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Roast Turkey with Oranges

Roast turkey flavored with orange juice, honey, and orange peel, served with a citrus gravy.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Turkey and chicken work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 688 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-decenal, which smells green, must. The science ↓

Roast Turkey with Oranges

Oven375 °F (190 °C)
Timeabout 1 hour, then 60–90 minutes more

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Preheat oven to 375 °F (190 °C).

  2. Cut turkey giblets into small pieces and set aside for the sauce.

  3. Peel the oranges, divide them into sections, and set aside for garnish.

  4. Cut the orange peel into half-inch slices.

  5. Melt the margarine in a small saucepan over high heat. Add the sliced orange peel and sauté quickly for a minute.

  6. Stuff the orange peel into the turkey.

  7. In a small bowl, mix together the honey, cooking oil, and orange juice.

Roast the turkey

  1. Brush all over the turkey, reserving half of the mixture for later.

  2. Season the turkey with salt and pepper. Truss the turkey. Transfer to a large roasting pan. Roast in the oven at 375 °F for about 1 hour.

  3. Brush the remaining honey-orange mixture on the turkey. Return to the oven and roast for 60–90 minutes more until cooked.

  4. Check the internal temperature; it must reach at least 160 °F (71 °C).

  5. After cooking, turn off the heat and leave the turkey in the oven for 15–20 minutes before serving.

Make the gravy

  1. Melt butter in a small saucepan over high heat. Saute chopped onions and giblets for about 2–3 minutes. Deglaze with wine and reduce for 3 minutes. Add orange marmalade, bouillon cube, and water (or chicken stock). Bring to a quick boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 5–10 minutes. Add cream and thicken with cornstarch dissolved in cold water.

Serve

  1. Transfer the roast turkey to a serving dish. Garnish with orange slices and fresh greens. Serve the gravy in a separate bowl.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1093Calories
47 gProtein
36 gFat
140 gCarbs

Counts 11 of 12 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Chicken100g cooked165
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Honey1 tbsp (21g)64
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Turkey + chickentop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  2. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Orange + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently by the oven heat.
Honey
Caramelizes on the surface, adding sweetness and golden browning.
Orange marmalade
Adds sweetness and orange flavour to the gravy.
Cornstarch
Thickens the gravy as it heats, giving it body.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, softening the gravy's flavour.
White wine
Deglazes the pan, lifting browned flavour into the gravy and adding acidity.

The step that matters

Thicken the gravy with cornstarch. Cornstarch must be fully dissolved in cold water before it goes into the simmering liquid; added dry or in hot liquid it clumps, and it thickens only once it reaches a simmer and is stirred.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, honey, pepper, chicken, white wine, onion, butter):

  1. Grapefits better
  2. Plumfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, honey, pepper, chicken, white wine, onion, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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