For Christmas Lunch, A Turkey Breast!

I’ve just grabbed an Oakdale Basted Turkey Breast Joint for my Christmas lunch – it’s a frozen turkey breast at 800 grams and I will cook it in my slow cooker.  I hadn’t intended to buy it today, but when I was in Aldi there seemed a “shortage” of them, so I figured I’d buy it now while I could see it, rather than running the risk of having to buy a similar turkey breast joint elsewhere.  My freezer is small, so this took up about 1/5th of the space.

Last year I bought the Asda turkey breast joint, which I cooked in my slow cooker and it was just the right size.   The Oakdale frozen turkey breast joint cost £4.39, the pack says it “serves 5” – and it might do for a “regular dinner”, but I’d say that, for Christmas lunch, an 800 gram pack would be best for three people as you don’t want to skimp on Christmas Day do you!

This isn’t a product they tell you you can cook in a slow cooker – and it’s frozen.  The Oakdale Turkey Breast Joint packet expects people to cook this joint in the oven (200°C electric oven, 180°C fan, Gas Mark 6), for 1 hour and 50 minutes from frozen, or 1 hour once defrosted, but that’s not my plan at all.

What I’ll do is put the pack into the fridge on Sunday morning, so it defrosts.  To cook the turkey breast joint for Christmas Lunch I expect to remove it from all packaging and place just the breast joint into the slow cooker, on top of a layer of root veg.  No water is needed, I’ll just turn the slow cooker on to high for just over an hour, until I can hear/see it sizzling, then I’ll turn the slow cooker down to low and let it cook for about 4 hours.  I’ll check it’s cooked … it was last year after that time … and then I’ll let it sit and rest in the slow cooker while I get the rest of the dinner cooked (which will take me about 20 minutes).

Is a Turkey Breast Joint 100% Turkey Meat?

I just checked what the ingredients says.  91% turkey, of which 86% is turkey breast and 14% skin. The rest is water, salt, thickeners, guar gum, xanthan gum, stabiliser.

This is my 20 Minute Christmas Lunch plan.

If I had a larger slow cooker I’d have probably “pigged out” and gone down the route of buying a small turkey crown, but I’ve no use/need for a large slow cooker except for that one purpose once a year, so that won’t happen!

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas ….. I’m sure my chocolate Santa’s smiling at me 🙂