Name: Roasted Turkey with Black Pepper Sauce
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 2 h
Total time: 2 h 30 min
Yield: 6

Roasted turkey recipe using Asian herbs which guarantees tender and succulent meat. Perfect for the festive seasons, Thanksgiving or Christmas.

In Malaysia, Christmas is widely celebrated too. It may be pretty weird to see Santa Claus and artificial snowflakes when the temperature is around 30 degrees Celsius. Nevertheless, we love the spirit of Christmas and celebrate the joyous occasion with loved ones. The Christmas dinner menu ranges from Italian pasta, Indian curries with rice and noodles or the classic western dish like roasted turkey. In fact, turkeys are increasingly popular lately and are therefore in great demand.

For this recipe, I created a brine made up of some spices and herbs commonly used in Malaysian cuisine. They not only provide an amazing taste but also deliver a wonderful aroma to the dish. The accompanying sauce to complement the roasted turkey is the black pepper sauce. It serves to enhance the taste of the tender and succulent meat of the turkey.

To make the dish more beautiful, I added some colourful vegetables which are grilled with a bit of olive oil, salt and a dash of pepper. Although the preparation is time consuming, it is definitely well worth the effort.

Steps to Prepare

Roasted Turkey with Black Pepper Sauce Step 1

Step 1 of 5

To create the brine, add salt, sugar, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, curry leaves, star anise and cinnamon in warm water. Then, add some cold water to lower the temperature of the brine. Cover turkey in brine and refrigerate it overnight.

Roasted Turkey with Black Pepper Sauce Step 2

Step 2 of 5

The next day, rinse turkey and pat it dry. Rub butter and turmeric mixture on the inside and the outside of the turkey.

Roasted Turkey with Black Pepper Sauce Step 3

Step 3 of 5

Stuff turkey with chilli, onion and lemon. Secure the drumsticks together with a string. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on the turkey before baking at 160 degrees Celsius for about 1 hour 15 minutes. It is ready when the temperature of the turkey breast meat is at 75 degrees Celsius.

Roasted Turkey with Black Pepper Sauce Step 4

Step 4 of 5

To prepare black pepper sauce, saute shallots and garlic with butter over medium heat until fragrant. Add water, sweet soy sauce and oyster sauce and let the gravy boil. Once it boils, add black pepper and milk. Allow gravy to simmer at low heat. After that, increase heat again, then add cornstarch and water mixture to the gravy.

Roasted Turkey with Black Pepper Sauce Step 5

Step 5 of 5

Serve turkey with grilled vegetables and black pepper sauce.

Published: December 2, 2013

4 Discussions

4 years ago

Jac T

We just made this for Thanksgiving. Wish the ingredients were in the recipe. We had to watch video many times to get the amount for each ingredient. Turkey was completely devoured! The sauce really helps. cannot get over the fragrance of the brine. The flavor of chicken came out really good. But the meat was very “solid”. It was not dry and not overcooked, though. Maybe it was the Turkey we bought? Is there a way to tenderize the turkey meat? We had a 10lbs organic turkey. We used an oven probe thermometer and cooked turkey till the inside was 160F @325F oven temperature.

4 years ago

Mira - Community Happiness Manager

We need to list the ingredients ASAP ;) Thank you for the feedback. Upload a food snap if you have a photo! If it was not overcooked, you can do a few things such as brining the turkey for up to 48 hours or baking room temperature turkey.

5 years ago

Robin

This in one of those dishes that highlights the genius of Nyonya Cooking. A well-researched, a complicated dish made simple but dish out the most amazing, tender, succulent, and smashing roasted turkey (unfortunately no turkey in this part of the season, so substituted the turkey with a chicken! Can you tell the difference?).

5 years ago

Robin

I've found the list of ingredients from the video. Just one question: why use an aluminium foil to cover a part of the turkey after roasting it for 1hr 15min?

5 years ago

Mira - Community Happiness Manager

The foil protected the turkey from getting burnt at the top. You don't need it if you have a larger oven/the turkey is smaller.

5 years ago

Robin

Brilliant Mira, brilliant! Thank you :)

5 years ago

Robin

It is not possible to do this dish because the ingredients are not listed.

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