To dread cooking the blasted turkey every year?

I shove butter under the skin, cut lemons/oranges and stuff them inside the turkey with some thyme then cook mine upside down so all the fat runs down, and the fruits create a steam, turn it right way up for last 15 mins. Easy.

Stuffing in a separate tray.

I just don't bother. Everyone is just as happy with frozen chicken breasts so I just do some of those in the airfryer.
Tbh Christmas dinner is no different to our usual fayre - mashed potatoes, carrots, frozen peas, frozen sprouts, frozen yorkshire puddings. Roast potatoes depends how I'm feeling as to whether I do them 'properly' or get a bag of mini roasties from Tesco.

We go to Booths and buy fresh Turkey slices from the deli counter. No mess no waste.

Years ago my turkey was off and I didnt realise until too late, DH managed to get a rolled turkey joint from an M&S attached to a petrol station on Christmas morning.

I've never cooked a whole turkey again, so much easier and tastier because it doesn't dry out, Im hosting this year and Ive just brought two - I cook everything else form scratch and that's enough work as it is, Im never going back 😁

Ok, so they clearly only care about the brown meat. Get some turkey drumsticks next year and be done with it

best way i've found of doing this is to smear it with butter and wrap in a layer of foil, loosely, so there are no air gaps. you pinch it together at the top. this uses quite a lot of foil. then you cook it as per usual in oven (i can dig our times/temps if anyone wants them). Then for the last 30 mins you remove foil on top of turkey and baste. so basically it sort of steams it. it also has the most important benefit that once you have stuck it in the oven you do nothing till the last 30 mins.

The person doing the cooking gets to decide what gets cooked. End of. If you don't like doing turkey, cook something that you do like! What's the worst that can happen? I can't stand it when people who don't even know where the roasting tins are kept offer their helpful opinions on what should be cooked and in what manner. So rude!

Always cover it. Don’t stuff it (it will dry it out)

the Phil Vickery method works well. Plus they don’t take hours, they really don’t.

DH method, firstly allow some butter to soften then push under the skin, stuff the cavity with either loosely packed stuffing or a lemon and an orange. Then cover the bird in bacon and pour a bottle of cheap white wine (or possibly stock) into the pan. Place the turkey on a trivet and place in a hot oven 220°C for half an hour, remove, baste and cover with foil then return to a 180°C oven for 20 minutes a pound plus half hour for this last hald hour remove the foil. Remove your turkey and put the roast potatoes, parsnips etc in the oven.

Cover the turkey with foil and then put towels on top to allow it to rest.

This looks like a a palaver but the only thing that really takes any time is doing the butter bit.

This will give you really succulent turkey.

M&S do a crown that serves 14-15, it's 3.5KG and is £75. Bit spenny but prob worth it.

I purchase a bacon wrapped turkey crown stuffed with sage & onion stuffing for £6 every year. Feeds 5/6 of us and we have leftovers for boxing day buffet.

It's one of those peel the plastic lid off, cover with foil and chuck in the oven for 90 minutes type joints, been using them for 4 years now, never failed us, always juicy and full of flavour.

I find the effort of a full turkey ridiculous and stressful

Buy a large chicken and tell them it's a small turkey.

Hint: They don't speak English properly. It was then adopted by the British.

Turkey is not the tradition in other European countries.

Try something new then.
If family don’t like it they can go buy a cheap turkey after Christmas and cook you a turkey dinner.

Small crown and a small joint of an alternative meat. You'll have enough then. And not just bastard turkey. You can fit two smaller joints in the oven together.

I think you can get huge crowns though. I am pretty sure our crown serves at least 12, maybe more?
I just literally follow the instructions on the packaging and it is never dry.
The biggest thing seems to be the resting. I usually end up resting for between 30 minutes and an hour under foil and some clean towels and ir makes a huge difference and also makes your oven jiggling life easier too!

YABU.

You don't like turkey so you still order turkey.

This makes you really a martyr to your own daftness.

No one is holding a gun to your head forcing you to have a turkey. Christmas will not be ruined if you bin the turkey traditional in favour of something you actually would prefer.

Why are you doing this to yourself and then complaining about it?!

Seriously I don't get this.

In our home we gave up turkey tears ago. Now we enjoy other special meals at Christmas. Favourites are beef or salmon wellington. One year we did a whole Lebanese feast. But we’re going to family this year so it’s back to turkey and sprouts.

The best way to avoid dry turkey is not to cook a turkey. A 2kg duck will feed 4 and it takes about 1½ hours to cook. But if things go wrong and you have to leave it in the oven for another hour it will hardly make a bit of difference. Also the fat makes brilliant gravy, and depending on timing you can maybe salvage some of it to put on the roast potatoes.

If you have more than 4 guests, get 2 ducks. Leftover duck is delicious too.

I just realised that we have had duck for Christmas for the last 30 years!

Rest it for around two hours. Makes all the difference. Also, do not go by the timings on the packaging, it is often too long. Agree with pp who recommended a meat thermometer.

www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/turkey/cooking-the-turkey/

Always buy without giblets. Put a whole block off butter up the cavity (not faffing with under the skin) - add a whole garlic too.

In a foil roasting tray, with a stock pot and about an inch of water.

Foil over it for 2 hours. Foil off for the rest of the time.

Never dry...