Make your Christmas turkey crispy and juicy

This Christmas make your roast turkey, deliciously crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside by basting it was bacon infused butter. Lightly rub a properly thawed turkey with a mixture of 1 tsp salt, 1 tbsp freshly chopped thyme or rosemary and 1 tsp crushed black pepper and leave it in the fridge overnight.

Ingredients
A 5-6kg turkey
2 small lemons, halved
4 sprig fresh thyme or rosemary
1 garlic bulb, halved
4 medium-size onions, halved
2 tbsp cumin powder
For the bacon butter
6 rashers of streaky bacon, chopped
150g butter
2 tbsp honey

Method
1.Make the bacon butter the day before, by cooking the bacon in a frying pan until the fat is sizzling and bacon crisp. Put the bacon, its fat, the butter and honey in blender and pulse until well combined. Scrape it all out, roll it up in cling film to form a log and freeze.
2. The next day, remove the turkey from the fridge and put it in a roasting tin. Soften the bacon butter and gently push it ¾ of it under the entire breast area of the turkey’s skin and in the crevices between the thighs and the main body, without tearing it. Put the thyme/rosemary under the breast as well and smooth the rest of the butter over the whole bird.
3. Remove the seeds from the lemon and rub the cumin inside the cavity of the bird. Put the onion, garlic and lemon in the cavity as well.
4. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Calculate your cooking time based on 40 minutes per kg of turkey, plus 45 minutes for every kg after that.
5. Loosely cover the roasting tin with foil paper and roast for the calculated cooking time. Increase the oven temperature to 200C/400F/gas mark five 30 minutes before removing the foil paper.
6. When the turkey is nicely brown and cooked through, remove from the oven and let it rest on a warm platter for 20-25 minutes before carving.