December 13, 2024 • 8 mins
I’m still stuck on turkey for Christmas! I never think we’ll include it in the menu but in the end it just screams ‘festive season’, and I can’t resist.
How to keep the darn thing from drying out?
- Stuff stuff under the skin of the breast – herb butter, chopped spinach, sausage, bacon.
- Consider using a large oven bag to cook it in.
- Rest the cooked bird on its breast so that the juices all run into the white meat.
- Brining can work too, but who has the time or fridge space to do it!
Stuffing:
- Breadcrumbs as a base with herbs, onions etc – make sure you soak the crumbs in milk.
- Sausage or ground meat
- Rice & mushrooms
- Chorizo and corn bread
- Consider a punch of sweetness like currants, apples or cranberries.
Gravy:
The roasting dish scrapings are your best friend, so always add in some halved onions and oil at the start of the cooking.
- Once cooked, remove the turkey and set aside to rest.
- Sprinkle ¼ cup plain flour into the roasting dish, mix to a paste with the fat and pan scrapings.
- Add a splash of wine or bubbles and simmer for 1 minute then add in stock, vege water or plain water and seasoning and whisk or stir for 5-6 minutes until you have a dark, lump free gravy.
Leftovers:
- Make a pie.
- Fry turkey meat and leftover veges in a pan, drizzle in some pomegranate molasses and once a little crispy scatter over some lettuce or baby spinach leaves for a fab salad.
- Serve lettuce, warmed turkey and gravy in soft white rolls.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks at B caught.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
It to ten on News Talks hed V. Time to
catch up with our cook, Nikki Wicks for one of
her most important segments of the whole year. Good morning, Nikki,
Good morning.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
It sort of is, isn't it It is? This is key.
This is you know, we don't get this right.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
So are you just to be totally clear, are you
a turkey person? Because I realize that not everyone is.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
I am a turkey person, and I'm one of about
two hundred thousand households in New Zealand at Christmas time
who are turkey people? What I'd have to say is
we often start off our Christmas menu discussions in our
family with oh, let's not do the turkey, and they
all that we always end up back at the turkey.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah, are you a I'm a massive turkey person. I
am reckon. Turkey is a Well. The thing with your
turkey is that a really good turkey is almost impossible
to beat. But a bad turkey is not great. You know,
it's rough, it's pretty rough to just look. Especially it's dry.
(01:12):
The moisture, I feel like the moisture and turkey. Sorry,
I feel really strongly that the moisture in turkey is
like it's maybe more critical than almost any other meat
except fish. You know, like if it's dry, it's.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Just it's almost impossible. You end up chewing on this
kind of cud, don't you that never had to go anywhere?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
You know it is turkey. I like it.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Or you've started something there, I love it. I'm with you.
So if you can get it right. There's no flavor
like turkey. There was no flavor. I just this this week,
I made some little turkey pies for our local indoor
bowling club because it was their Christmas dinner and I
always cater for it, just for fun. And what I
(01:58):
did was I went to a place where you could
buy just the turkey wings, and I bought packets of
turkey wings and they were the best. I'd already bought
my big turkey. Now rather thought, gosh, these would be good,
and it's only twelve with these indoor bowlers, so I
just wanted a short small amount. Braised them and then
took the cover off and roasted them, got some color
(02:21):
on them and stripped them off. Oh, because the turkey
wings are fantastic, They're full of fat, they're you know,
they're great, and they were really good. So if you're
having a slightly smaller Christmas gathering this year, I would
recommend it.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Don't do the whole bird. Yeah, don't do the whole bird.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
But anyway, here's what to do if you have got
the whole bird, as I have and as your family
will have, how to keep the damn thing from drying out.
This is my top tip. This is the first of
my top tips. I stuffed stuff under the skin of
the breast, okay, because that's the bit that dries out.
The legs, the thighs, that's all fine, but they take
a lot longer to So this is the trick. Who
(02:59):
butter Maybe put some chopped spinach in there, because spinach
raw spinach, it has lots of water in it, which
is great, and then melds into that breast point. Yeah,
of course, Yeah, sausage some people go for. Some people
laid bacon over the top. Mum used to do a
little bit of butter pape over the top. So things
like that. Stuff something under the breast or over top
of it and that'll keep it. Consider cooking it in
(03:22):
a large oven bag. I did this once for a
cooking a food shoot many years ago for this weekly.
The whole thing was so tender that it all collapsed.
It was terrible to shoot. We had to sort of
put it together like we were all papedic surgeons.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Here's the thing, this is what we do in the
tame household. And when I say, well, of course, it's
my beloved mum, No, she's absolutely swears by using a
large oven bag and it's so moist as a result.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Nothing bad can happen in that bag. So do that.
I think that's good. Also, when you bring the two
key out to rest it, rest it on its breast,
so flip it up. We often we often have it
breast up because that's the way was of course to
rest it, and all the juices run into the white meat,
which is fantastic.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
The second point, so just flip it round so it's.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
So it's got back up top breast down, and then
when you can serve it, you can turn it up.
But once while it's resting, do that. People also talk
about brining. I've never had much successful it, mostly because
turkeys are large birds to wrangle, and so you've got
to essentially put them in a really large container to
brine it whole, and then that container needs to go
into a large fridge. Well, hello, unless you've got a
(04:30):
chill it for me. So those other tips will keep
it from drying out. Stuffing Jack, you've got your bread
crumb based one with herbs and onions, et cetera in there.
What I want to tell people is make sure that
you soak the crumbs in milk for a start off.
Because bread crumbs either fresh. You always be using fresh
bread crumbs. But what they do is, if you think
(04:51):
about it, they want to shloop up juices, which is good,
but it can make it dry out as well because
it's slooping up juices from your turkey. So soak those
bread crumbs that you're going to use for your stuffing
in some milk first. You just need to just cover
them milk and they'll and then they'll swell up and
they'll be nice and moist. You can use sausage or
other ground meat is really great. You could use rice
(05:13):
and mushrooms that kind of ChIL eat so and corn bread.
I have had that before. I've done that before, but
I've had to buy the corn make the corn bread first,
and that's a pain, but that's quite nice. And then
I also consider a punch of kind of sweetness like
a currant or some cranberries or maybe some chopped up
apple and that stuffing, which is great gravy. I mean,
(05:33):
you want to when you are rosy bird, you want
to make sure that you put some chopped onions in there.
Turkey cooks for a long time, so you can just
have or quarter the onions because they're going to give
you some really great flavor with some with some of
those scrapings from the pan. That is the only drawback
of using a bag jack. And I don't know what
your mum does, but you don't get any of those.
(05:54):
You get lots of juice in the bag, which you
can use for the gravy, but you don't get any
of those gnarly kind of caramelized bits the roasting dish. True,
so you know, so that's the only drawback you can
get around that.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
True.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
I use cord of cover of plain flour and the
roasting dish. I mixed that to a bit of a
paste with all those pans scrapings. Always add a splash
of wine or bubbles, because it just tastes good. It's
a sort of mysterious flavor. Even if you've got people
who are non non alcohol drinkers, you've got to just
that off. It's fine, you know, it cooks off. All
the alcohol cooks off in about a minute. Then add
some stock or some veggie water from them new potatoes
(06:28):
and the peas or something, or even some plain water
and some seasoning, and then you want to really cook
that out well for sort of five to six to
you know, get a nice dark lumfrey gravy leftovers. That's
what I love about a turkey make a pie because
suddenly that breast meat is surrounded by beautiful kind of
white white sauce or not quite a white sauce, but
(06:50):
you know that well wine saw the gravy, you know,
kind of just beef up the gravy a bit. I
also love frying the turkey meat in a pan jack
until with a bit of a drizzle of pomegranate molasses,
so it was slightly crispy at the you know, in
the edges, and then scattered that, you know, over some
little baby spinach leaves or what what's wrong with just
(07:10):
a white, soft, white roll stuffed with warm the role. Yeah,
with lettuce, warmsh turkey and some leftover gravy. There is
nothing like it.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Can I just add to that a little bit of
cranberry sauce and maybe a sliver of brie and.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
From Christ of course you're going to bree and the
cranberry's so good.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Oh man, I'm celibating.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
I don't mean, I mean, how excited are we?
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (07:37):
You know you can have your hands. I glazed your
ham on Instagram?
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Of course.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Yeah. I should wear my dogs more often than those
videos through the roof. And you can have all your
fancy other stuff we'll have. We'll be having non traditional
stuff on our table too, but I think you've got
to have something a little bit.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I totally agree. Look, we're going to put all of
those tips for nailing your Christmas turkey up on the
news talks Zbig website. Thank you so much for everything
this year, Niki, and we will catch you again in
twenty twenty five. NICKI wix cook there right now, it
is seven minus to ten. You a Jack Tame on
Newstalk's 'db.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to Newstalks. I'd be from nine am Saturday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks at B caught.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
It to ten on News Talks hed V. Time to
catch up with our cook, Nikki Wicks for one of
her most important segments of the whole year. Good morning, Nikki,
Good morning.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
It sort of is, isn't it It is? This is key.
This is you know, we don't get this right.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
So are you just to be totally clear, are you
a turkey person? Because I realize that not everyone is.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
I am a turkey person, and I'm one of about
two hundred thousand households in New Zealand at Christmas time
who are turkey people? What I'd have to say is
we often start off our Christmas menu discussions in our
family with oh, let's not do the turkey, and they
all that we always end up back at the turkey.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah, are you a I'm a massive turkey person. I
am reckon. Turkey is a Well. The thing with your
turkey is that a really good turkey is almost impossible
to beat. But a bad turkey is not great. You know,
it's rough, it's pretty rough to just look. Especially it's dry.
(01:12):
The moisture, I feel like the moisture and turkey. Sorry,
I feel really strongly that the moisture in turkey is
like it's maybe more critical than almost any other meat
except fish. You know, like if it's dry, it's.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Just it's almost impossible. You end up chewing on this
kind of cud, don't you that never had to go anywhere?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
You know it is turkey. I like it.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Or you've started something there, I love it. I'm with you.
So if you can get it right. There's no flavor
like turkey. There was no flavor. I just this this week,
I made some little turkey pies for our local indoor
bowling club because it was their Christmas dinner and I
always cater for it, just for fun. And what I
(01:58):
did was I went to a place where you could
buy just the turkey wings, and I bought packets of
turkey wings and they were the best. I'd already bought
my big turkey. Now rather thought, gosh, these would be good,
and it's only twelve with these indoor bowlers, so I
just wanted a short small amount. Braised them and then
took the cover off and roasted them, got some color
(02:21):
on them and stripped them off. Oh, because the turkey
wings are fantastic, They're full of fat, they're you know,
they're great, and they were really good. So if you're
having a slightly smaller Christmas gathering this year, I would
recommend it.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Don't do the whole bird. Yeah, don't do the whole bird.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
But anyway, here's what to do if you have got
the whole bird, as I have and as your family
will have, how to keep the damn thing from drying out.
This is my top tip. This is the first of
my top tips. I stuffed stuff under the skin of
the breast, okay, because that's the bit that dries out.
The legs, the thighs, that's all fine, but they take
a lot longer to So this is the trick. Who
(02:59):
butter Maybe put some chopped spinach in there, because spinach
raw spinach, it has lots of water in it, which
is great, and then melds into that breast point. Yeah,
of course, Yeah, sausage some people go for. Some people
laid bacon over the top. Mum used to do a
little bit of butter pape over the top. So things
like that. Stuff something under the breast or over top
of it and that'll keep it. Consider cooking it in
(03:22):
a large oven bag. I did this once for a
cooking a food shoot many years ago for this weekly.
The whole thing was so tender that it all collapsed.
It was terrible to shoot. We had to sort of
put it together like we were all papedic surgeons.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Here's the thing, this is what we do in the
tame household. And when I say, well, of course, it's
my beloved mum, No, she's absolutely swears by using a
large oven bag and it's so moist as a result.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Nothing bad can happen in that bag. So do that.
I think that's good. Also, when you bring the two
key out to rest it, rest it on its breast,
so flip it up. We often we often have it
breast up because that's the way was of course to
rest it, and all the juices run into the white meat,
which is fantastic.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
The second point, so just flip it round so it's.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
So it's got back up top breast down, and then
when you can serve it, you can turn it up.
But once while it's resting, do that. People also talk
about brining. I've never had much successful it, mostly because
turkeys are large birds to wrangle, and so you've got
to essentially put them in a really large container to
brine it whole, and then that container needs to go
into a large fridge. Well, hello, unless you've got a
(04:30):
chill it for me. So those other tips will keep
it from drying out. Stuffing Jack, you've got your bread
crumb based one with herbs and onions, et cetera in there.
What I want to tell people is make sure that
you soak the crumbs in milk for a start off.
Because bread crumbs either fresh. You always be using fresh
bread crumbs. But what they do is, if you think
(04:51):
about it, they want to shloop up juices, which is good,
but it can make it dry out as well because
it's slooping up juices from your turkey. So soak those
bread crumbs that you're going to use for your stuffing
in some milk first. You just need to just cover
them milk and they'll and then they'll swell up and
they'll be nice and moist. You can use sausage or
other ground meat is really great. You could use rice
(05:13):
and mushrooms that kind of ChIL eat so and corn bread.
I have had that before. I've done that before, but
I've had to buy the corn make the corn bread first,
and that's a pain, but that's quite nice. And then
I also consider a punch of kind of sweetness like
a currant or some cranberries or maybe some chopped up
apple and that stuffing, which is great gravy. I mean,
(05:33):
you want to when you are rosy bird, you want
to make sure that you put some chopped onions in there.
Turkey cooks for a long time, so you can just
have or quarter the onions because they're going to give
you some really great flavor with some with some of
those scrapings from the pan. That is the only drawback
of using a bag jack. And I don't know what
your mum does, but you don't get any of those.
(05:54):
You get lots of juice in the bag, which you
can use for the gravy, but you don't get any
of those gnarly kind of caramelized bits the roasting dish. True,
so you know, so that's the only drawback you can
get around that.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
True.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
I use cord of cover of plain flour and the
roasting dish. I mixed that to a bit of a
paste with all those pans scrapings. Always add a splash
of wine or bubbles, because it just tastes good. It's
a sort of mysterious flavor. Even if you've got people
who are non non alcohol drinkers, you've got to just
that off. It's fine, you know, it cooks off. All
the alcohol cooks off in about a minute. Then add
some stock or some veggie water from them new potatoes
(06:28):
and the peas or something, or even some plain water
and some seasoning, and then you want to really cook
that out well for sort of five to six to
you know, get a nice dark lumfrey gravy leftovers. That's
what I love about a turkey make a pie because
suddenly that breast meat is surrounded by beautiful kind of
white white sauce or not quite a white sauce, but
(06:50):
you know that well wine saw the gravy, you know,
kind of just beef up the gravy a bit. I
also love frying the turkey meat in a pan jack
until with a bit of a drizzle of pomegranate molasses,
so it was slightly crispy at the you know, in
the edges, and then scattered that, you know, over some
little baby spinach leaves or what what's wrong with just
(07:10):
a white, soft, white roll stuffed with warm the role. Yeah,
with lettuce, warmsh turkey and some leftover gravy. There is
nothing like it.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Can I just add to that a little bit of
cranberry sauce and maybe a sliver of brie and.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
From Christ of course you're going to bree and the
cranberry's so good.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Oh man, I'm celibating.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
I don't mean, I mean, how excited are we?
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (07:37):
You know you can have your hands. I glazed your
ham on Instagram?
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Of course.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Yeah. I should wear my dogs more often than those
videos through the roof. And you can have all your
fancy other stuff we'll have. We'll be having non traditional
stuff on our table too, but I think you've got
to have something a little bit.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I totally agree. Look, we're going to put all of
those tips for nailing your Christmas turkey up on the
news talks Zbig website. Thank you so much for everything
this year, Niki, and we will catch you again in
twenty twenty five. NICKI wix cook there right now, it
is seven minus to ten. You a Jack Tame on
Newstalk's 'db.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to Newstalks. I'd be from nine am Saturday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
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