Christmas Dinner 2019

The main dish for this Christmas dinner was bacon-wrapped turkey breast! This was my first Christmas with turkey. Since we were in France on Thanksgiving day this year, J missed a turkey feast and we didn't have any plan for Christmas dinner. J's turkey dream came true on Christmas day.

We had a nice appetizer platter - a couple kinds of cheese; baguette from our favorite bakery in the town; cured meat, Dijon mustard, terrine de st jacques (terrine of scallops) from France; and bubbles. Those nibbles made us very satisfied, so I didn't need to start cooking turkey right after. Since we were only two of us, the whole turkey would be too much. We picked up a turkey breast at a local butcher, which was still very large! The turkey breast had been already bacon-wrapped. I made a nest with chopped vegetables and fresh herbs, placed the birdie on it, poured about a cup of water in the baking sheet, stick a digital thermometer probe into the birdie and popped it in the oven (about 170C/340F with fan), aiming about 71C/160F.

It was a bit slow but eventually got the targeted temperature. Extra 20 minute resting time was to bring the internal temperature up to over 160F and to settle all juices inside before slicing. The turkey was super tender and moist! I am usually not a big turkey fan but this one was pretty good, especially with homemade gravy sauce. Merry Christmas!