Turkey crown with lemon & sage butter

Turkey crown with lemon & sage butter

This recipe makes cooking Christmas dinner a doddle. It's also super easy to carve

Difficulty and servings

Easy

Serves 6

Preparation and cooking times

Total time

Ready in 1 hour 40 minutes

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Loosen the skin on the turkey crown by carefully sliding your fingers between the skin and breast at the neck end. With a bit of wiggling, it should loosen quite well. Mix the butter with the sage and lemon zest and push this under the skin, smoothing it around as much as possible. Lay the lemon slices in a roasting tin and sit the turkey on top. Pour in the white wine. Score a waist around each onion, cutting through the first couple of layers and pushing a thyme sprig into the centre of each. Sit them around the turkey. Roast for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until the crown is cooked through. Pierce the thickest part of the meat through to the bone with a skewer to check that the juices are clear.
  2. Lift the turkey and onions out onto a carving plate or board and cover with foil and a tea towel and rest for 30 minutes. Throw away the lemon slices.
  3. Just before serving, put the roasting tin over a low heat and add the stock, bubble everything together, scraping the bottom of the pan and adding any juices that have come out of the turkey. Strain (although not if you like the bits) into a warm jug. Decorate the turkey with watercress, if using, and serve with the gravy.

Per serving

492 kcalories, protein 72.2g, carbohydrate 7.1g, fat 16.3 g, saturated fat 6.7g, fibre 1.0g, salt 0.59 g

Recipe from olive magazine, January 2008.

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Latest comments and suggestions

  • Binder photo Ash

    17 December 2007

    Ash commented on this recipe

    What type of white wine do you suggest for this mean, sweet, medium, dry...?

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  • 08 January 2008

    sheepcat rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I made this for Christmas dinner and it was the best Turkey anyone had ever had, also once cold the Turkey was deliciously succulent and not at all dry. Possibly the most succesful Christmas dinner ever.

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  • 21 August 2008

    dolly commented on this recipe

    will certainly try this for our Christmas dinner with the cracked roast potaoes sounds delicious

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  • 28 October 2009

    Simon rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    This was the first turkey recipe I'd tried for a group of 5 of us. It was simply perfect - moist, delicious meat, fabulous lemony gravy. Absolutely wonderful - I will always use this method...

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  • 20 December 2010

    momacd rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I made this last Christmas it was perfect and will not be tempted to try something different.... it was soooooooooo good will be doing it again this Christmas.

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  • 21 December 2012

    goodevans rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Had a pre Christmas get together with my daughters and cooked a Christmas meal for 5. Bought a 2.9kg crown then started looking at cooking times and came across this recipe. I didn't use the sage or the thyme as I didn't have any. Sat the crown on 2 lemons. Added a little more wine half way through as one side of the pan getting a bit burnt. The turkey was lovely and the gravy (made with water not stock) was absolutely lovely - I just thickened it a little with cornflour, strained it and served. Well be doing the same on Christmas Day for 5 too. Brill. PS It did cook very quickly and was done in 1.5hr but I had to keep it in a little longer then I rested it for 30mins.

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  • 22 January 2013

    Kelly commented on this recipe

    I made this for Christmas using only 4 red onions instead of 8. The turkey was lovely and moist and still tasted wonderful the next day. However the gravy was so strong with onion flavour, despite halving the amount used. I would definitely use this recipe again but leave out the onions.

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Difficulty and servings

Easy

Serves 6

Preparation and cooking times

Total time

Ready in 1 hour 40 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 turkey breast crown , about 2kg
  • 2 tbsp butter , softened
  • a few leaves sage , finely chopped
  • 1 lemon , zested and then thickly slice the lemon
  • 200ml white wine
  • 8 small red onions , peeled and roots trimmed
  • 8 sprigs thyme
  • 200ml chicken stock
  • watercress to serve, optional
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Per serving

492 kcalories, protein 72.2g, carbohydrate 7.1g, fat 16.3 g, saturated fat 6.7g, fibre 1.0g, salt 0.59 g

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