With Christmas around the corner, we decided to roast a turkey with our UNOX commercial convection oven.

Well, none of us here cooks regularly, so...roasting a turkey became our biggest challenge/mission for the week.

After scouring through the Internet for the perfect unstuffed roast turkey recipe, our mission began...

 

1) Raw turkey in pan. Brushed with butter, dried rosemary, basil and black pepper.

2) Rolled aluminium balls to serve as a rack for the turkey.

 3) Inserted turkey timers to thickest part of thighs and poured chicken stock into the pan.

4) Placed turkey, breast side down, in pre-heated (175°C) convection oven.

5) Set timer to 60 minutes.

6) After 30 minutes...

7) After 45 minutes...

8) After 1 hour, turned the turkey breast side up...

9) After 2 hours...

10) Increased temperature to 200°C and browned for 15 minutes.

11) After 15 minutes, turkey is done!

12) Turkey timer popped out!

13) Turkey evenly cooked.

The roast-a-turkey mission was a great success! The UNOX XF133 Arianna convection oven roasted the turkey evenly, ensuring that the skin turned out crispy while the meat, juicy and flavourful.

The brining, seasoning and chicken stock were well worth the effort!

ROAST TURKEY RECIPE:

1) Rub salt on the inside of turkey.

2) Squeeze juice from 1 lemon and 2 oranges and pour over and inside turkey.

3) Rub pepper, dried rosemary and basil all over turkey.

4) Place turkey in pot and cover 2/3 with cold water.

5) Leave overnight to thaw or thaw for 5-6 hours.

6) Drain water from turkey completely.

7) Preheat oven to 175°C.

8) Place turkey on a rack inside the roast pan. If rack is unavailable, make aluminium balls and place them under turkey to lift it up as above pictures.

9) Season with dried rosemary, basil and black pepper.

10) Place 2 sprigs of fresh thyme inside turkey.

11) Pour chicken stock into pan below.

12) Brush butter all over turkey and insert turkey timers to thickest part of thighs

13) With turkey breast side down, place in oven.

14) Set timer to 60 minutes.

15) Brush turkey all over with butter again.

16) Turn turkey upside down, with breast side up.

17) Set timer to 60 minutes.

18) Increase temperature to 200°C to brown for 10-15 minutes.

19) Use a meat thermometer to ensure thickest part of thigh has reached 185°C or turkey timer has popped out.

The above recipe is for reference only as timing may differ for different size turkeys. Some things to note:

1) When baking or grilling with domestic convection ovens, the temperature within the cavity is usually untrue. Use an oven thermometer to read the real temperature and adjust accordingly. With good commercial convection ovens, you will always have the true temperature you need to cook your food.

2) Commercial convection ovens typically produce more even baking or cooking results than domestic convection ovens. Power ratings for commercial convection ovens are easily double that of domestic ovens. If you are using a domestic convection oven, you are probably always rotating your trays during baking or baking at minimal capacity (i.e. baking two trays at one time, rather than all four trays). You will also experience uneven baking, whereby the centre food becomes overcooked, while the rest remain half-cooked. With good commercial convection ovens, you are able to cook on all four trays at one go and still produce very even baking results throughout all trays. UNOX convection oven is even able to preheat to your desired temperature in 10 minutes or less.