How To Cook A Turkey In A Slow Cooker

My supermarket had frozen Tegel boneless, rolled, stuffed 1.5kg (approx 3.3 pound) turkey breast on sale last week, so I bought one to try it - and so I could tell you about it, in case you want to get one for Christmas or to have as a cold meat to serve over the holidays.

As soon as I started thinking about buying the turkey and cooking it in the slow cooker, I started thinking about needing to get a meat thermometer.  Two reasons, first safety - a meat thermometer indicates when the meat is cooked when it reaches the optimum internal temperature, which means it is cooked to perfection and secondly reaching this temperature ensures food safety.

I bought a Cuisena brand meat thermometer (similar to the one pictured) from Stevens for $NZ12.99.

How To Cook A Turkey In A Slow Cooker With A Meat Thermometer

• Thaw turkey breast in refrigerator for 48 hours before you want to cook it.
• Place turkey roast in slow cooker.  Carefully work out where the thickest part of the roast is - check the ends to see where the stuffing is least thick, and insert probe at least 5cm (2 inches) into thickest part.  Ensure thermometer dial can be seen through glass lid - the whole point of this is to know that it is done by using the thermometer, not be checking the usual way, which would involved removing the lid and letting the steam out!
• Cover the base of the slow cooker with water, put the lid on, switch slow cooker on to low.

I switched mine on at 9am and the 1.5kg boneless stuffed turkey breast was cooked (reached the poultry temperature) at 6.30pm.  Perfect.  I switched it off and let it sit in the juice in the slow cooker until the carver arrived with his electric knife.

We feed 8 with it, albeit not very generous serving sizes, the 4 ladies had a slice about the size of a ham steak thickness, and 4 men had a slice an a bit each.  The carver said the ends were a little tricky to carve, and they ended up being the extra bits the men got, but the middle sliced easily and kept its shaped.  He said he was glad he had used the electric knife, he agreed the regular carving knife would not have let him get as many serves as he needed to get.

Tip: Additionally we felt that if the meat had been left in the netting wrap and not sliced until completely cold, that it could have been sliced thinner.

Verdict: Compliments all through the meal and clean plates at the end are the best indicator of a successful meal.
The meat and stuffing, when cooked, were exactly as pictured on the packaging.  The cranberry stuffing was very tasty, not unlike a homemade stuffing, and the meat was moist, tender and delicious - everyone in our family gave this two thumbs up and we would buy and cook this Tegel Turkey product again.

In fact, I bought 'the little one' in the groceries that week.  So I will let you know how that one goes once I've cooked it.  It's only a 850g size, and it's called a marinated rolled turkey roast.  I can't wait to try it!

Did You Know You Can Cook A Whole Turkey In A Slow Cooker?
If you have an oval 6.5 litre slow cooker, you can cook a 4kg (9.5lb) whole turkey - click the link in the line above to find out how!

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Find more slow cooker recipes for Kiwis (and other cooks who use metric measurements here at... Slow Cooker Recipes NZ - and check this out - the easiest way to see all my Slow Cooker Recipes!