Paleo Turkey and Stuffing

Thanksgiving is probably the easiest holiday to make Paleo-friendly but don’t limit your turkey making to just the holidays.

At a large gathering you can fill up on all the turkey and vegetables and ignore the stuffing and pies, or you can make your own Paleo versions of all of these dishes.

If you volunteer (or get assigned) to make the turkey, this is how you should do it.

Choose Your Own Adventure

Don’t be intimidated by the size of my turkey. You’ll adjust your cook time based on the size you purchase (more on that in the details of the recipe below). As long as you plan ahead, you’ll be fine, and you can always buy a smaller bird.

Not sure about defrosting? See this bacon-wrapped beast for more info on that.

The stuffing only takes a few minutes to throw together, so once you get it in the turkey, the oven does most of the work here. Just be sure to not stray too far from the oven during the entire cooking process! If you’re making other dishes, you can work on those while the turkey is doing its thang in the oven.

Be sure not to get so caught up in whatever else you’re doing that you forget to baste the turkey every 45 minutes.

This step is essential for getting that perfectly succulent bird that’s crispy and delicious on the outside!

Once it’s finished, you’re going to want to start digging in to that big, beautiful bird, but you really need to let it cool off a bit before you do that.

If you burn your tongue, you won’t be able to taste any of your awesome Paleo meal and that would be such a shame.

Yield: Serves 20-25 humans

Ingredients

2lbs ground pork
1lb ground lamb
3 ribs celery, sliced
1 fennel (bulb and stalks), chopped
10 ounces portobello mushrooms, minced
1 onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
fresh sage, chopped
fresh thyme, chopped
coarse ground sea salt, to taste
24lb pasture-raised whole fresh (not frozen) turkey
duck fat
dried Bouquet Garni
4 cups water

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a 10-inch skillet over medium heat, brown the pork and lamb.
Transfer the meat to a large mixing bowl. Add the celery, fennel, mushrooms, onion, garlic, sage and thyme to create the stuffing. Season with sea salt and stir to combine.
Empty the turkey cavity and pat the inside and outside dry.
Place the turkey on a rack in a large roasting pan. Stuff the turkey cavity with the stuffing until full. Stuff the neck cavity as well. Reserve leftover stuffing to cook in a baking dish, shortly before the turkey is done. Cross the turkey legs and bind closed with baker's twine.
Smear duck fat over the outside of the entire turkey.
Season the turkey all over with sea salt and the dried herb of your choice (I used Bouquet Garni from Penzey's).
Pour the water into the roasting pan and transfer the turkey to the oven.
Determine your cook time. Cook for 20 minutes per pound if the turkey's stuffed and 13 minutes per pound if it's not. I cooked a 24 pound stuffed turkey so I cooked this bad boy for 8 hours. Be sure to remove the pan and turkey from the oven and baste all over every 45 minutes. This will keep the exterior crispy and the interior juicy.
After the first 45 minutes, reduce heat to 325°F.
In last 45 minutes of cooking, after basting, transfer the leftover stuffing in a glass baking dish to the oven.
When everything is done, remove the stuffing and turkey from the oven and let the turkey rest 5-10 minutes before carving.
Serve alongside all your glorious sides.
Enjoy! :)

Paleo Turkey and Stuffing

Choose Your Own Adventure