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MOMs (Home) > Recipes > Traditional Roast Turkey with Chestnut Stuffing
Traditional Roast Turkey with Chestnut Stuffing & Homemade Gravy
For the Stuffing
- ½ cup whole chestnuts or dried if you can't find whole
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion, peeled and minced
- 2 celery ribs, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
- 1 teaspoon dried sage
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 cooking apple, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 5 cups stale bread, cubed
- 1 ¼ cups chicken broth
- ¼ cup butter, melted
- Olive oil
- Salt (sea salt is preferable)
- Pepper
- 1 10 lb. turkey
For the Gravy
- 2 carrots, roughly chopped
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 celery stalks, roughly chopped
- Corn flour
- Chicken stock
- Butter (if necessary)
Directions
The Night Before
- If possible, the previous night, or at least one hour before cooking, prepare your turkey.
- Remove any giblets and rise well (inside and out) with cold water, then pat dry with paper towels.
- Generously rub turkey with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Cover and place back in refrigerator until time to cook.
The Next Morning
Preparing the Stuffing
- To roast the chestnuts, cut an X on the flat side of each chestnut and bake 15 to 20 minutes at 375F oven.
- Let cool for 10 minutes and then peel and chop.
- Do not turn oven off as it will need to be preheated for cooking the turkey.
- In a large pot over low heat, heat the olive oil then add onions and celery.
- Saute for about 3 minutes or until soft.
- Stir in crushed garlic, sage, rosemary, thyme and apple and sauté for a further 3 to 5 minutes.
- Remove from heat and stir in egg, then add chestnuts and bread.
- Toss mixture well.
- Stir in warm broth and season with salt and pepper.
- Set aside to cool.
Preparing the Turkey
- Remove turkey from fridge and loosely stuff the neck cavity with chestnut stuffing, fold the skin under and secure in place with a toothpick.
- Then loosely stuff the main cavity, making sure to leave room for expansion and the air to flow through.
- Then prepare your roasting pan.
- Use a large roasting pan and at the bottom add two roughly chopped carrots, onion and celery.
- Place the rack over the vegetables.
- Now place your turkey, breast side up, on the rack.
- Drizzle with melted butter.
- Bake, uncovered, at 375F for the first 30 minutes, then baste and reduce oven temperature to 325F.
- Continue basting turkey every 25 to 30 minutes.
- The cooking time should be approximately 20 minutes per pound of turkey, which would be about 3.5 hours for a 10b turkey.
- To check if the turkey is cooked pierce the thigh bone, juices should run clear without any pink.
- Also use a meat thermometer on the thickest part of the thigh.
- The temperature should show 180F.
- Turkey should be golden and crispy on the outside too.
- Remove the turkey from roasting tray and reserve juices for gravy.
Tip
For extra added safety, I like to remove the stuffing from turkey once turkey is cooked and bake on a separate dish for approximately 10 extra minutes.
For the Gravy
- Mash the vegetables in the roasting tray, then push all ingredients through a sieve.
- Discard any remaining vegetables or fat.
- Place the sieved liquid in a saucepan and simmer over low heat.
- If you don't have enough liquid then add 1 cup or more (depending on how much gravy you need) of chicken stock; You can also add a couple of tablespoons of butter.
- In a small bowl add two tablespoons of corn flour and mix with cold water (about ½ cup) until all lumps dissolve.
- Slowly add a little of this mixture (tablespoon by tablespoon) to the saucepan, stirring well after each addition and allowing time for gravy to thicken.
- Keep adding corn flour/water mixture until gravy thickens.
Tip
You can also add a couple of tablespoons of red wine to the gravy or Madeira for a richer taste.The alcohol will dissolve during the cooking process and children will be able to have the gravy.
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