Ingredients: |
Ingredients: 1 20+ lb Turkey
2 bags of dried croutons stuffing mix with seasoning packets
1/4 lb of Italian sausage
1-2 bunches of celery chopped
1-2 large onions diced
1 medium apple diced
1/4 cup of dried cranberries chopped
1/4 cup of chopped pecans
2 eggs
2 cubes of butter
1 package Lipton onion soup mix
1 bay leaf
1 chicken bullion cube
poultry seasoning, pepper, and salt to taste (we like a lot of pepper and poultry seasoning added)
|
Directions: |
Directions:Thaw turkey, remove wrapper, pull neck and bag of innards from inside both ends of turkey (discard innards). Rinse turkey, re-wrap and return to refrigerator. Place turkey neck, chopped celery, onions, bay leaf and bullion cube in a large stock pot fill with water. Simmer for 6-8 hours (I put mine on Wednesday morning and simmer it all day). Fry Italian sausage, drain and pat dry to remove grease. In a LARGE mixing bowl mix croutons, seasoning packets, eggs, apple, cranberry, pecans, sausage, 1 cube of butter, dry soup mix, and spices. Using a slotted spoon ladle celery and onions into croutons mixture. (Discard turkey neck and bay leaf). Add enough of the broth to moisten the croutons mixture but do not get soggy. You can store the stuffing mixture overnight in the refrigerator until ready to stuff the bird (DO NOT STUFF THE BIRD UNTIL YOU ARE READY TO BEGIN COOKING IT IN THE OVEN - PRE-STUFFED IT COULD GROW BACTERIA/TOXINS). When ready to cook, line a LARGE roasting pan with aluminum foil (I line it once to protect pan and then I line it again both directions with pieces that are large enough to eventually cover the bird and seal). Remove bird from refrigerator rinse and pat dry. Place bird in the lined pan. Place two pats of butter in both ends of bird, stuff both ends (I cover stuffed ends and wing tips with foil). Rub remaining butter on body of bird, pepper bird and then seal it up. Wrap one more layer of aluminum foil over the entire bird. Roast in over at 300º a stuffed bird takes twice as long as an unstuffed bird. I open mine up and baste it several times while it is roasting. Allow plenty of time to fully cook, about 8 hours. Cook until bird is 180º. Leg should pull away from the bird with a slight touch and meat should fall off the bone. I open mine up at the end for about 15 minutes at 400º to brown the bird. |
This recipe for Thanksgiving Turkey with Stuffing is from