us at the table and I don’t have three days at my disposal, I opted for the reduced version. One or two legs in order to also reduce the preparation time which is traditionally long. It can take up to 53 hours for a whole marinated turkey.
To tell the truth, I had no precise idea of the size of the beast even if I imagined it to be large. I was not disappointed! The smile on my butcher’s face when I asked him for several legs for dinner:
- One thigh each,” he gently teased.
- Well, it depends on the size of the turkey,” I replied.
1 kg 6oog the beast I tell you! I can hardly imagine the whole turkey. One thing is certain, I could never fit a whole one in my oven.
Before handing it over to us, our butcher sawed it in several places to make it easier to prepare and, above all, to cut it up at the end of cooking. Yes, sawed! You read that right.
So arm yourself with a little patience, this recipe is quite long. To soften the meat, you will have to marinate it for a few hours, but it will be even better.
Marinated turkey with cider sauce
6 people – Difficulty: medium ++
Preparation 20 minutes – marinating and resting time 4 hours – Cooking 1h30
For the Marinade
- 125 ml cider
- 875 ml water
- 100g salt
- 75g sugar
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 carrot, sliced
- 1/2 stalk celery, diced
- 2 cloves of garlic
- rosemary, sage, bay leaves
- 1 turkey leg
Herbal butter
- Rosemary and sage leaves
- Butter
- Salt
For the gravy
- one onion, diced
- one or two carrots, sliced
- 2 stalks of celery, diced
- 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 1 Granny Smith apple, diced
- 2 bay leaves
- a cinnamon stick
- 1/2 bunch of thyme
- salt
- chicken stock
- 400 ml cider
- a few tablespoons of flour
Prepare the marinade: Mix the marinade ingredients in a large bowl. Then add the turkey leg and marinate in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 hours.
Prepare the turkey for cooking: Remove the leg from the marinade and dry it with paper towels. Mix rosemary, sage, butter and salt. Massage the thigh with the flavoured butter. Rub it under the skin and leave the leg in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Prepare the gravy base: Put the onions, carrots, celery, garlic, apple, bay leaves, cinnamon and thyme in a casserole dish or roasting pan if you have one. Place the turkey leg on top of the vegetables.
Cooking the turkey
Preheat the oven to gas mark 7.
Pour 400 ml of chicken stock and 200 ml of cider into the bottom of the casserole or roasting pan. As soon as the skin becomes brown and crispy, lower the temperature to 6.
Allow 15 minutes for 400g, or 1 hour for a 1.6kg turkey leg. Then remove the turkey and leave it to rest for 30 minutes covered with aluminium foil.
In the meantime, strain the vegetables through a sieve to recover the juice. Using a skimmer, remove the fat and put it back into the pot.
Then make a roux by heating the fat and adding flour. After 4 or 5 minutes, when the mixture looks like dry sand, add 200ml of cider, chicken stock and the cooking juices. Finally, cook until the sauce thickens. Cut up the leg and serve with the sauce.
