Large Turkey Butterfly

Our delicious turkey butterfly is the perfect choice for special occasions such as Christmas or Thanksgiving. This skin-on turkey butterfly cooks beautifully, as the flavours and moistness of the bird are sealed into the meat while roasting. However, turkey isn’t only for Christmas and you can use our large turkey butterfly to cook the most succulent turkey possible all year round!

What’s more, a large turkey butterfly means you can reduce your prep and cooking time, and skip the carving and deboning. Every serving you’ll get from your turkey butterfly is pure, succulent turkey breast.

Weight: From 4Kg
Serves: Approx. 16

Pre-Order Now | Delivery Available From 23/11/24.

Looking to serve a smaller group? Opt for our Turkey Butterfly instead to serve up to 10 guests.

How To Cook Turkey by The Peckham Chef - Simon Baker

Roasted turkey is the festive season showstopper. This recipe puts a funky spin on the classic bird by using a boneless turkey butterfly filled with prune, bacon, brandy and chestnut stuffing. Steamed and then roasted until the skin is golden and crispy. The breast meat remains beautifully tender, moist and full of flavour. 

Ingredients

• 7 kg turkey butterfly (boneless crown)

• 15 rashers unsmoked streaky bacon

• 4 tbsp cranberry jelly, melted

Stuffing

• 200 g pitted prunes, diced

• 75 ml brandy

• 150 g unsmoked streaky bacon, diced

• 100 g chestnuts, roughly chopped

• 1 onion, finely diced

• 500 g sausage meat, chilled

• 1 orange, zest only

• 10 sage leaves, finely chopped

• 1 sprig rosemary, leaves finely chopped

• 1 sprig of thyme, leaves finely chopped

Butter

• 375 g unsalted butter, at room temperature

• 1 tbsp olive oil

• 1 lemon, juice and finely grated zest

• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

• 2 tbsp chopped parsley leaves

Gravy 

• 1 onion, roughly chopped

• 1 carrot, roughly chopped

• 1 celery stalk, roughly chopped

• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped

• 150 g unsmoked streaky bacon, roughly chopped

• 3 bay leaves

• 3 sprigs thyme

• 1 L golden chicken stock

• 1 L water

• 3 tbsp plain flour

How To Cook Your Large Turkey Butterfly

Day 1

First things first, remove the large turkey butterfly from its wrapping and place it on a tray, skin-side up. Return to the fridge while you prepare the stuffing and butter. This will help the skin dry out, making it easier to crisp up.

Stuffing

1. Mix the diced prunes and brandy in a bowl and set aside to soak.

2. Add the diced bacon to a cold frying pan and set over medium heat for a few minutes, until the fat is rendered and the bacon just starts to colour. Add the onion and cook until softened but not coloured. Add a splash of oil if necessary. Drain, stir in the chopped herbs and allow to cool.

3. Place the orange zest in a small pan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil. Immediately drain and shock in cold water. Repeat this process 3 times in total. Dry the zest in kitchen paper, cut into 1 mm strips then 1 mm squares.

4. Place the sausage meat into a metal or glass bowl over an ice bath.

5. Add the prunes and brandy, chopped chestnuts, orange zest, and the cold bacon, onion, and herbs. With your hands, mix all the ingredients for a few minutes until well combined.

6. Fry a small portion of the mixture and taste for seasoning. Reserve in the fridge.

Butter

1. Put the butter into a bowl and season with salt and white pepper. Add the olive oil and mix until incorporated.

2. Add the lemon zest and juice, crushed garlic and chopped parsley. Mix well to combine. Set aside (and do not refrigerate).

Turkey

1. Lay the turkey on your work surface, skin-side up. With your hand, loosen the skin from the meat of each breast from both ends of the bird. Don’t tear the skin. Don’t separate the skin from the lower sides of the breasts otherwise all the butter will escape.

2. Carefully push three-quarters of the butter into the gaps between the meat and skin. From the outside of the skin, gently massage the butter around the breasts so that the meat is evenly covered.

3. Turn the turkey skin-side down. Season the meat with salt and pepper.

4. Take a third, perhaps half, of the stuffing and pack it down the centre of the turkey but not quite to the ends of the breasts. The stuffing will expand as it cooks so it’s important not to use too much otherwise the skin could split. (Use the remaining stuffing to make stuffing balls, each wrapped with a rasher of bacon.)

5. Now the difficult bit. Use a trussing needle and butcher twine to stitch up the bird, bringing the skin of each breast together so that the breasts assume their original shape (as if the skeleton was in situ). A second pair of hands will make this easier. Tack a few stitches working from the back of the bird to the front, to hold the breasts together. Then stitch along the whole length, removing the tacking stitches as you go. The danger is that the skin can tear, which you really don’t want. Puncture the skin and the meat below if you must. An easier technique is to simply tie a string around the breasts like you would a galantine.

6. Place the turkey in a roasting tray. Spread the remaining butter over the skin, season with salt and pepper, then drizzle with olive oil. Cover with foil and reserve in the fridge.

Day 2

Turkey

1. Take the turkey out of the fridge at least 3 hours ahead of cooking. Remove the foil and briefly remove the turkey from the roasting tray. Put the vegetables, herbs and bacon (for the gravy) into the tray and place the turkey on top. Leave to come up to room temperature.

2. Preheat the oven to 220°C.

3. Roast the turkey for 10-15 minutes to gain some initial colour.

4. Take the tray from the oven and baste the bird with the pan juices. Lay bacon rashers over the breasts to keep them moist. Baste again. Add half the stock and half the water to the tray. Cover with foil. Drop the oven temperature to 180°C and return the turkey to the oven. Cook for 2.5 hours, basting every 30 minutes. (The rule of thumb is 30 minutes per kilo.)

5. Remove the foil and increase the oven to 200°C. Roast the turkey uncovered for around 10 minutes until the bacon is crispy.

6. Remove the bacon in one piece and reserve. Roast for a further 10-20 minutes, until the skin is golden and crispy all over.

7. Remove the turkey from the oven and check the core temperature. Insert a probe at the thickest part of the breast. It should read 65°C. This will rise to 70°C or just above while resting. If the turkey isn’t cooked through, roast for another 10 minutes and test again. Use the foil if the skin is taking on too much colour.

8. When cooked, transfer the turkey to a wire rack. Brush the skin all over with melted cranberry jelly and place the bacon back over the breasts. Rest for at least 30 minutes, preferably an hour.

Gravy

1. Meanwhile, remove the bay leaves and thyme from the roasting tray.

2. Pour away 3/4 of the fat into a jug for later. You can use this to roast the potatoes.

3. With the roasting tray over medium heat, gradually whisk the flour with the remains of the turkey juices, vegetables, and bacon until you have no lumps of flour.

4. Simmer gently for 10-15 minutes, stirring regularly.

5. Blitz the tray contents in a blender. Pass through a chinois or fine sieve into a clean saucepan on low heat.

6. Add the remaining stock and water. Simmer until you reach the desired consistency. Check the seasoning. Keep warm until ready to serve, stirring occasionally.

What Size is a Large Turkey?

Generally, a small turkey will weigh 3-4.5 kg, a medium turkey will weigh 4-5 kg, and a large turkey will weigh 5-6.5 kg.

These weights are inclusive of the entire turkey, including the bones. Because our large turkey butterfly is already deboned, it comes in at 4.5 kg but is actually a large turkey!

Is It Harder To Cook a Large Turkey?

Because cooking a large turkey can take longer, it might dry out as it cooks. To counter this, use a generous helping of butter under the skin to keep the meat moist. Apart from that, it’s exactly the same as cooking a small turkey (provided you have an oven that it fits in).

Should You Bake a Large Turkey Covered or Uncovered?

You’ll want to let a large turkey cook both covered and uncovered to ensure that it stays moist but achieves a crispy skin. Using our recipes above, you’ll want to roast the turkey covered in foil for the majority of the time before taking the foil off for the final 30-40 minutes.

How To Keep a Turkey Moist

Our favourite way to keep a turkey butterfly moist is to use butter! This will not only stop the meat from drying out while in the oven, but it will also add a tonne of flavour!

Melt the butter slowly before pouring it into an injector. You can then push this into the breast in a grid pattern around an inch apart. We recommend adding leftover butter under the skin too. Make sure to keep the skin intact and seal it with string at the end to ensure that the butter doesn’t leak out.