I am publishing this recipe earlier than usual schedule, just in case some of you find it interesting enough to cook for your Thanksgiving dinner.
It was my first attempt to prepare a whole roast turkey. And I must say it was a good one: turkey turned out very juicy, by the way I used cranberry sauce from last week post for this recipe.
If you are using turkey bigger than 11lbs, you may need to adjust cooking time and maybe use meat thermometer (which I never can figure out how to use myself) to make sure meat is properly cooked through.
Ingredients:
10-11lbs whole young turkey
1 cup of couscous
1 1/2 cup of hot water
1 apple
2/3 cup of cleaned roast pistachios, not salted
Fresh parsley
1 1/3 cup of cranberry sauce
1/3 cup of honey
2 tablespoons of dry thyme (or fresh)
Salt to taste
How to prepare, step-by-step:
Prepare ingredients:
Pour 1.5 cups of hot boiling water over couscous in mixing bowl and set aside to cool down:
Chop pistachios (in half or so), add them to couscous once it soaked most of the water (and cool down):
Peel apple and grate it on big slots of grater:
Add tryme:
And chopped fresh parsley:
Mix:
Add a cup of cranberry sauce:
And mix again, stuffing is ready:
Rinse turkey from inside and outside, pat it dry with paper towels; rub with salt from inside and outside; set turkey in oven bag (big enough to fit it in whole) in baking pan:
Use tablespoon to stuff turkey with couscous mix prepared earlier:
Tie oven bag, cut a hole on top and put pan to oven warmed up to 340F for 2.5h:
Mix remaining 1/3 cup of cranberry sauce and 1/3 cup of honey:
Take pan with turkey from oven, open the bag and pour cranberry sauce and honey mixture using spoon, leave bag unfolded and put pan back to the oven (on the same 340F) for 20 mins more:
Take pan out and let turkey cool down a bit:
Serve turkey warm with a side of stuffing; leftovers go great in sandwiches or salads: