Deviled Turkey & Stuffing
 
 
Come into the kitchen with me as I make a turkey for the very first time! This spice rub tastes like the one my mom has used for years. The turkey is so flavorful and the skin on top gets nice and crispy! The stuffing is delicious and you can bake it in or out of the turkey depending on your preference. The turkey itself is THM S and low carb. The stuffing is a THM crossover due to the combination of carbs and fats.
Author:
Recipe type: Turkey with seasoning: THM S, Low Carb - Stuffing: THM Crossover
Serves: a lot
Ingredients
  • 1 (20 lb.) turkey (thawed if frozen)
  • -
  • 8 tablespoons salted butter (melted)
  • 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
SPICE RUB
  • 3 tablespoons each salt, black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon each curry powder, garlic powder, ground sage, parsley flakes, smoked paprika
  • 2 teaspoons each chili powder, dill weed, oregano, thyme
  • 1 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 5 bay leaves
STUFFING
  • 4 tablespoons salted butter
  • 1 large onion (chopped)
  • 2 cups chopped celery
  • 1 cup chopped Granny Smith Apple
  • 1 cup cranberries (chopped if desired)
  • -
  • 12 cups sprouted bread cubes
  • 1 cup pecan pieces
  • 2 teaspoons reserved spice rub
  • 1 teaspoon each ground sage, onion powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon each cinnamon, ground cloves
  • -
  • 2 cups chicken broth (mine was salted)
  • 2 eggs
Instructions
  1. Whisk the melted butter and Dijon mustard together.
  2. Combine the spice rub ingredients and grind together in a spice grinder. Most of the ingredients are already ground, but this grinds the ones that aren’t and makes the blend more uniform. Reserve two teaspoons of spice rub to add to the stuffing.
  3. Pat the turkey dry with paper towels for best results. (I forgot to do this and mine turned out fine, but I’m going to try this next time.)
  4. Rub the butter/mustard mixture all over both sides of the turkey and place in a large roaster. Remove the bag of giblets as well as the neck and whatever other odd body parts may be stuffed inside your turkey and discard or bake in the roaster along with the turkey to flavor the drippings.
  5. Season the turkey all over with the spice rub.
  6. Make the stuffing. Sauté the onion, celery, apple, and cranberries in the butter until crisp-tender. (I do this in a large soup kettle.) Add the bread cubes, pecans, and seasonings and stir to combine. Whisk the eggs and chicken broth together and pour over the stuffing mixture. Stir to coat.
  7. Stuff the body and neck cavities of the turkey loosely with the stuffing if desired, saving any leftover stuffing to bake on its own. (I’ll tell you how to do that in a bit.)
  8. I’ve seen various opinions on whether a turkey should be baked up or down. I chose to bake mine with the breast side down to try to keep the white breast meat as moist as possible, but feel free to bake the breast side up if you want to keep crispy skin attached to the breast. I’ll probably experiment with baking technique on more turkeys in the years to come. My roaster was small enough that I didn’t need to tie the turkey’s legs together to keep the stuffing inside; they stayed in place on their own. Tie your turkey’s legs together with kitchen twine if you need to.
  9. Bake the turkey (uncovered) at 350* until the thick part of the thigh as well as the stuffing reads 165* on a meat thermometer (about 4 hours). I left mine in for an extra 30 minutes to make sure it was done enough (and because my husband wasn’t home), but I think I overdid it. The breast meat was on the dry side.
  10. If the turkey is getting too brown at any point, cover it loosely with foil and continue baking until the correct internal temperature is reached. I left mine uncovered the whole time and the skin was perfectly golden brown and crispy. I rotated the roaster in the oven periodically for even browning.
  11. Let the turkey rest for 15 minutes before carving and removing stuffing. Pour the turkey juice over the meat to serve if desired, and/or make gravy by thickening one cup of broth with 1 tablespoon oat fiber and ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum (multiply as needed).
  12. STUFFING: While I was stuffing my turkey before baking, I was surprised that I couldn’t fit more stuffing inside the bird. I baked the remainder of the stuffing in an uncovered 10” circular casserole dish for an hour alongside the turkey, then reheated it before serving. (Baking twice helps dry it out, which I like. Cover it when reheating if you want it to be more moist.) I discovered while carving my turkey that I left the neck and something else inside the bird, hence why I didn’t have a very large stuffing cavity. Oh well, I liked the drier oven-baked stuffing better anyway. (I DID remove the bag of giblets before baking the turkey.) Stuffing baked inside the bird is decadent with drippings and much more moist than stuffing baked on its own in a casserole dish. You can do some of both, bake it all in a casserole dish, or bake it all inside the turkey: your call.
Notes
-If you have a smaller turkey, I recommend making the full amount of seasoning to make sure you have enough. Just set some aside in a separate bowl before rubbing the turkey with it so it doesn’t get contaminated, then use it if you need it or keep it for a later date. This deviled turkey seasoning would be a great seasoning to keep on hand for any meat throughout the year!
-Feel free to use any sprouted bread you prefer. I used Pepperidge Farm Soft Sprouted Grain Bread, and Aldi’s Knock Your Sprouts Off sprouted bread is good too. Low-carb breads made with alternative flours may or may not hold up well baking in a turkey for hours, so substitute at your own risk.
-For drier stuffing (especially if you’re planning to bake the stuffing in the turkey, which makes it much more moist), leave the bread cubes out for a day to dry out and/or decrease the chicken broth used to 1 ½ cups.
Recipe by Briana Thomas at https://www.briana-thomas.com/deviled-turkey-stuffing/