Ten easy steps to make a perfect roast turkey dinner, complete with sage bread stuffing, gravy and last-minute cranberry sauce!
By CINDA CHAVICH
If you're on turkey duty for the holidays (ya!) you will need to know how to get the big bird ready, stuff it, roast it and make the gravy and cranberry sauce.
Here's a simple primer that (hopefully) answers any of the questions you may have. It's a handy reference, even if you make turkey dinner every year at this time, but especially great for newbies.
Never fear, turkey dinner is truly one of the easiest things to make. Just organize everything you need, stuff the bird and get it into the oven a few hours before your guests arrive (it only takes about 15 minutes per pound to roast to perfection), and ask someone to bring a salad or dessert (pumpkin pie or cheesecake, pecan pie or a holiday trifle fits the bill).
Roasted carrots, brussels sprouts or steamed green beans are always welcome additions, and add some colour to your big golden brown bird. I like to make a silky mash of cauliflower and potatoes (steamed together and mashed with butter) to serve on the side.
If your family is small consider roasting half a turkey (your butcher can cut it in half and it cooks quickly, roasting on a bed of vegetables).
After dinner, package everything up and refrigerate so you can have a replay of turkey dinner leftovers tomorrow, or make a turkey pot pie. And don't forget to save the bones/carcass to make turkey soup (bone broth) — turkey is the dinner that keeps on giving.
Happy Thanksgiving!
THE BIG BIRD (TEN STEPS TO A PERFECT TURKEY)
1. Buy a turkey. If it’s frozen you have to think way ahead—it will take about 4 hours per pound (10 hours per kg) to thaw the bird in the fridge (that’s 2–3 days for a small bird). Don’t thaw it at room temperature or cook a partially frozen bird, or you risk salmonella poisoning. To save time, place the turkey, still in its plastic wrap, in a sink and cover completely with cold water. Allow 1 hour per pound (2 hours per kg) to thaw and keep the water cold.
2. Fresh turkey should be cooked within 2–3 days of purchase. Turkey labeled “previously frozen” must be cooked within 48 hours of purchase.
3. Don’t blow calories and fat grams by buying a turkey that’s “basted” (injected with saturated fat). It’s not necessary for a tender turkey and it just adds calories.
4. Wash your hands with soap and hot water before and after handling raw turkey. Remove the plastic, take the neck and giblets out of the cavity (they should be in a bag), rinse inside and out with cold water and pat dry with paper towels. (Put the neck and giblets in a pot of water with some onion, whole black peppercorns, carrot and parsley and simmer to make a broth for your gravy.) Wash all equipment and utensils with hot soapy water after handling raw turkey to avoid bacteria transfer and contamination.
5. Place the turkey on a rack in a large roasting pan, breast side up. Brush with oil or melted butter and season inside and out with a little salt and pepper.
6. If stuffing the bird, wait until just before roasting. Do not pack the stuffing—the bird should be filled loosely (or you can cook the stuffing separately in a covered baking dish alongside the bird and call it “dressing”). Recipe for classic bread stuffing follows.
7. Cover the bird loosely with foil. Roast at 325°F (160°C) until the internal temperature reads 165 degrees F (75 degrees C).
Use an instant-read meat thermometer, inserted in thigh to test the internal temperature (don’t leave it in while the bird is roasting, just during testing). Make sure you take the temperature of the stuffing, too. It should be at least 165ºF (73ºC) in the center of the stuffing.
It doesn’t take as long as you think to roast a turkey to perfection—about 3–4 hours for a 12- to 16-pound (5.5- to 7-kg) stuffed bird. Start checking the temperature early.
8. When the turkey is done, remove the pan from the oven and let the bird rest on the cutting board, covered with a loose piece of foil, for 15–20 minutes. This will allow the juices to set and give you time to make the gravy. Do not leave turkey (cooked or raw) at room temperature for longer than 2 hours. Cooked turkey may be refrigerated up to 4 days or frozen for up to 4 months.
9. Now, make the gravy. Pour the juices in the roasting pan into a heatproof glass measuring cup and set aside. If there is just a small amount of fat/juice in the pan, drain off all but 3 Tbsp. (45 mL). To make gravy, place the roasting pan on top of the stove over medium heat and sprinkle about 3–4 Tbsp. (45–50 mL) of flour over the fat in the pan. Stir with a wooden spoon to moisten the flour and loosen the browned bits. Add the reserved juices and a little water or turkey broth and stir in well—creating a thick paste. Add more water (or leftover liquid from boiling potatoes or peas), a little at a time, stirring as you go to avoid lumps. Let the gravy come back to a boil each time, and add a little more liquid if it’s still too thick. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Keep warm in a gravy boat or small pitcher.
10. Using a large spoon, remove all the stuffing from the cavity of the bird and place it in a covered dish in the oven to stay warm. Carve the turkey. Remove the leg and thigh pieces first and slice the meat from the bone, arranging the dark meat at one end of the platter. Slice the breast meat. Start at the base of the breast (where you’ve removed the legs) and slice vertically, parallel to the breastbone, into thin, even slices. Arrange on a platter, pass the trimmings and the gravy, and you’re done!
DON’T’ WASTE THE TASTE: You may want to hear about this now, but once all that tender turkey is carved off the bones, don’t chuck the carcass—save it for soup. Really. Wonderful turkey broth is only a winter afternoon of simmering away.
If you can’t face cooking anything else for a month, just put the carcass into a heavy plastic bag and freeze it for that day when you feel a cold coming on. Then put the carcass in your stockpot (break it into pieces if it’s too big, and use two big pots), pour in enough cold water to cover the bones by 4 or 5 inches (10 or 12 cm), throw in a couple of carrots, a stalk of celery, a quartered onion, some whole black peppercorns and bay leaves, bring the whole thing to a boil, and let it simmer away on medium-low heat for several hours (two, three, four). For an Asian-style soup stock, add garlic and ginger or dried mushrooms, too.
Add more cold water after a few hours and continue to simmer. Skim off any gunk that rises to the top of the pot. When it’s all steamy and good, strain the stock through a fine mesh sieve into a clean pot, pitch the bones and veggies, and season the broth with salt and pepper. Drink this healthy bone broth as is or add some small egg noodles for soup.
Put it into containers and freeze it for soups and sauces later. You’ll be glad you did. And now you know how to make chicken soup (same method if you start with a raw chicken, just take it out when the broth is done and save the meat).
SAGE BREAD STUFFING
I love this classic stuffing — plain old-fashioned bread stuffing, which is one of those familiar flavors I expect with turkey dinners. But if you’re into something more exotic, add some chopped apple or pear, cooked crumbled pork sausage or even nuts to this classic combination. You need about 3/4 cup (175 mL) of bread per pound (500 g) of turkey, so adjust the recipe accordingly.
1 loaf day-old French bread, cut into 1/2-inch (1-cm) cubes (about 8–10 cups/ 2 L) 1
1/4 cup melted butter
1 cup finely chopped celery (including some leaves)
1 large onion, chopped
2 tsp. ground sage
2 tsp. celery salt
2 tsp. dried thyme (or 2 Tbsp./25 mL, if you are using fresh thyme)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Place the bread cubes in a large bowl. Heat the butter in a sauté pan over medium heat and cook the chopped celery and onion for 7–10 minutes, until the onions are translucent and tender but not brown.
Pour the contents of the sauté pan over the bread cubes and toss to coat. Sprinkle evenly with sage, celery salt, thyme, salt and pepper and toss to distribute the spices.
Stuff the turkey just before you are ready to put it in the oven. If you’d rather cook the stuffing on the side (but who would—it doesn’t pick up all of the yummy turkey juices and flavors) you can bake it in a covered casserole dish for about 1 hour, alongside the bird. Just add about 1 cup (250 mL) broth (that turkey broth you made with the giblets or canned chicken broth), to moisten the stuffing while it cooks. Any leftover stuffing that won’t fit into the bird can be cooked this way, too.
Remove all the stuffing from the turkey before you carve it and keep warm in a covered casserole dish. Don’t leave the stuffing inside the turkey after it’s cooked – it will spoil. Makes enough stuffing for a 10 to 12-pound (4.5 to 5.5-kg) turkey.
SPEEDY FRESH CRANBERRY SAUCE
About to carve the bird when you remember you didn’t make the cranberry sauce?
Try this easy version to whirl up in the food processor at the last minute. Crisis averted.
From The Guy Can’t Cook, by Cinda Chavich.
12-oz (375-mL) bag fresh cranberries
1 whole navel orange, with the peel
½ cup (125 mL) granulated sugar
1. Pick through the cranberries and discard any soft berries or stems. Put the cranberries in the food processor.
2. Cut the orange into quarters and discard the seeds. Add the orange quarters to the processor, peel and all. Pulse to finely chop the berries and orange pieces. Add the sugar and whirl to combine.
3. Place in a serving bowl and serve immediately. Or cover and chill in the refrigerator for up to 8 hours. Makes 2 cups.
©CindaChavich2024
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