Traditional Roast Turkey with Sage, Lemon and Chestnut Stuffing and all the Trimmings

Here we have the biggest ‘roast’ of the year. The secret to success with a roast turkey is keep it simple and, of course, moist and juicy. Quite often I hear that the bird has been roasted for up to 6 hours, or even throughout the night! It’s purely because of the size and volume of the bird that we like to cook ‘safely’ and just leave it for another hour to be sure.

A 1.6 kg (3½ lb) chicken will only take 50–60 minutes to roast. Multiply that by three and you have a 4.5 kg (10 lb)