I hear all sorts of horror stories on defrosting a Christmas turkey, normally as people have forgotten to get it out of the freezer or because they thought fresh ones would be readily available two days before the big day!!! Either way it is best to remove your frozen turkey from the fridge 6-7 days before the big day as you should defrost it wrapped in the fridge at the rate of 1 day per 4lb of bird so a 12 lb bird will take three days to defrost. You can leave the bird in its wrapping and put it in cold water in your bowl turning it every thirty minutes but you are looking at a day at least of doing this with a 12lb bird, no thanks! I like to brine my turkey so that’s another day (or two) and before you know it Christmas has arrived. Taking your bird out on Thursday before this Christmas just isn’t going to cut it, be warned!
Apologies to my butcher friends but I bought a small frozen turkey of around 6lb today as I needed it now in order to do this Festive Mini Series. This will take around a day and a half to defrost, mine will get two days but one of those days will have a brine coating on it. I have taken the unusual step of unwrapping the bird to defrost it. Why? Well I want the skin to dry out a bit whilst in the fridge as this will produce a crispier skin, especially as I’m brining the bird in salt & pepper enriched mayonnaise!! “What?” I hear you cry, you’ll have to wait for the video to come out to see why!