Roasting a turkey in a slow cooker
Ok, I admit that it's not possible to roast a whole turkey in a slow cooker unless it is very small. However it is perfectly possible to slow cook a turkey crown, turkey breast or a turkey leg.
In the UK our local supermarket (Morrisons) sell a 1600g [3.5 lb] turkey leg, separated into two pieces for just £4.50, compared to £24 for a turkey crown. The leg is ideal for prolonged cooking and it will roast in the slow cooker.
I've used a massive amount of fresh herbs from our garden to give this joint masses of flavour.
The roasting occurs because the turkey is kept out of the stock by sitting it on 5 or 6 balls of scrunched up baking foil, a large onion, halved and a bed of herbs. I've used 500 ml of stock and 6 rashers of streaky bacon to prevent the turkey from drying out. Plus some garlic for extra flavour.
| Roasting a turkey in a slow cooker | |
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| Servings: | Serves 4 |
| Calories per serving: | 1046 |
| Ready in: | 10 hours, 15 minutes |
| Prep. time: | 15 minutes |
| Cook time: | 10 hours |
| Difficulty: | 
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| Recipe author: | Chef |
| First published: | 24th November 2014 |
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Best recipe reviewBrilliant idea! 5/5 I didn't think this would work until I tried it. It's great if you don't have access to an oven and it tasted as good as it looked. |
Ingredients
Printable 🖨 shopping 🛒 list & 👩🍳 method for this recipe
- 1.6kg [1lb 8oz] turkey leg (separated)
- 6 rashers of streaky bacon
- 1 large onion, unpeeled and cut into two halves
- 5 cloves of garlic, unpeeled and smashed under the flat of a knife
- Large pinch of freshly ground black pepper
- Large bunch of fresh herbs. (sage, rosemary, thyme, etc). I also added the remains of a bunch of dill
- Olive oil
Mise en place
- Roasting a chicken in a slow cooker - tin foil, rub and stuffing.jpg
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Served with roast potatoes and roasted vegetables that were cooked in a conventional oven
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Prepped and ready for 10 hours of slow cooking
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The basic ingredients - all that turkey for £4.50!
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Scrunch up the baking foil into small balls to give the turkey some support and keep it dry so it can roast
Method
- Loosely scrunch up 5 or 6 balls of baking foil and place in the base of the slow cooker
- Arrange the onion halves where they will provide the best support for the turkey leg
- Distribute the smashed garlic in the base of the cooker and make a bed with your fresh herbs
- Make up 500 ml ( almost a pint) of chicken stock and pour this into the base of the cooker
- Lay the turkey leg on the bed of herbs and drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with the black pepper
- Lay the rashers of streaky bacon over the leg
- Loosely cover with a sheet of baking foil
- Pop the lid on and slow cook on low for 10 hours
- You could prepare this the night before and set the slow cooker on a timer if you wanted to have this in the middle of the day
- Discard the bacon rashers as they will now be tasteless, all their flavour has gone into the turkey and the stock.
- Use the stock as gravy, thickening it with a tablespoon of gravy granules or few teaspoons of cornflour if needed
- Carve and serve!
Serving suggestions
Serve with roast potatoes and all the trimmings
See also
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