Turkey meat is a very healthy and tasty product. In America, turkeys are traditionally cooked for Thanksgiving and Christmas. In our country, hostesses prepare a wide variety of dishes from turkey, both for a festive and everyday table.

It is also important that turkey meat is very useful for a child, because it is a dietary product. It is often used for breastfeeding. Boiled or baked turkey is included in the diet menu for gastritis and other gastrointestinal diseases. From our article you will learn how to cook a turkey at home tasty and healthy.

Surely, not all hostesses know how to cook a delicious turkey in the oven. Despite the fact that turkey meat is not easy to prepare, some simple tricks will help you make it delicious and the most favorite dish on the family table:

1. So, first of all, you need to choose a good carcass. It is better to give preference to young meat with a dense and light skin. The weight of such a carcass will vary between 6-10 kg.
2. You can stuff the carcass with anything. Turkey goes well with fruits, mushrooms, potatoes, rice, nuts, dried fruits. Here is a matter of taste.
3. Given that turkey has a neutral taste and aroma of meat, it is not recommended to cook it with chicken, beef or pork. Since your relatives or guests will not even feel that the meat of this bird is present in the dish.
4. In order for the baked turkey to turn out juicy and tasty, it must first be marinated. As a marinade, red wine, honey with spices, cognac with sugar syrup, herbs, salted water with lemon and garlic are suitable.
5. The turkey will turn out juicy if it is placed in a baking sleeve and placed breast side down before being sent to the oven.
6. The calculation of the baking time is carried out taking into account the weight of the carcass (for every 500 g there are 20 minutes of cooking).

Turkey baked in the oven

And now let's move on to the recipe for cooking a turkey in the oven. This is a classic option that will appeal to every hostess.

Ingredients:

• large carcass - 7-8 kg;
• coarse salt - 400 g;
• melted butter - 120 g;
• onion - 2 large heads;
• carrot - 4 pcs.;
• celery - 5 branches;
• fresh thyme - 3 sprigs;
• lavrushka - 2 sheets;
• dry white wine - 250 g.

Cooking:

1. First, the carcass must be wiped thoroughly with salt inside and out. Then place in a capacious container, fill with water and take out in the cold for twelve hours.
2. After this time, drain the water, let the carcass dry a little and grease its skin with butter.
3. Peel onions, carrots, cut into pieces. Stuff the turkey with vegetables, add thyme, celery, chopped parsley and sew up with threads.
4. Pour white wine over the top. Place the turkey in the sleeve and tie tightly around the edges.
5. Place the meat on a baking sheet, belly down. Set the mode to 200 degrees and send the turkey to bake.
6. The cooking time for a carcass weighing about 8 kg is at least 4 hours. During baking, it is recommended to periodically turn it over so that it browns evenly.
7. As soon as the meat is ready, you need to let it brew for half an hour in the oven, then you can remove it, cut into pieces and serve.
8. Turkey meat goes very well with pomegranate, cranberry or lingonberry sauce. This meat can be served with any side dish - rice, buckwheat, boiled potatoes or pasta.

Turkey in a slow cooker

Ingredients:

• turkey fillet - 1 kg;
• refined vegetable oil - 3 tablespoons;
• salt - 1 teaspoon with a slide;
• dried sprigs of rosemary - 1 tablespoon;
• ground black pepper - to taste;
• lavrushka - 2 sheets;
• any spices.

Cooking:

1. Rinse the fillet, dry, wipe with salt, spices and coat with oil. Cover the dish with meat with a film and set aside for a couple of hours so that it is saturated with all the flavors.
2. Transfer the meat to the multicooker bowl, turn on the "Stew" option for 1.5-2 hours. After cooking, a lot of juice will remain at the bottom of the bowl, which secretes the meat. If desired, potatoes can be added to the turkey, cut into small cubes. Then simmer for another half an hour. If the liquid is not enough, you can add a glass of water.
3. To make the meat turn out with a golden crust, you can set the “Baking” option while baking the potatoes. Then the potatoes and meat will turn golden.
4. If you cook meat without potatoes, you can use fresh vegetable salad or boiled rice, buckwheat, pasta as a side dish.

Turkey puree for babies

To prepare such a dish for babies as complementary foods, you will need a minimum of products.

Ingredients:

• turkey fillet - 100-150 g;
• water.

Cooking:

1. Rinse the fillet, dry, remove the skin and veins. Transfer to a saucepan, cover with water and boil until tender. Cut the cooled meat into pieces, transfer to a container for whipping with a blender. Add a couple of tablespoons of broth and beat until smooth puree mass.
2. If the product is too thick, you can add a small piece of butter and a little meat broth in which the turkey was cooked.

Soup with turkey meatballs

Such a lunch dish can be included in the diet for gastritis, gastric ulcer and other diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.

Ingredients:

• fresh turkey fillet - 450 g;
• carrot - 1 pc.;
• onion - 1 pc.;
• potatoes - 3-4 pcs.;
• salt - 1 pinch;
• water - 2 l;
• lavrushka - 1 pc.;
• egg - 1 pc.

Cooking:

1. Rinse the fillet, dry, cut into small pieces and grind in a meat grinder. Add an egg, a pinch of salt to the minced meat, mix well and form meatballs.
2. Peel all vegetables from the skin. Cut carrots into slices, potatoes into cubes.
3. Boil water, add onion, lavrushka, a pinch of salt to it. Boil over low heat for 7 minutes. Remove onion with lavrushka.
4. Put carrots, potatoes in boiling water, cook for a quarter of an hour. Then add meatballs. Boil the soup until all components are fully cooked. At the very end, you can put chopped dill or parsley.