Thanksgiving Celiac-style

Gluten-Free Butterflied Stuffed-Turkey Breast,

Recipe included

Thanksgiving bodes well to be a pleasant and memorable day, as it always is.  Since this will be a quiet Thanksgiving with just my son, daughter-in-law, and me, we decided against a whole turkey in favor of a more modest turkey breast, approximately six pounds. This is quite an adjustment for me from the days when I’d do the biggest turkey I could find, generally well over twenty pounds.

It’s a fun and collaborative effort. We’re sharing the responsibilities and workload.  Another big change from the days when I did it all from planning and shopping, to cooking and cleaning up. My son will do salads and veggies.  My daughter-in-law is going to experiment with gluten-free bread dressing and a pumpkin pie with gluten-free crust that, if anything like last year’s, will be outrageously addictive. I will do artichokes, the turkey, and a baked-pumpkin stuffed with cranberry sauce.  I think I’m doing the gluten-free gravy . . . not sure . . . I will have to check on that . . . 

As far as the gluten-free turkey goes, no suffering here:  I’ve just taken the example provided by the Middle Eastern cuisine on which I grew-up.  Chicken on the Lebanese side would have been stuffed with lamb, rice, onions, pine nuts, and scented with cinnamon.  On the Greek/Turkish side, chestnuts might have been used in place of the pine nuts in a turkey stuffing. Since it’s Thanksgiving, I’ll give it an American twist and used gluten-free chicken sausage with apple instead of lamb, a mix of wild and brown rice, onions, and pecans.  I’ll season with Bells’ Poultry Seasoning.

Here’s the recipe, which will make about six servings:

The Stuffing Ingredients:

½ pound gluten-free chicken and apple sausage, (Whole Foods is best for this because staff will double-check for you ensure it’s gluten free), remove it from the casing

canola oil

1 c. white onion, minced

½ c. celery, minced

1 c. minced fresh parsley

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 ½ c. assorted wild mushrooms, sliced thin

½ c. pecans

¾ c. white wine

1 c. brown rice, uncooked

1/3 c. wild rice, uncooked

3 c. gluten-free chicken or vegetable stock

 ½ c. water

1 bay leaf

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 t. or to taste, Bell’s Poultry Seasoning

To make the stuffing: Heat a large sauté pan or saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the crumbled sausage, stirring for about five minutes until cooked. Remove the sausage with a slotted spoon to drain. Wipe out the pan and use a tablespoon or so of canola oil for the next step.

Add the mushrooms and wine and simmer until the wine is absorbed. When it is, add a bit more oil to the pan and the onions, celery, and garlic to the remaining pan, stirring until soft (about three minutes). Add the rice; continue to stir one minute. Add the stock, water, salt, pepper, and Bell’s Poultry Seasoning. Bring to a boil. Stir well, reduce the heat and cook covered and undisturbed at a bare simmer until rice is tender and liquid has been absorbed (about fifty minutes). Remove from heat. Let stand undisturbed for ten minutes. (As an alternative, you can put everything into a rice cooker and let it do the work.)

When the rice is cooked, fluff it and add the cooked sausage.  Allow the stuffing to cool. Once it has has, add the fresh minced parsley and salt and pepper to taste.

To stuff the turkey breast:

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees F.

1 (6-pound) turkey breast, deboned and butterflied (don’t get this pre-boned, have the butcher do it when you’re there and get the bones to make soup)

Rice stuffing

6 tablespoons canola oil, approximate

Season the inner side of the turkey breast generously with salt and pepper. Fill with cooled stuffing.  (Be careful not to over-stuff it. You will know you’ve overstuffed it if the rice comes out the side when you roll the breast and try to tie it in the following step. In which case, just start over.) Next, gently roll the breast around the stuffing and tie closed with butcher twine.  It’s best to cook the breast once you have stuffed it.  Don’t let it sit out or in the fridge.

Heat the roasting pan on the stove-top with the oil in it. Brown the turkey breast on all sides, season, and roast in the oven for forty minutes or until internal temperature of the breast reaches 160 degrees. Allow it to rest  ten minutes before slicing.