Belated Christmas Turkey - Brined with Knorr Stock Cubes

I hope you all had a great Christmas! Enjoying post-Christmas sales?! Mine was rather quiet, just my sister and I cause the wild boar was away for locum work over Christmas. It was a last minute thing. He had to catch the late night train on Thursday to Exeter which was 3 hrs away and he came back only yesterday. Sad, I know. Have been singing silent night(s) to myself for the past few days...Anyway, our Christmas dinner was postponed to tonight. I prepared another traditional Christmas dinner this year - roast turkey, rich stuffing, brussel sprouts, cranberry sauce and turkey gravy...and we just had Christmas pudding..aaahhh...so stuffed.



I decided to use Knorr chicken stock cubes instead of salt for the brine this year as I have A LOT, many boxes, unlimited supply. I currently have about 50 cubes or more in the pantry, I lost count. Don't give me that look, I'm not an "instant" addict and no, Knorr is not my sponsor. They are all from my mum-in-law. Everytime she visits, she'd bring a few boxes. I don't really use them, so they just accumulate. It actually added a really nice flavour. The turkey was really moist, juicy and tasty.







Ingredients:


4kg turkey
About 50g unsalted butter (for rubbing all over turkey) - softened
1 carrot - large chunks
2 celery sticks - chopped
1 onion - large slices
Corn starch slurry (corn starch + water)
A few sage leaves
Rosemary leaves from 1 stalk


Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Turkey brine:


500ml + 4.5L water (or enough to cover whole turkey)
1/3 cup light brown sugar
10 cubes Knorr chicken stock cubes (2 cubes per litre water)
1 tbs black peppercorn
2 pieces stem ginger - coarsely chopped
1 cinnamon stick


Directions:

2 days before or the day before (early):



Place 500ml (2 cups) water, sugar, stock cubes, black peppercorn, stem ginger and cinnamon stick in a pot.
Bring to boil then simmer for about 10 mins.
Leave to cool then refrigerate.
The day before:



Add refrigerated brine to a large container, turkey and add the rest of the water (enough to cover turkey).
Leave this refrigerated overnight. I left mine for about 36 hrs.
On the day:



Before roasting, preheat oven to 250°C.
Discard brine, rinse turkey thoroughly and pat very dry.
Place on roasting rack.
Stuff turkey with stuffings.
Rub unsalted butter all over turkey.
Place carrots, celery and onions on roasting tray.
Place turkey on roasting rack, tuck the wings in to prevent burning.
Cover bird with aluminium foil.
Roast at lowest level at 250°C for 20 mins. I added about 1 cup of water into roasting tray to prevent vegetables from burning.
Lower heat to 180°C and continue roasting for a further 3 hrs (about 20 mins per 500g, weigh with stuffings). Remove foil for the last hour of roasting to brown the bird.
Remove bird from oven, loosely cover with foil and leave for about 20 mins before carving.




For turkey gravy:

Place roasting tray on the hob, add 1 cup of water and bring to the boil. Remember to scrape off the tasty brown bits.
Strain this into a saucepan.
Add sage and rosemary leaves, simmer for a few mins.
Thicken with corn starch slurry.
Add salt and black pepper to taste.