5 Top Budget-Friendly Christmas Roast Tips – Christmas on a Budget

Roasts can be the star or centerpiece of the Christmas table. Aside from fresh seafood, it can also be one of the more expensive elements to a Christmas Feast. This is a follow-up post to  Christmas on a Budget, where I shared 3 top tips to get more from your meals this Christmas.

Here are my 5 Top Budget-Friendly Christmas Roast Tips:

Best buys for beef roasts are rolled rib, rib eye or round and if you are a BBQ fan then a brisket is great for that slow tender pull apart BBQ beef smothered in a smokey homemade marinade. Many less tender cuts of beef are tenderised further when cooking if you use the BBQ  rotisserie.

Dress up the humble and old favourite roast chicken with some wonderful Christmas stuffings using, combinations such as apples, cranberries, sage, apricot, and pistachios or parmesan prosciutto and parsley. If you are buying your chicken from the butcher you could ask them to bone out the chicken, pick up some netting from the butcher and stuff the chicken yourself again the yield will be greater as you can then easily slice the chicken, minimal wastage and also is great cold the next day on sandwiches or with salads.

Instead of the Christmas turkey, purchase turkey breasts with the skin on, they can weigh in at 1-2kg per breast. A couple of these which is enough to feed a family of up to 12 as part of a banquet.

Pork roasts are a winner especially if you get the crackling right and the best cuts for a great pork roast is the pork loin you can also use the leg, shoulder or the belly, make sure that your butcher leaves the skin on and get them to score it for you as well. A 1kg portion will take about 60 minutes.

I love duck but it can be expensive and if you don’t know how to cook it properly it can sometimes come out a little tough, so the cheats and cheap way of a little duck with dinner is to either create a wonderful salad with duck legs or breast which you can now buy cooked and packaged in the supermarket, couscous, a couple of fresh figs, peaches, pears or fresh dates sliced, shallots, wild rocket and a wonderful orange dressing, or duck goes great with noodles, with some sliced bok choy, shredded green pawpaw and a simple Asian dressing. Heat the duck in the oven and serve it sliced with your favourite roast vegetables and a wonderful cherry sauce. You can also pick up the wonderful Peking duck in Chinatown, also a great place to shop for cheap Asian greens, herbs, and sauces.