First time cooking Christmas dinner - HELP!

[Ineedachangerightnow]

Please be kind and help me break down what I need to do without breaking down. I only have a few people to cater for but it's the first time I've ever cooked Christmas dinner and I want to get it right.

I am in awe of those who are literally spending all day in the kitchen
I am a sloven and Aunt Bessie / M&S are helping me out!!

Some of my guests arrive on the 23rd. Someone brings stuffing. Apart from scalding the milk for bread sauce, we don’t do any preparation on Christmas Eve. We usually eat just after one on Christmas Day.
For six or seven people with a bit of delegation, it can be done on the day.

Buy a food warmer, it makes life so much easier.

M&S chicken gravy is amazing.

Dont get frozen roast potatoes
Christ what a let down

I’m not sure if it’s been mentioned but search inside both ends of the turkey for the bag of giblets!

You can use them to make gravy if you’re so inclined but you definitely do not want them in there when the turkey is cooking.,

If you have a frozen turkey then look up the defrosting times (it will be according to weight) - I nearly ruined Christmas assuming I could just defrost it overnight. It takes days!

I do all my veg from scratch but buy stuffing/pigs in blankets/gravy and with a bit of delegation to others to prep the veg I don't find I spend too long in the kitchen at all apart from that last 1.5 hours ish after the turkey is out.

I find that potatoes roast best in a cast iron dish - heat the oil and dish up for about 15 mins before putting in the par boiled spuds. A metal roasting pan also works but I could never get them properly crispy in a ceramic dish.

I used to work the Sunday roast section in a restaurant. This is what we'd have done by Friday - complete one job at a time for efficiency. For Friday sub Christmas Eve or even 23rd:

Peel all veg
Cut all veg and trim and halve sprouts
Par boil and shake up potatoes
Par boil carrots and parsnips
Braise cabbage
Start stock for gravy (using veg peelings and turkey wings + backbone if spatchcocking)
Spatchock and salt the bird - if you're a confident Cook generally but just struggle with the full roast, and if you have a full turkey, then spatchcocking is a nice way to achieve a better (less dry!!) cook and get the turkey taking up less height in the oven
Make your garlic butter if you're planning on shoving this under the turkey skin
For Xmas I'd also add prepping the stuffing and pigs in blankets plus any baking/dessert and soup or whatever you're planning

Once the stock is done, you can strain and reduce for a jus, or make a roux with e.g. turkey juices and flour and add some sherry or white wine and the stock in, day before is fine. Honestly though a nice shop bought would be lovely and way less hassle.

This leaves the following for d day:
Put butter under turkey skin (if applicable)
Roast it! Rest it

Then one hour before dinner work through jobs in the following order:

Heat up fat for potatoes in the oven tray and then roast them on 200 - the potatoes should sizzle when they hit the fat
Sprinkle roots with oil, honey and salt and get them in the oven when the potatoes have been in for 30 mins (30 mins to service)
Get your stuffing balls and pigs in blankets in at the same time
Oil and salt on the broccoli and sprouts, get them in when the roots have been in for 10 (20 mins to service)
Heat up your gravy and carve your turkey, I would favour carving into parts rather than slices which would give you at least 8 portions!
Serve!!

YouTube is your friend! Courage!!!

What a great thread!

My tip is don't have a starter. You don't get to enjoy it because it's served just when everything is coming together, and honestly, you don't need it. Pass round some smoked salmon or other nibbles around 3 before you're really getting into the final hour of cooking.

I am a confident cook and happily make my own gravy normally, but I always buy it for Christmas Day, again it's just too much faff at a time when there's a lot going on.

Set the table either the day before or well in advance - delegate this.

Take the turkey out of the fridge a good two hours before you want to cook it. I don't tend to stuff my bird because I worry about cooking it through, I do stuffing balls with the pigs in blankets.

Forgot to add, the first time I cooked dinner for my flat mates we didn't have a bloody clue and ended up with everything being ready at different times. We just ate everything as it was ready and called it our christmas buffet.

Definitely check the turkey for bags of bits..there are two ends to it, up between the legs and down the other end where the neck would have been. It really ruins things if you cook it for hours with a plastic bag inside it 🤣

Lots of great advice here. Couple of bits that I find helps…

1. Brining your turkey makes it much more forgiving and much more moist. Brining sounds scary but all you need to do is take it out of the fridge and into a roasting tin. Rub it all over (inc under the skin of the breasts) with a a couple of table spoons of sea salt flakes and some fresh ground black pepper and oregano (pepper and herbs optional - the key is the salt). This does wonders for breaking down the meat in a way that makes it tender and juicy.
2. Dont do frozen roasties. They are the one feature where the gap between frozen and the real thing is just massive and not worth the effort saved. Peel and parboil in advance. Don’t worry about duck fat or goose fat (I always find sunflower oil is best for a crispy roastie) but for extra flavour, when you drain the potatoes after parboiling, return them to the (dry) pan to shake and ruffle the edges - but add some butter to coat the edges as you shake. This will give the potatoes a light buttery coating which tastes amazing.
3. Bought gravy is fine, but personally I think making your own is just as easy if you do it in advance. I find a red wine jus is actually delicious with Turkey and you don’t need to wait for meat juices to make it - just fry some shallots and garlic in butter for 5 mins, add 500ml red wine or port, let it simmer until it’s reduced by half, then add 500ml chicken stock (I just use stock pots rather than my own stock) and reduce by half again. Easy to do, but definitely do it a couple of days ahead of time and just reheat.
4. I find that resting the turkey steams the skin and makes it soggy. So when I take the turkey out, before resting I remove the skin carefully and lay it on a baking tray with grease proof paper, pop it on the hot oven with the potatoes until it’s really really crispy and then just chop into chunks and scatter over the meat when you’re serving up.

if you have an air fryer, think about what you could cook in it. Pigs in blankets or stuffing balls can be done easily, and can stay warm in the air fryer.

Also for your numbers, unless you particularly like brown meat or drumsticks, go with a turkey crown. Much easier to carve and takes up less height in the oven.

Aim for half an hour before your serving time. Things always takes longer.
Golden rule is don't start on the wine until the turkey is out of the oven.
Get frozen pizza or a takeaway for dinner on Christmas Eve. Or a pre made lasagne or something. Save your cooking energy for the big day.
Buy pre made red cabbage.
M&S packet bread sauce is exactly like homemade.

Turkeys sometimes cook much faster than timings suggest so do check!

Well, I say sometimes cook much faster. It depends on the oven so I don’t mean it’s totally random.

@Ineedachangerightnow how did you get on yesterday? I hope it wasn't too stressful.

It was a success! Thank you everyone!! The gravy and potatoes were my favourites 😁

Yay glad it went well

I’m glad it went well!

I’m intrigued. How many dinners and how long in the microwave for each dinner?

3 adults and 2 kids. Microwave each meal for 4 minutes then put the plate in the oven to keep it warm til everyone's is done. May not work with bigger crowds but works for us!

Yes, difficult for a larger group but an interesting solution. Thank you.

AndSoForth This happened to me on the first Christmas I cooked ! DM came over ,asked if I had taken out the giblets.No still there! Took them out and ate Turkey .No one ill thankfully.Yes defo check thoroughly!