Chestnut and Sausage stuffing

Our Thanksgiving was on the 10th of October. It was a mild day, so we began with drinks and appetizer’s out on our covered deck with the heat on. My cousin’s two adult children came for dinner because their parents were in Europe and we always spend Thanksgiving together. It was a wonderful evening. 

This is the turkey on the Big Green Egg.

I have taken to brining my turkey because it makes a wonderfully, juicy bird and it lessens that weird gamey flavour in leftovers. But because we were only four, I just got a breast this time around. I removed the skin and set it aside on a rack with a plate underneath in the fridge to ‘dry’ out. Then I butterflied the breast and pounded it to a relatively even thickness and then brined it for 5 hours. Then I layered the stuffing on it and then rolled it up to a nice little boule and wrapped it in Serrano ham.  JT barbequed it on indirect heat on the Big Green Egg. It was a great success.

The turkey is resting. It’s best not to cover it so the skin stays crisp.

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Serves 6-8 people (we had a lot of leftovers)

Ingredients:

• 70 g celery
• 65 g sweet onion
• 35 g butter
• 65 g chorizo sausage
• 100 g chestnuts, peeled and roasted
• 125 mL chicken stock
• 1 egg, beaten
• 55 g unseasoned croutons or dry bread

Directions:

1. One day before serving the breast, make the stuffing: Cook the celery and onion in the butter until softened. Add the chorizo and chestnuts and mix well. Allow to cool completely. Combine the stock and egg and mix well. Add the celery and onion mixture to the croutons and pour over the stock mixture and mix well so that all of the croutons have been saturated. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
2. One day before serving the breast, make the brine: Make up the brining liquid and cool completely, store in the refrigerator until required.
3. The morning of cooking the breast, carefully remove the skin and lay it on a rack with a plate underneath, do not cover. Refrigerate until ready to use. Butterfly the breast and pound it so it is even throughout. Immerse entirely in the brine and refrigerate 5-6 hours.
4. Several hours before setting the breast on the grill, give the stuffing a good mix, breaking up some of the croutons but keeping the mixture tight.
5. Dry off the brined breast and pound out a little more in case the meat retracted whilst brining. Add the stuffing evenly on the breast and roll from one end as tightly as you can. Wrap the breast in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2-4 hours.
6. Remove the plastic wrap and wrap the Serrano ham around it, then wrap the saved skin around the top stretching as much as you can. Wrap the entire roll in butcher’s twin to hold everything together. Hold until ready to bake in the refrigerator, uncovered.
7. Bake for 2-2.5 hours or until the meat registers 165° F. Allow to rest, uncovered for 10 minutes. Remove the twine and slice the breast roll into 1 cm portions. Serve hot.

Notes:

• Wrapping the breast roll in plastic wrap allows the meat to remember the shape so wrapping in Serrano ham is significantly easier.
• I like the skin stretched over the ham as tightly as possible so it’s nice and crispy when served.
• Resting the roll uncovered after it is cooked doesn’t let the skin become soggy, I highly recommend it.
• Because the breast is brined, seasoning is not required. The Serrano ham also provides a reasonable saltiness to the breast.
• For the brine, I use 72 g salt and 50 g sugar with herbes en Provence with enough water to cover the entire breast.