Mary’s Best Holiday Cooking Tips

Stuffed Turkey Roulade

Sometimes, roasting a whole turkey is just too much of an undertaking. A roulade, though? It’s surprisingly easy (we swear!), super flavorful and much easier to carve. Perfect served with a side of mashed potatoes and some tart cranberry sauce.

Ingredients

• 6 cups torn white bread
• 1/4 cup (56 grams) unsalted butter
• 1 medium red onion, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped sage
• Kosher salt, to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries, roughly chopped
• 4 dried figs, finely diced
• 2 tablespoons grainy Dijon mustard
• 1/2 cup (125 milliliters) dry white wine
• 1/2 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
• 1/2 cup roughly chopped pecans
• 1 to 1 1/2 cups (250 to 375 milliliters) low-sodium chicken stock or vegetable broth
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2 (about 2 kilograms total) boneless skin-on turkey breasts
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 to 4 sprigs fresh sage
• Butter or nonstick cooking spray, for the casserole dish

Directions

Special Equipment: Butcher twine

1. The night before you are going to make the stuffing, spread the torn bread out onto a large rimmed baking sheet and leave out on the counter to stale overnight.
2. Melt the butter in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, cinnamon stick and sage and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onion and celery are tender, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, dried cranberries and figs and continue to cook for about 1 minute. Stir in the Dijon and deglaze the pan with the white wine, scaping any brown bits off the bottom of the pan and allowing the wine to reduce by half. Stir in the fresh or frozen cranberries as well as 1/4 cup of the pecans and remove from the heat. Allow to cool slightly.
3. Transfer the stale bread to a large mixing bowl and add in the cooled mixture along with 1 cup of stock or broth and the egg. Season with salt and pepper and mix well to combine, adding more liquid if needed to moisten the bread. Set the stuffing aside in the fridge while you prepare the turkey. Alternatively, the stuffing can be prepared ahead and stored in the fridge overnight.
4. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) and line a rimmed baking sheet with a rack.
5. Place one of the turkey breasts skin-side down on a large cutting board. Butterfly the breast by cutting horizontally through the thicker part and opening it like a book. Set aside and repeat this with the second breast and set aside.
6. Lay out 6 long pieces of butcher’s twine horizontally on your cutting board. Place the turkey breasts skin-side down onto the twine puzzled together so that the top and bottom of each breast are opposite to each other. Season with salt and pepper and transfer a little over half of the stuffing mixture onto the turkey and press into an even layer.
7. Using the butcher’s twine to assist, start at one side and roll the turkey around the stuffing to create a compact roast, tucking any stuffing that falls out back into the roll. Tie securely with the butcher’s twine, trim the ends and place on the rack-lined baking sheet. Drizzle and rub the oil over the roast, season with salt and pepper and tuck the sage along the sides.
8. Lightly grease a small casserole dish with butter or non-stick cooking spray. Stir together the remaining stuffing and 1/4 cup pecans and transfer to the dish.
9. Roast the roulade for 20 minutes then reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees F. Place the casserole dish of stuffing into the oven alongside the turkey and continue to roast until the turkey and stuffing are golden brown and the internal temperature of the roast reaches 165 degrees F (75 degrees C), about 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes. Loosely tent the roast with foil and rest for at least 15 minutes or up to 35 minutes.

Get Ahead Gravy

Ingredients

• 3 yellow onions
• 2 carrots
• 2 stalks of celery
• 3 garlic cloves, peels on
• 8 chicken drumsticks
• 3 stirps bacon
• 2 sprigs sage
• 2 sprigs rosemary
• Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
• Salt & pepper
• Olive oil
• 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 litres boiling water

Directions

1. Heat your oven to 350ºF and set out a roasting pan or dutch oven.
2. Peel the onions and wash the carrots and celery, give them all a rough chop and add to the pan along with the garlic cloves. Add in the chicken drumsticks, bacon, sage, and rosemary, season with a pinch of nutmeg as well as some salt and pepper and drizzle with oil. Toss well to evenly coat.
3. Transfer the pan to the oven to roast for 1 hour or until tender and golden brown.
4. Remove the pan from the oven and place over medium-low heat. Using a potato masher, grind and mash up the veg and chicken and cook for 5 to 10 minutes to caramelize. The longer you caramelize the mixture, the darker and richer your gravy will be.
5. Scatter over the flour, stir well to combine, and cook for another minute to toast the flour. Pour in the boiling water, scraping the bottom of the pan well to remove any stuck-on bits, and simmer for 30 minutes to thicken and reduce.
6. When the gravy is the consistency you’re looking for, carefully strain it through a sieve into a large bowl, pressing the veg and chicken to get as much of the gravy as possible.
7. Season to taste and transfer to containers. Cool to room temperature then store in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
8. The gravy is delicious as is but, for extra flavour, add the drippings from the turkey to the gravy when you’re reheating it for the big feast.

Note: If desired, use the cooked chicken and veg as a base to a super simple chicken pot pie or chicken soup.