In acknowledgement to our American neighbors who are celebrating Thanksgiving today, I am featuring a stuffed turkey breast meal on the blog today.
Technically, stuffing cooked inside turkey/chicken is called ‘stuffing’ whereas stuffing cooked separately is called ‘dressing’. But no matter what you call it, stuffing can easily upstage the turkey.
If you’ve never made sausage stuffing, your missing out on all the flavor and savor it adds to the meal. Any kind of ground sausage that you think would blend well with the other ingredients will work well.
You can use dried herbs, but your best flavor will be achieved from using fresh. I not only like herbs in the stuffing but using them in an herb butter for rubbing on the outside is so good.
Toasting the bread cubes isn’t always necessary. The toasting process is meant to dry out the bread to prevent your stuffing from becoming soggy with the bread absorbing too much liquid too fast. ‘Stale’ bread is already dried out and can be used instead of toasting. Crusty bread, such as sourdough or a French loaf, make good choices for preparing stuffing.
The addition of fruit and nuts further enhances the flavor and texture. For me, I can easily make a meal of the stuffing alone. I guess its another one of those ultimate ‘comfort foods’.
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SERVINGS
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- 200 gm pork sausage meat, crumbled
- 2 tsp butter,
- 2/3 cup (100 gm) onions, chopped
- 2/3 cup (2 stalks) celery, sliced
- 1/2 (130 gm) Golden Delicious apple, peeled & chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 tsp sage, crumbled
- 1/4 tsp EACH thyme & savory, crumbled
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp parsley, chopped
- 2 3/4 cups (100 gm) stale bread cubes (1/4" DICE)
- 1/2 cup (50 gm) pecans, toasted & chopped
- 1/3 cup (50 gm) dried cranberries
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1.3 kg (2 1/2 LBS) turkey breast, boneless, butterflied
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp EACH parsley, sage, thyme & savory
- 1 Tbsp butter,
Ingredients
Suffing
Turkey Breast
Herb Butter
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- In a saucepan, cook sausage meat until brown & crumbled, about 5-7 minutes. Remove sausage with a slotted spoon to a paper-lined plate & set aside. Drain off excess fat from saucepan.
- Add butter to saucepan & melt. Stir in onions & celery; sauté until softened. Add apple & garlic; cook & stir for 2 minutes. Stir in herbs & spices. Transfer mixture to a bowl. Stir in sausage, bread cubes, pecans & cranberries. Add chicken broth & stir to combine. Set aside.
- Arrange turkey breast skin side down on a work surface so that it lies open & flat. Cover with plastic wrap, then pound lightly with a meat mallet to flatten & make an even thickness all over. Discard plastic wrap & season turkey with smoked paprika.
- In a small dish, combine all herb butter ingredients & set aside. Preheat oven to 325 F.
- Spread stuffing over turkey breast, leaving a 3/4-inch border around the edge. Close up snugly, tucking in the stuffing as you go, then tie with kitchen twine at 1-inch intervals around the entire turkey breast. Rub turkey all over with herb butter & arrange in a roasting pan.
- Roast uncovered, basting occasionally, for 2 1/2 hours or until cooked thru. Cover with foil if top browns too quickly. Transfer turkey to a craving board, tent with foil & set aside for 10-15 minutes. Remove & discard twine, slice turkey & serve.