Ingredients

Serves 6-8

  • 2.5kg Quality Assured Turkey Breast (off the bone)
  • 10 x Quality Assured streaky bacon rashers

For the buttermilk brine:

  • 1.5 litres buttermilk
  • ½ orange, thinly sliced
  • 4 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced in half
  • 15g fresh thyme/rosemary sprigs, roughly bruised

For the citrus butter

  • 200g Softened butter
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • Zest of 1 orange
  • 1 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
  • 2 tsp chopped thyme

Method

For the buttermilk brine:

  1. Mix all the ingredients for the buttermilk brine in a turkey bag, then add the turkey breast. Tie up the bag securely and put in the salad drawer at the bottom of the fridge – up to two days is best, but brine for at least 24 hours.

For the citrus butter

  1. Beat the butter until soft and add in the lemon zest, orange zest, parsley, and thyme. Beat until well combined and refrigerate until needed.

For the turkey

  1. When ready to cook the turkey reheat the oven to 200°C (400°F/Gas Mark 6).
  2. Remove the turkey breast from the brine and drain off any excess liquid, then pat the skin of the turkey dry with kitchen paper. Place onto a roasting rack. Smear the prepared citrus butter over the skin of the breast followed by the streaky bacon. Overlap the bacon until the top is covered.
  3. Pour 100ml of cold water in the bottom of the roasting tray. Cover the turkey with a double layer of tinfoil and seal well.
  4. Place the prepared turkey breast in the preheated oven. After 1 hour, remove the tinfoil and baste the breast with the juices in the base of the roasting tray. Reduce the oven to 180C (350F/gas mark 4) and cook for a further 1.5 hours basting regularly. This timing is based on a 2.5kg Turkey Breast.
  5. To calculate the cooking time: 20 minutes per 450g (1lb) plus 20 minutes. The turkey breast will cook much quicker, so make sure to keep basting.