Best festive stuffed turkey rolls

Best festive stuffed turkey rolls. Moist, juicy, tender turkey, with a lovely aromatic pork and mushroom stuffing. Tired of all the leftovers but still craving that comfort? Making turkey rolls is a fabulous way to do it!

Song of the day: "The Best" by Tina Turner

Festive memories

I can remember almost every Thanksgiving or Christmas meal. In our home there was never a shortage of food. On the contrary, it was abundant and even at times too much, however it made my mom happy to see the table plentiful, and everyone's bellies full, we never complained.

My mom had this thing about the turkey being big, so big in fact that sometimes we thought there was no way it was going to fit in the oven, and it always did. Her and my father would divide the tasks for the meal and the turkey was always delicious and moist. I have to say that to this day I have never tasted another stuffing like theirs and I am carrying on that tradition in our festive meals now. Today I am so excited to share a little of that love and abundance with you, on a smaller scale of course, "sorry mom", as I will show you how to make these wonderful Best festive stuffed turkey rolls!

Why you want to make these Best festive stuffed turkey rolls

The main thing that will convince you is that there are very little leftovers. In fact, ours only lasted until the day after Thanksgiving. Here are some other reasons:

• There is no turkey clean up after, like taking off all the meat from the bones, discarding the carcass.
• Less cooking time.
• These rolls present well.
• It is a great pocket book friendly dish.
• Lastly, it is just so delicious, absolutely mouthwatering.

Ingredients for these Best festive stuffed turkey rolls

Now that I have convinced you to try this, let's start first with what you need. To make it really easy, I am going to break up the ingredients according to the stages of preparation. The first is the brine:

Brine:

• Enough cold water to submerge the 2 turkey breasts in a large bowl
• Coarse sea salt
• Bay leaf
• Lemon
• Black pepper corns
• Coriander seeds

Stuffing:

• Plain cubed bread croutons
• Vegetable stock
• Evo oil and butter
• Bacon
• Ground pork
• Celery, onions, and carrots
• Mushrooms
• Cream of mushroom soup
• Poultry seasoning

Turkey:

• 2 large turkey breasts, de-boned and skin left on.

Roasting veggies:

• Carrots
• Celery
• Onion
• Garlic
• Fresh rosemary
• Vegetable stalk
• Evo oil

Tips on making it the most delicious dish you ever tasted

We may sound repetitive however, our fist tip is that you use really good fresh ingredients. It is a festive meal and really you deserve to splurge sometimes. Here are some other tips I have found to be really good:

• Brine the turkey overnight.
• Use a slightly smoky bacon.
• Make sure your stuffing is nice and moist before you place it in the turkey. It should form into a ball easily.
• Always tie up the turkey stuffed roll so it does not fall apart.
• Flour and pan-fry the roll prior to putting it in the oven.

Time to brine the turkey rolls

The very first thing you want to do is wash the turkey breasts. Then, in a bowl, pour in cold water, season with coarse sea salt. Add in the bay leaf, coriander, and pepper corns. Cut up a lemon and place the pieces in. Give it a stir and place both turkey breasts in so they are totally submerged into the brine. Cover and place into the fridge overnight.

How to make the stuffing

In fact, my mom always made the stuffing the night before and placed it in our cold cellar overnight. Depending on your time, you can also do it first thing in the morning as I have done here. This is how it is done:

• Finely chop your onions, celery, and carrot.
• Wash your mushrooms and slice them up.
• Cut up your bacon into thin morsels.
• In a large sauté pan drizzle in olive oil , toss in garlic whole. Turn heat to a med to high setting and put your bacon and crumbled ground pork into the pan. Let that render for a bit, then add you celery, onion, carrots, and mushrooms.

• Let that sauté on medium heat until the ground pork is cooked and the bacon is nicely rendered. Take the garlic out at this time, but don't throw it out, we are going to use it again.

• Time to add in your bread cubes, stir them in with a wooden spoon, until the bread cubes are nicely incorporated with the veggies and meat.
• Sprinkle in poultry seasoning and mix again until well incorporated.
• Add some cream of mushroom soup to the vegetable broth and stir. Now slowly pour a little of that stock at a time into the stuffing mix. Toss, and feel when the mixture is nice and moist and you can form a ball in you hand.
• Cover and place into the fridge overnight or for at least 4 hours.

Time to stuff these Best festive stuffed turkey rolls

Truly, this is probably my most favorite part. Here is where we stuff the turkey with that lovely combination of flavors and textures. However, there is something we need to do before that: butterfly and pound the turkey breasts. Here is how we do that:

• Get the stuffing out of the fridge.
• Take the turkey breast out of the brine. Give it a rinse with cold water and then pat dry with some paper towel.
• Place the turkey breast on some parchment paper, skin side down. Starting from the center cut down the middle about half way through the thickness, then cut horizontally almost to the end but do not cut through. Open that up.
• Then do the same for the other side and what you are left with is a huge nice fillet of turkey.
• Place a sheet of plastic wrap over the butterflied turkey breast and with the flat end off the meat cleaver pound out the breast from the center out, until it is just a bit thinner.
• Get a scoop of the stuffing and spread it all over the surface of the turkey breast. Make sure you have covered all of the breast except for a bit on the end where the turkey comes together to form that roll.
• Starting from the one side, roll over and press to form the turkey roll. Press in any loose stuffing, then with butchers twine, tie up the roll all around and lengthwise so it holds together well.
• Do this for the other turkey breast and you are left with two lovely best festive stuffed turkey rolls!

A quick note

You may have leftover stuffing, don't worry, just oil up some tin foil. Form the leftover stuffing into an oval and place onto the tin foil. Close up the package well and place that in with the turkey rolls about at the half way mark of cooking time. I have to tell you, the stuffing never lasts, our family and friends always ask for more.

Some more great tips

One thing that is always on the back of my mind is not to have the turkey turn out dry. I have a solution and it works fantastically. Here is what I do:

• Roughly cut carrots, celery, onion. Place onto the bottom of the roasting pot. Season with salt and pepper.
• Pour in some vegetable broth, and toss in sprigs of rosemary, and also the garlic you took from the stuffing mixture.
• Dust the rolls with flour and fry them in a pan with some evo oil. Once the rolls are seared on all side, place onto the bed of vegetables you prepared in the roasting pot.
• Put into a preheated 400° F oven for about 15 minutes, then turn heat to 375° F, cover the turkey rolls, and bake for roughly an hour and some.

• Check the internal meat temp with a thermometer. It should read 168° F. Take rolls out of the oven and let rest for 10-15 minutes.
• Slice up the turkey rolls and place on a platter ready to serve.

Don't throw away the veggies and juices

We are all about not wasting food, so with that being said, you can take those beautifully roasted veggies and place them in a food processor or blender to make a lovely puree.

As for the drippings, I use those in my gravy. It makes for a pretty delicious sauce.

Side suggestions for these Best festive stuffed turkey rolls

Finally, you can't have turkey without some potatoes, and a wonderful potato puree or rustic mash goes so well with these comforting Best festive stuffed turkey rolls.

Here are some other suggestions to serve with the turkey: Sautéed Tuscan kale, a fresh green leaf salad, and sautéed Mushrooms.

Time for a taste

Really, I am so so hungry now. I love the aroma of the stuffing. Those hints of sage, rosemary, and thyme, always bring back such beautiful memories of festive times past. I have to try the turkey roll. Yum, the turkey is so juicy and tender, and it is such a perfect surrounds to that comforting, ever-so-tasty stuffing. A little gravy will do, as I don't want to loose any of the flavors and textures.

Now that all the hard work is done, time to sit down and enjoy this lovely meal with your family and friends. Great work everyone!

Happy holiday cooking!

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