Delicious stuffed turkey breast that doesn’t take ages to cook, looks great and can be prepared ahead of time. 

Add a sprinkle of Pepperberry & Cherry or Spiced Cranberry Flavour Pearls for a little Christmas bling.

No one wants to be stuck in the kitchen on Christmas day…this recipe can be prepared up to a couple of days earlier. You can cook and serve it immediately or simply roast and slice a few hours before your friends and family arrive and just warm in the oven or even microwave when it’s time to serve.

What You Need

• Turkey breast – fresh aprox 2kg (you may need to order it from your local butcher)
• 2 generous cups x fresh bread crumbs
• 1 small onion – fine dice
• 1 clove garlic – slice
• 50 g x celery – fine dice
• 100g bacon – fine dice
• 30 g x pistachios – chop roughly
• 1 tbs x thyme, fresh – chopped
• 150g x butter
• Salt & pepper to taste
• Butchers twine
• 1 jar of Flavour Pearls to finish

Method

Turn your oven on to 180 c.

Stuffing – In a saucepan sweat off the onion, garlic, bacon, celery and thyme in most of the butter. Add the rest of the butter, pistachios, breadcrumbs and season well. Set aside.

Turkey time –

Place the turkey breast on a clean chopping board and with a sharp knife remove any visible sinew or yucky bits (save them for the cat!). Next you need to work your fingers between the skin and the breast meat to make a pocket for the stuffing. If you start towards the middle of one side of the breast trying to leave the outer edges still attached it will make it easier to keep the stuffing in place.  Fill the space between the skin and meat with your now cooled stuffing, once it is all in place give it a bit of a press down so that you have an even layer. Next you need to truss your turkey breast – this will help to keep its shape. Here is a link to watch how to truss a piece of pork it’s the closest I could find to what you need to do for the turkey breast.

This is what mine looked like…you don’t need to go over the top with the trussing, it just makes the next step a little easier. It’s no fun to have your stuffing fall out!

*You can prepare your turkey up to this point a couple of days before you are planning to eat it. Just cover well and put in the coldest part of your fridge.

Now you need to get a large pan or roasting tray nice and hot and brown the skin on your turkey. A liberal splash of olive oil rubbed all over before placing skin side down until nice and brown, then turn over and give it a little bit of time on the other side. Top with a generous knob of butter and plenty of salt and pepper and roast until just cooked (about 75c with a meat thermometer or aprox 35 minutes) see below…

 This one went into the oven for about 35 minutes, then I covered it loosely with some tin foil and let it rest for about 15 minutes before I sliced it.

Next

At this point if you want to eat it immediately all you need to do is present your turkey on a suitable platter with a scattering of some Flavour Pearls…I used Spiced Cranberry, Pepperberry & Cherry,  Black currant, Lemon & Black Pepper or perhaps even Apple would also be great. Don’t waste those gorgeous pan juices either they will make some amazing gravy!

Ta daaaa….

If you want to serve your turkey a little later just place your sliced turkey in either a roasting dish for oven reheating or a ceramic dish for the microwave and add a little chicken stock into the dish. About 1 cm deep should do it. This will help your turkey to retain its moisture. Tin foil for the oven re heat (180 c aprox 20 mins) and glad wrap for the microwave (reheat at around 75 % microwave heat or you might  get burnt bits!). Once its warmed through just transfer it to a nice serving platter and scatter those Pearls!

Well I hope this recipe will give you a little more fun time at Christmas…out of the kitchen!

Merry Christmas from us

Until next time

The Peninsula Larder Team