This roast dinner timer helps you cook a traditional Sunday roast without stress. Select your meat, vegetables and extras, enter the time you want to serve, and the calculator works out the exact start time for every dish.
What time should I put the roast in?
Work backwards from the moment you want to eat. A 2 kg chicken served at 1 pm needs 2 hours 20 minutes in the oven, so it goes in at 10:20 am, comes out to rest under foil at 12:40 pm, and is carved at 12:55 pm. Fill in the boxes below and the chart does that arithmetic for every dish at once.
Note: This chart is provided as a guide only. All oven temperatures assume a conventional oven - if you have a fan oven, reduce them by 20°C. If you’re in any doubt as to whether your poultry or pork is cooked properly, keep cooking until the juices run clear and, ideally, use a meat thermometer to check the thickest part has reached 70°C for two minutes, or 75°C for thirty seconds, in line with Food Standards Agency guidance.
How to use this roast dinner timer
The secret to a stress-free Sunday roast is working backwards from your serving time. Once you know what time you want to eat, you can calculate exactly when every element needs to go in the oven, on the hob, or in the steamer. That's what this calculator does - just enter your serving time, tick your dishes, and the chart appears instantly.
Every joint comes out of the oven 20 minutes before you serve and rests under foil for 15 of those before carving, and the gravy step is scheduled into that window so it can be made with the resting juices. Dishes flagged ★ Make ahead can be cooked the day before and reheated, which is how restaurant kitchens get eight things onto a plate at once.
Cooking for a crowd
Oven space, not cooking time, is what usually goes wrong. Tick I have two ovens and the calculator splits the dishes by temperature, giving each oven its own preheat step. With a single oven, roast the joint first, then rest it for the full 20 minutes while the potatoes and Yorkshire puddings get the hot oven to themselves - the meat will not go cold in that time if it is properly covered.
Roast cooking times per kg and per lb
These are the times this calculator uses. Each joint has a rate per pound plus a fixed amount that does not scale with weight, and the result is rounded up to the nearest five minutes. The per-kg column is that rate converted and rounded to whole minutes, so for the exact figure work from the weight columns. Times are for a joint cooked from room temperature in a preheated conventional oven.
| Meat | Oven temperature | Per kg | Per lb | 1.5 kg | 2 kg | 3 kg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken | 190°C / 375°F / Gas Mark 5 | 55 min + 25 min | 25 min + 25 min | 1 hr 50 min | 2 hr 20 min | 3 hr 15 min |
| Beef | 200°C / 400°F / Gas Mark 6 | 55 min + 25 min | 25 min + 25 min | 1 hr 50 min | 2 hr 20 min | 3 hr 15 min |
| Lamb | 190°C / 375°F / Gas Mark 5 | 55 min + 25 min | 25 min + 25 min | 1 hr 50 min | 2 hr 20 min | 3 hr 15 min |
| Pork | 190°C / 375°F / Gas Mark 5 | 77 min + 35 min | 35 min + 35 min | 2 hr 35 min | 3 hr 10 min | 4 hr 30 min |
| Turkey | 180°C / 350°F / Gas Mark 4 | 22 min + 70 min | 10 min + 70 min | 1 hr 45 min | 1 hr 55 min | 2 hr 20 min |
| Turkey (slow-roasted) | 165°C / 325°F / Gas Mark 3 | 29 min + 60 min | 13 min + 60 min | 1 hr 45 min | 2 hr | 2 hr 30 min |
| Duck | 200°C / 400°F / Gas Mark 6 | 44 min + 20 min | 20 min + 20 min | 1 hr 30 min | 1 hr 50 min | 2 hr 35 min |
| Roast Goose | 200°C / 400°F / Gas Mark 6 | 40 min + 20 min | 18 min + 20 min | 1 hr 20 min | 1 hr 40 min | 2 hr 20 min |
| Rack of Lamb | 220°C / 425°F / Gas Mark 7 | 26 min + 10 min | 12 min + 10 min | 50 min | 1 hr 5 min | 1 hr 30 min |
| Leg of Lamb (slow-roasted) | 160°C / 320°F / Gas Mark 3 | 110 min + 30 min | 50 min + 30 min | 3 hr 20 min | 4 hr 15 min | 6 hr 5 min |
| Porchetta | 220°C / 425°F / Gas Mark 7 | 31 min + 30 min | 14 min + 30 min | 1 hr 20 min | 1 hr 35 min | 2 hr 5 min |
| Honey Glazed Ham | 190°C / 375°F / Gas Mark 5 | 59 min + 45 min | 27 min + 45 min | 2 hr 15 min | 2 hr 45 min | 3 hr 45 min |
The chart takes every joint out of the oven 20 minutes before serving - 15 minutes resting under foil, then carving - and starts the schedule earlier still so the meat has time to come out of the fridge and lose its chill. For beef and lamb, these times give a medium result - if you like it rarer, pull the joint 15-20 minutes early and check with a thermometer.
Cooking a turkey for Christmas
Christmas dinner is the same problem as a Sunday roast, with more dishes and a bigger bird. A turkey roasts at 180°C / 350°F / Gas Mark 4, and the fixed heat-through time is long relative to the per-kilo rate, so a 7 kg bird takes only around an hour and a half longer than a 3 kg one.
| Turkey weight | Cooking time | Out of the fridge | Into the oven | Out to rest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 kg (6.6 lb) | 2 hr 20 min | 10:45 am | 11:20 am | 1:40 pm |
| 4 kg (8.8 lb) | 2 hr 40 min | 10:15 am | 11:00 am | 1:40 pm |
| 5 kg (11.0 lb) | 3 hr 5 min | 9:35 am | 10:35 am | 1:40 pm |
| 6 kg (13.2 lb) | 3 hr 25 min | 9:05 am | 10:15 am | 1:40 pm |
| 7 kg (15.4 lb) | 3 hr 45 min | 8:35 am | 9:55 am | 1:40 pm |
The "out of the fridge" column matters more than people expect: a large bird straight from a cold fridge cooks unevenly, and this is the single most common cause of a turkey that is scorched outside and underdone at the thigh. Set your own serving time in the calculator above and it will recompute all of these times for you, alongside the pigs in blankets, bread sauce, cranberry sauce and stuffing.
If you would rather cook low and slow, pick Turkey (slow-roasted) instead - it runs at 165°C / 325°F / Gas Mark 3 and produces a more forgiving result on a busy hob. Goose and duck are both in the list too, and both need their rendered fat pouring off part-way through, which the chart schedules for you.
For the full Christmas plan - times for a 1 pm or 2 pm lunch across every turkey size, fridge defrosting deadlines, and a Christmas Eve make-ahead checklist - see the dedicated Christmas dinner timer.
Gas mark, Celsius and fan oven conversions
Every temperature in this timer is given for a conventional oven. If yours is a fan (convection) oven, reduce the temperature by 20°C - so 190°C / Gas Mark 5 becomes 170°C fan. Cooking times stay the same.
Gas marks are the nearest standard equivalents. A couple of the slow-roast recipes here use in-between temperatures - 160°C and 165°C - which sit between Gas Mark 2 and Gas Mark 3; on a gas oven, use the lower setting and give them a little longer.
| Gas mark | Conventional °C | Fan °C | °F | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gas Mark 1 | 140°C | 120°C | 275°F | Very slow |
| Gas Mark 2 | 150°C | 130°C | 300°F | Slow |
| Gas Mark 3 | 170°C | 150°C | 325°F | Slow roasting |
| Gas Mark 4 | 180°C | 160°C | 350°F | Moderate - turkey |
| Gas Mark 5 | 190°C | 170°C | 375°F | Moderately hot - chicken, pork, lamb |
| Gas Mark 6 | 200°C | 180°C | 400°F | Hot - beef, duck, goose |
| Gas Mark 7 | 220°C | 200°C | 425°F | Hot - roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings |
| Gas Mark 8 | 230°C | 210°C | 450°F | Very hot |
| Gas Mark 9 | 240°C | 220°C | 475°F | Very hot - final crisping |
Safe internal temperatures
A meat thermometer is the only way to know a joint is done - colour and time are both unreliable. Poultry and pork must be cooked through: the Food Standards Agency's advice is that the thickest part reaches 70°C for two minutes, or an equivalent such as 75°C for thirty seconds. Whole cuts of beef and lamb are safe to serve pink, because any bacteria are on the surface rather than through the meat.
| Meat | Doneness | Pull from oven at |
|---|---|---|
| Chicken, turkey, duck, goose | Cooked through | 70°C for 2 min, or 75°C for 30 sec |
| Pork | Cooked through | 70°C for 2 min, or 75°C for 30 sec |
| Beef and lamb | Rare | 52°C |
| Beef and lamb | Medium rare | 57°C |
| Beef and lamb | Medium | 63°C |
| Beef and lamb | Well done | 71°C |
Minced or rolled joints are the exception - once the outside has been folded inwards, they need cooking through like poultry.
Kit that actually helps
Six things that change the result, rather than a list of everything a kitchen shop sells. Nothing here is needed to use the planner - the timings assume none of it.
- Instant-read meat thermometer The one item on this list that changes whether dinner is safe rather than just better. Colour and time both lie; a probe does not.
- Oven thermometer Domestic ovens are routinely 20°C out, and always in the same direction. Ten minutes with one of these tells you whether every timing on this site needs nudging up or down for your oven.
- A heavy roasting tin Thin tins buckle and scorch the fat before the potatoes crisp. Weight is the whole specification.
- Goose or duck fat What the Ultimate Roast Potatoes option in the planner assumes. Higher smoke point than oil, and the flavour is the point.
- Fine semolina The crust on The Best Roast Potatoes. A bag lasts years and does nothing else in the cupboard.
- Yorkshire pudding tin Deep, straight-sided wells and a metal thin enough to get properly hot. Bun tins give you flat discs.
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Every dish this roast planner covers
The calculator knows the timings for 75 dishes. Tick any combination and the chart reschedules itself around them.
Meat and mains
Chicken, beef, pork and lamb, turkey (standard or slow-roasted), leg of lamb slow-roasted with garlic and rosemary, rack of lamb seared then finished in the oven, duck and roast goose (both with the rendered fat poured off mid-roast), Italian-style porchetta that starts with a high-heat blast, and a honey glazed ham simmered in aromatics before being scored, studded with cloves and glazed.
Potatoes and vegetables
Three kinds of roast potato - the standard par-boil-and-roast, The Best Roast Potatoes with a semolina crust, and Ultimate Roast Potatoes roughed up and roasted in goose or duck fat - plus mashed potatoes and dauphinoise. Then roast parsnips, roast carrots, boiled carrots, honey mustard roast carrots and parsnips, mashed swede, sprouts, Brussels sprouts with bacon and chestnuts, braised red cabbage, creamed leeks, miso-maple braised leeks and roasted root vegetables (both adapted from Gordon Ramsay), roasted butternut squash, roasted beetroot, roasted asparagus, buttered Savoy cabbage, broccoli, tenderstem broccoli, runner beans, fine beans, broad beans and peas.
Yorkshires, trimmings and sauces
Yorkshire puddings from frozen, from a batter mix, or home-made with a rested batter and a smoking-hot tin. Pigs in blankets in mini and full size, sticky maple-and-mustard pigs in blankets, and chipolata sausages. Stuffing balls home-made or from a packet, plus a stove-top sage and onion stuffing that needs no oven at all. Cauliflower cheese, roast onions, and gravy four ways - from granules, a rich Christmas gravy with port and red wine, a get-ahead gravy reheated with the meat juices, and a red wine gravy. Bread sauce, cranberry sauce, apple sauce, mint sauce and horseradish sauce.
Starters and puddings
If you are cooking a full three courses, add a starter - soup, prawn cocktail, pâté and toast, smoked salmon, garlic bread, stuffed mushrooms, Caesar salad or melon - and a dessert: sticky toffee pudding, apple crumble, pavlova, a cheese board, trifle, chocolate fondant, Christmas pudding or lemon tart. Each course gets its own serving time and is folded into the same single running order.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a roast chicken take to cook?
Allow 25 minutes per 450 g (1 lb) plus 25 minutes at 190°C / 375°F / Gas Mark 5. A 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) chicken takes around 1 hour 50 minutes, and a 2 kg chicken around 2 hours 20 minutes. Always check the juices run clear and that the thickest part of the thigh has reached 70°C for two minutes, or 75°C for thirty seconds.
How long does a roast beef joint take?
Cook at 200°C / 400°F / Gas Mark 6 for 25 minutes per pound plus 25 minutes for medium, which is 2 hours 20 minutes for a 2 kg joint. The chart takes the joint out 20 minutes before serving and carves it 15 minutes later, so the rest is already built in.
What time should I put the turkey in for Christmas dinner?
Work backwards from when you want to serve. A 5 kg turkey takes 3 hours 5 minutes at 180°C / 350°F / Gas Mark 4, so for a 2 pm dinner it goes into the oven at 10:35 am, comes out of the fridge at 9:35 am, and comes out to rest at 1:40 pm. Enter your own serving time above and the chart will do this for every dish on the table.
How long do roast potatoes take?
Par-boil for 10-15 minutes, drain and fluff, then roast in hot fat for around 70-75 minutes, turning once or twice as they colour. The chart starts the potatoes 90 minutes before you serve so the fat is already smoking when they go in, which is what makes the difference between crisp and pale.
When should I make the gravy?
The best gravy is made from the meat resting juices, so it's one of the last things you tackle - typically in the 15-20 minutes while the joint rests. For a stress-free approach, make a get-ahead gravy base the day before and simply enrich it with the pan juices on the day.
Can I cook multiple dishes in one oven?
Yes - most side dishes are happy at the same temperature as the meat with a few minutes' adjustment. A few want a much hotter oven: home-made batter Yorkshire puddings, roasted root vegetables and miso-maple braised leeks are all scheduled at 220°C here, which clashes with a slow-roasted joint. Tick two-oven mode and the calculator flags any dish more than 30°C away from your meat and assigns it to a second oven, with its own preheat step.
Do I need to change the temperature for a fan oven?
Yes. Every temperature in this timer is for a conventional oven, so reduce it by 20°C if yours is a fan oven - 190°C / Gas Mark 5 becomes 170°C fan. Leave the cooking times as they are.
What can I prepare the day before?
Plenty - which is how restaurants manage it. Braised red cabbage, cauliflower cheese, stuffing and get-ahead gravy all reheat beautifully. Items marked ★ Make ahead in this calculator can be fully prepared the day before and simply warmed through on the day.
About these timings
Roast Timer is free to use and the planner runs entirely in your browser - there is no account, your selections are worked out on your own device rather than on a server, and the chart keeps working offline once loaded. The adverts on this page are served by Google and pay for the hosting, and visits are counted with Cloudflare's cookieless analytics. What each of those collects, and how to turn personalised ads off, is set out in the privacy policy. The cooking times follow standard UK roasting guidance (a per-weight rate plus a fixed allowance, rounded up to the nearest five minutes), and the safe-temperature figures follow Food Standards Agency advice. Two side dishes - the roasted root vegetables and the miso-maple braised leeks - are timing adaptations of recipes published by Gordon Ramsay, and the get-ahead gravy follows Jamie Oliver's method. This site is not affiliated with either of them.
Treat every chart as a guide rather than a guarantee: ovens vary by a surprising margin, joints vary in shape, and a thermometer beats a timer every time. Timings last reviewed .