Smoked Turkey with Orange Maple Butter
A roasted turkey crown stuffed under the skin with orange-maple butter, then kissed with cool applewood smoke and served with an easy pan gravy.
⏱️ Prep: 30 min🍳 Cook: 150 min
Ingredients
| 3 kg | turkey buffe/crown | |
| 2 | oranges (reserve zest) | |
| 1 | brown onion, quartered | |
| 3 | garlic cloves, bruised | |
| 2 tablespoons | 30 ml | maple syrup |
| 4 | fresh oregano sprigs | |
| 250 ml | white wine | |
| 250 ml | water | |
| — | olive oil | |
| — | salt | |
| 100 g | butter, softened (for orange maple butter) | |
| 2 | reserved orange zest | |
| 2 tablespoons | 30 ml | fresh oregano, finely chopped |
| 1 | garlic clove, crushed | |
| 1 tablespoon | 15 ml | maple syrup (for butter) |
| 1 ½ tablespoons | 23 ml | cornflour (cornstarch) |
Instructions
- If frozen, defrost the turkey crown in the fridge for 2 days first. Preheat the oven to 180°C (360°F).
- Make the orange maple butter: mash the softened butter with the orange zest, chopped oregano, crushed garlic and maple syrup until fully combined.
- Prepare the turkey: remove all packaging, string and any absorbent paper; trim excess neck skin; wash with cold water and pat dry.
- Gently work your hand between the skin and flesh over the breasts to make a pocket, being careful not to tear the skin and keeping it attached at the sides.
- Push handfuls of the orange maple butter under the skin and smooth it out by pressing from the outside. Rub the outside with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
- Prepare the roasting pan: scatter in the onion, garlic and quartered oranges, then add the maple syrup, oregano sprigs, wine and water.
- Sit the turkey skin-side up on top of the oranges and onions. Roast for 1 hour 30 minutes, basting every 20 minutes, until golden and cooked through — a skewer in the thickest part should release clear juices.
- Reserve the pan juices for the gravy. Move on to smoking while the turkey is warm.
- Smoking gun method: place the turkey in a jumbo ziplock bag, leaving room to insert the smoking gun's tube; fire up the gun (applewood chips) and fill the bag with smoke, then remove the tube and seal completely. Let the smoke settle, then repeat — two rounds take about 20–30 minutes. Remove and serve.
- Pan & foil method: line a fresh roasting tray with foil and add the turkey. Put fine wood chips in a small foil parcel, heat it in a dry frypan until smoking, then set it in the tray. Cover the whole tray tightly with foil so no smoke escapes, let it smoke, then uncover and serve.
- Easy gravy: sieve the pan solids, pressing out the juice into a saucepan; add the remaining strained pan juices. Simmer and reduce by a third, season with salt and pepper. Mix the cornflour with a couple of tablespoons of the liquid, stir the slurry back in and simmer 1–2 minutes until thickened. Serve alongside the turkey.