The Deboned Turkey!
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Well Christmas looked a little different this year, but we were committed to having dinners consistent with our traditions and at our house that includes a Turkey and Stuffing! My husband is our "meat guy"... he creates sausages home cured bacon and researches now ways to butcher or prep our cuts of meat. The deboning of this turkey was no exception and was a fantastic new prep method for Christmas Turkey dinner! He got the idea from the scottreaproject on Youtube... you should check him out he has some great posts for this as well.
So to start, you have to dislocate the leg bones from the body.
You can start from the back of the turkey too, but we chose to start at the breast. Start carving the turkey away from the bone with the intention of keeping all the meat intact to itself. Once you have the meat cut away from the upper part of the rib cage cut along the length of both inner legs. You will have to cut around the leg bones to remove them.
It should look like this when you are finished this part. Do the same to the wings. Dislocate the joint from the body, and cut lengthwise along the inner portion of the wing and carve the meat away from the bone, with the intention of having the back portion of the wing meat remaining intact to the body. You can usually get to the drum and may need to discard the wing tip entirely.
Once the wings are finished, carve the meat away from the back rib cage area until you completely remove the bone. Turkeys also have the tough tendons in the legs as you can see above. These need to be removed or it will affect the texture of the turkey roll. Grab a clean pair of plyers and pull them out. A tool with a good grip is required, but they will pull right out.
You end up with the turkey having all white meat on one end and dark on the other. To make a consistent roll cut the under part of the breast tenderloin out (about half the depth of the breast and place that part down on top of the dark meat.... This will give you a more consistent roll that will cook evenly.
Lightly season and the turkey is ready for stuffing and rolling.
I like a simple stuffing that packs flavour. I cut up organic celery, yellow peppers and onions and saute them with roasted red pepper seasoning. I also add cremini mushrooms. Once the veggies are starting to render down I start adding ripped sections of french bread to the mix.
To make this moist yet dairy free I use organic chicken broth, and some dairy free butter alternative. Mixing it in slowly as I fold the bread and vegetable together in the pan over medium heat.
Place your stuffing in a thin layer on the turkey....
and roll it up!
Use butchers twine to tie it into the roll and hold it together.
Place this in a 375 degree oven uncovered, the timing depends on the size of your turkey but this 4 KG turkey (with bone) took about 2 hours to hit the correct internal temperature.
I took it out of the oven at the one hour mark and injected it with roasted red pepper seasoning and butter alternative. I then placed it back in the oven.
Let this sit for about 15 minutes and then carve into thick dials.
Serve with your favourite sides!! In our case we did some family dinner delivery given we couldn't be together this year! Still looks cute on a plastic plate!
Or plated out for ourselves! Hope your Christmas 2020 was filled with good food, your healthy bubble! and the promise of a better new year!
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