Christmas roast: This roast turkey recipe is so popular, it used to get 1,000 orders every December!

Ho has been making his famed roast turkey since the 1980s and has perfected the art of attaining juicy, tender turkeys. - Photos: YAP CHEE HONG/The Star

While roast turkey is an undisputed favourite at Christmas – especially in the Western world – it is also notorious for yielding dry meat. Many a time, families have sliced excitedly into the bird, only to find meat that is bone-dry, consequently sucking all the joy out of the festive meal.

But where some have met with despair, Ho Kim Loon has found enormous success. Ho is probably better known to many Malaysians as the eponymous owner of Mr Ho’s Fine Foods in Bangsar, where he first built a name for himself.

These days, you can find him at helm of The Butcher’s Table in SS2, Petaling Jaya, a restaurant he runs with his family that specialises in homemade sausages and roasted meats like roast pork.

Ho has been making and roasting turkeys for customers every Christmas for over 30 years now, based on a recipe he created himself when he worked as a butcher in a manufacturing company yonks ago. In fact, at the height of his career at Mr Ho’s, he was roasting 1,000 turkeys every December!

Ho says many people find roasting a turkey enormously overwhelming because they are far more used to chickens, which are smaller and easier to handle.

Ho understands that many people find roasting a turkey incredibly overwhelming, but he says when proper processes are followed, the result can actually be very, very good.

“Roasting a chicken is very different from roasting a turkey. Because a chicken is at most two kilos whereas a turkey can often be double that, so of course a chicken is comparatively easier to roast, as turkey actually requires a process and some skill to get it right,” he says.

“Generally, people have a perception that turkey is never good. To me, I don’t agree. Actually, turkey is very nice if you do it the correct way and eat it within a certain time frame.

“The key thing with turkey is once you take it out of the oven, if it is left sitting for more than four hours, it is already dry. So you must eat it within four hours,” he says.

At his restaurant, Ho only makes festive roast turkeys (he also makes roast rack of lamb and roast pork crackling) based on pre-orders and roasts them the same day that they are being picked up or delivered to customers, which he says makes all the difference in the final outcome.

Ho also eschews placing his homemade pork and chestnut stuffing into the cavity of the turkey as he says the traditional stuffed roast turkey is no longer in favour and has been identified as one of the culprits behind those dreaded dry turkeys.

“We make the stuffing separately to avoid the turkey getting dry. And you will find that nobody stuffs turkeys anymore because it will take four or five hours to cook and by then, the outside will be dry and because there is no circulation in the stomach of the bird, it is difficult to get it cooked evenly inside,” he says.

Ho has certainly nailed the classic roast turkey because his recipe produces turkey that has golden, burnished skin that gives way to incredibly moist meat, absolutely dripping with juices. It is in fact so malleable and fantastically supple, you’ll wonder if it is even turkey at all!

In terms of cooking the turkey, Ho says one of his tips for yielding a flavourful chook is to hang the turkey to dry after defrosting and washing it.

“Use a hook and hang it and dry it at room temperature and let the water drip out. This way, when you marinate the dry bird, it will really be absorbed into the bones,” he says.

ROAST TURKEY WITH CHESTNUT STUFFING

For marinating the turkey

1 turkey, 3.6kg to 4.5kg

salt and pepper to taste

10g garlic powder

10g paprika powder

Let turkey defrost at room temperature (this can take up to 24 hours). Once defrosted, remove neck and gizzard, wash turkey and leave to hang and dry on a hook for 2 hours.

Marinate turkey with salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika powder and leave overnight.

Pork chestnut stuffing

500g pork, minced

salt to taste

coarse black pepper to taste

2 cloves garlic, minced

200g cooked chestnuts

Mix all the ingredients together, place on a sheet of aluminum foil and roll until mixture becomes a long log-shape. Cover with foil and set aside.

Turkey gravy

turkey neck

turkey gizzard

500ml water

250ml brown sauce

100ml red wine

Boil the turkey neck and gizzard for 1 ½ hours over low heat. If water level is too low, add water.

Shred the neck and gizzard and add this to the turkey drippings (from roasting the turkey; see below). Stir over low heat, add brown sauce and red wine and stir until combined and liquid reaches desired consistency.

To roast the turkey

Place the turkey on the roasting grill (rack) and position the stuffing wrapped in aluminium foil next to it. Under the rack, place a tray with 200ml water, to collect the drippings for the turkey (to use as gravy).

Roast turkey at 130°C for 45 minutes. Remove stuffing and continue cooking turkey at 160°C for 25 minutes, then at 200°C for 5 minutes and finally at 250°C for 3 minutes.

*There is also a thermometer on the turkey breast (most frozen turkeys have this – it looks like a little red button on the skin of the turkey). Once the red pin pops up, this means the turkey is cooked, so you can remove it from the oven at this stage.

Brush butter over turkey. Let it rest for 15 minutes, then carve and enjoy.

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