Cooking Xmas dinner in oven that can't cope with lots of things!

[cigarettesandcoffee]

I cooked Xmas dinner last year and although I have a pretty new fan oven it seemed to be unable to cope with more than a few things in it at once, something I discovered when I checked the roast potatoes and realised they'd barely cooked at all 😩

I only have a turkey joint which takes a couple of hours to cook but realistically I am going to need to have

Roast potatoes
Parsnips
Pigs in blankets
Turkey
Sweet potatoes
Cauliflower cheese

All in the oven at the same time and all need it to be quite hot, I could probably take the turkey out when cooked and cover in foil to keep warm but that's still going to leave the oven pretty full which will drop the temp quite significantly! I'm mainly worried about the potatoes and parsnips that need it to be hot to crisp up!

What can I do?! Can I pre roast the potatoes and then flash them may the end to warm up?

Cook the turkey on Christmas Eve and then just heat it up on Christmas Day.

It’s what we’ve always done in my family (in case of Christmas Day powercuts!)

Carve it, sprinkle with water and wrap in foil. Bung it in the bottom of the oven about 20 minutes before serving. Doesn’t have to be piping hot because the gravy will help it seem warmer :)

Could you do the sweet potato as a mash or would that cause riots? Ditto if you have a microwave you could cheat with pre-done cauliflower cheese.

In fairness when we last did a big Christmas dinner I pinched my parents’ 1970s-style hostess trolley!!

I second cooking the turkey on the 24th. Even now I have a huge oven, I still do this because it carves better and the biggest messiest part of the dinner is out of the way.

Jamie Oliver says that turkeys between 4-6kg should be restedfor 1½ hours, and ones from 6-10kg can rest for two hours. I only leave it to rest for an hour, but it still comes out of the oven before anything else goes in.
If you've got enough hob space, I'd recommend pan frying the parsnips. They're definitely just as delicious. Here's Raymond Blanc'a recipe www.raymondblanc.com/recipes/pan-fried-parsnips-recipe/ or use this is you prefer yours glazed www.blackerhallfarmshop.co.uk/recipe/sticky-pan-fried-parsnips-yorkshire-honey/ If you think you might be short of hob space, make your gravy as soon as the turkey comes out and reheat in the microwave just before serving.