Christmas Day is a busy one for the cook, so it’s a wonderful time to take full advantage of your ‘extra pair of hands in the kitchen’, your Thermomix! This year (2020), many families will be meeting in smaller groups than usual, and instead of a whole bird, this stuffed turkey breast might be just perfect for you. If you have all the ingredients to hand on Christmas Day, it’s easy to make your stuffing and fill the turkey breast about 3½-4 hours before dinner time, allowing enough time to tie it up, roast in the oven, then rest it to have tender moist breast meat. I’m sharing with you my delicious traditional family stuffing, a wonderful recipe from my great grandmother.
While the turkey breast is roasting and resting, you’ll have plenty of time to make all the other parts of Christmas dinner and still be able to enjoy precious conversations with family. On our table we like to include some traditional accompaniments: roasted or mashed potatoes, gravy made with the turkey pan juices, homemade cranberry sauce, bread sauce and steamed vegetables.
This recipe is suitable for Thermomix TM6, TM5 and TM31.
Method
Savoury Sage and Onion Stuffing
- Crumb almonds (or bread) with sage leaves, sea salt and peppercorns 10 sec/speed 10 or until fine, then transfer to a bowl and set aside.
- Place another bowl on TM lid and weigh pork into it – if mincing your own pork, this is the time to do it – see 1st tip; set minced pork aside.
- Chop onions and dripping 7 sec/speed 4½, then sauté 8 min/Varoma/speed spoon. Remove TM bowl from Thermomix, remove lid and allow TM bowl with sautéed onions to cool 20 minutes or longer until temperature is 45°C or less – you can check the temperature by putting the TM bowl back on your Thermomix.
- Add minced pork followed by reserved crumbs, then while stirring with TM spatula through hole in mixing bowl lid knead 18-20 sec/dough setting or longer (5 sec at a time) until well mixed but still loose in texture.
Stuffing and roasting the turkey breast
- Half an hour before before roasting, remove turkey breast from fridge, cut turkey breast in half horizontally, place stuffing on bottom half, cover with other half of breast, skin side up, then tie with butcher’s string at regular intervals but only JUST tightly enough to hold it together without compressing the stuffing; meanwhile preheat oven to 200°C without fan/180°C with fan/400°F/gas 5/Aga roasting oven.
- Place stuffed turkey breast in a roasting pan, cover with bacon rashers, add stock to pan, then roast 45 minutes in preheated oven (35 minutes in Aga roasting oven).
- Carefully remove bacon slices and return turkey to oven for 30 minutes to brown the skin.
- Transfer roasted stuffed turkey breast to a warm platter, cover with foil, wrap two folded beach towels over and around it to enclose foil-wrapped turkey and platter completely, then leave to rest 1-2 hours (a wonderful Gordon Ramsay tip to increase tenderness) while you finish cooking everything else.
- Slice and serve with your family’s traditional accompaniments.