Entree · Turkey

A Man’s Guide to a Paleo Thanksgiving Turkey with a Sweet Potato “Stuffing”

edibleharmony

Paleo Baked Turkey
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A man’s guide to a paleo thanksgiving turkey? What kind of recipe title is that? A very misleading one! Honestly this is just a thanksgiving turkey recipe, nothing gender specific, but today I realized that 84.9% of my Facebook friends are women and it made me wonder why. I mean 100% of us eat and I know that a lot more than 15.1% of men cook. So what makes my site not so guy friendly? If there are any guys reading this I would love to hear your opinion on this.

I am also hoping that the title will encourage more guys to cook thanksgiving dinner (a not so subtle hint to my husband).

This paleo thanksgiving turkey is extra moist thanks to the brine I marinated it with overnight and also because I baked it while covered with a moist light cloth. I used one of my baby’s receiving blankets. I got so many as gifts and didn’t get to use many of them until now.

WARNING: If you choose to use the wet cloth method you must keep the cloth wet at all times by basting it with the turkey juices every 20-30 minutes so that the cloth doesn’t catch on fire. If you are not comfortable with this idea then wrap it with parchment paper of foil but it just won’t be as moist.

For thanks giving desert ideas try my pumpkin cheesecake, custard filled baked apples, or cranberry pumpkin bread. For side dishes check out my cranberry sauce, asparagus casserole, basil garlic asparagus or celery root puree 

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Ingredients for the brine:

1 quart of chicken broth
4 cups of white wine
1 cup of maple syrup
4 tbsp of dry thyme
2 tbsp of ground black pepper
1-2 tbsp of salt

Ingredients for the turkey:

A 12 to 14 lb turkey fully thawed
1 cup of softened grass-fed butter
1 tbsp of dry thyme
1 tbsp of dry sage
1 tbsp of dry parsley
1 tsp of salt
2 tsp of ground black pepper

For the Stuffing
4 medium apples cored and diced
4 celery stalks, sliced
2 lbs of sweet potatoes or yams, diced
½ cup of fresh chopped  fresh sage leaves, loosely packed
1 tbsp of dry thyme
1 cup of dry cranberries
1-2 cups of walnuts
2 tbsp of butter reserved from the turkey rub
2 tbsp of coconut oil

Preparation:

  • In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients for the brine
  • Place your turkey in a plastic bag and pour the brine over it
  • Remove all the air from to make sure the brine is covering the turkey and tie a knot to secure all the juices in.
  • Place inside another plastic bag to prevent leakages.
  • Marinate inside the refrigerator, breast down for at least 12 hours
  • Remove the turkey from the fridge 1-2 hours before cooking to bring it to room temperature.
  • Preheat oven to 500 F
  • Remove turkey from the bag and pad dry using a paper towel (Reserve 2-3 cups of the brine)
  • Remove the innards and place turkey in a roasting pan or baking dish
  • In a medium bowl, combine the  butter and the spices until a paste is formed
  • Separate some of the skin from the turkey around the neck and breast and rub the turkey with the butter inside, outside and under the skin. Reserve 2 tbsp of this butter mixture for the stuffing.
  • In a large bowl combine all the ingredients for the stuffing and place a portion of them inside the turkey’s cavity, this will give it extra moisture and flavor.  ( Place the rest of the stuffing inside a covered Dutch oven and bake for about an 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender or cook on your stove top)Blead-less turkey stuffin
  • Set the turkey on your oven’s lowest rack and bake for 30 minutes at 500 F
  • Reduce the heat to 350 F.
  • Cover the turkey with a light cloth dampened in the brine.Paleo turkey
  • Cook for about 1 hour and 45 minutes, basting the turkey (over the cloth) every 20 minutes.  Baste using the turkey juices and the reserved brine.
  • Remove from the oven when a meat thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the breast reads 162 F and the juices from the turkey run clear.
  • Cover the turkey (and the cloth) with foil or parchment paper and let stand for 20 minutes before carving.

Notes:

Depending on the size of your bird, the stuffing inside the turkey may be a little undercooked, if so just bake it in a separate dish for a little longer.

When basting the turkey, don’t keep the oven door open too long, this will increase the cooking time.

Don’t forget to reserve your bones for bone broth.

To store the rest of the carved turkey, put inside a container and pour some of the turkey juices over it to prevent it from drying.

Paleo Thanksgiving Turkey with a Sweet Potato “Stuffing”
Recipe Type: Thanksgiving Entree
Cuisine: Paleo
Author: Edible Harmony
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 8
Ingredients
  • Ingredients for the brine:
  • 1 quart of chicken broth
  • 4 cups of white wine
  • 1 cup of maple syrup
  • 4 tbsp of dry thyme
  • 2 tbsp of ground black pepper
  • 1-2 tbsp of salt
  • Ingredients for the turkey:
  • A 12 to 14 lb turkey fully thawed
  • 1 cup of softened grass-fed butter
  • 1 tbsp of dry thyme
  • 1 tbsp of dry sage
  • 1 tbsp of dry parsley
  • 1 tsp of salt
  • 2 tsp of ground black pepper
  • Ingredients for the Stuffing
  • 4 medium apples cored and diced
  • 4 celery stalks, sliced
  • 2 lbs of sweet potatoes or yams, diced
  • ½ cup of fresh chopped fresh sage leaves, loosely packed
  • 1 tbsp of dry thyme
  • 1 cup of dry cranberries
  • 1-2 cups of walnuts
  • 2 tbsp of butter reserved from the turkey rub
  • 2 tbsp of coconut oil
Instructions
  1. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients for the brine
  2. Place your turkey in a plastic bag and pour the brine over it
  3. Remove all the air from to make sure the brine is covering the turkey and tie a knot to secure all the juices in.
  4. Place inside another plastic bag to prevent leakages.
  5. Marinate inside the refrigerator, breast down for at least 12 hours
  6. Remove the turkey from the fridge 1-2 hours before cooking to bring it to room temperature.
  7. Preheat oven to 500 F
  8. Remove turkey from the bag and pad dry using a paper towel (Reserve 2-3 cups of the brine)
  9. Remove the innards and place turkey in a roasting pan or baking dish
  10. In a medium bowl, combine the butter and the spices until a paste is formed
  11. Separate some of the skin from the turkey around the neck and breast and rub the turkey with the butter inside, outside and under the skin.
  12. In a large bowl combine all the ingredients for the stuffing and place a portion of them inside the turkey’s cavity, this will give it extra moisture and flavor. ( Place the rest of the stuffing inside a covered Dutch oven and bake for about an 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender or cook on your stove top)
  13. Set the turkey on your oven’s lowest rack and bake for 30 minutes at 500 F
  14. Reduce the heat to 350 F.
  15. Cover the turkey with a light cloth dampened in the brine.
  16. Cook for about 1 hour and 45 minutes, basting the turkey (over the cloth) every 20 minutes. Baste using the turkey juices and the reserved brine.
  17. Remove from the oven when a meat thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the breast reads 162 F and the juices from the turkey run clear.
  18. Cover the turkey (and the cloth) with foil or parchment paper and let stand for 20 minutes before carving.
Notes
Depending on the size of your bird, the stuffing inside the turkey may be a little undercooked, if so just bake it in a separate dish for a little longer.[br][br]When basting the turkey, don’t keep the oven door open too long, this will increase the cooking time.[br][br]Don’t forget to reserve your bones for bone broth.[br][br]To store the rest of the carved turkey, put inside a container and pour some of the turkey juices over it to prevent it from drying.

 

Published by edibleharmony

26 thoughts on “A Man’s Guide to a Paleo Thanksgiving Turkey with a Sweet Potato “Stuffing””

  1. Pingback: A Man’s Guide to a Paleo Thanksgiving Turkey with a Sweet Potato “Stuffing” | Paleo Digest

  2. Yummy….Got most of the ingredient already. Happy Thanksgiving. When I count my blessing, Edible Harmony will be on the list. I am really enjoying your facebook posts…and learning good things from you to the benefit of our health.

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  4. What’s the point of the wet cloth? All you’re doing is keeping the skin wet. If it’s intact, the meat (brined) will stay moist, and opening the oven every 20 minutes will increase the cooking time, which is what dries out the bird. I find with brining the bird stays moist. And thanks for the “paleo” stuffing idea. That sounds awesome. I’m going to do a version with roasted chestnuts.

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  9. I can’t seem to squeeze out enough of the air in the brine bag for the brine to cover the turkey. It covers the bottom half, but not the top half. Any tips? Does it matter *that* much?

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    1. if you take the innards out of the turkey it creates more space for the brine inside the cavity, so make sure that you don’t take them out, or if you do place something inside the turkey, like apples, or potatoes. You could add more broth wine and maple syrup, but you could just leave it like that, making sure that the breast is covered with the brine, so place it upside down. The bottom of the turkey will be moist even without much of the brine anyeay

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  10. Yes, I made a mistake by taking the innards out. But I am hoping having the turkey upside down will get the abundance of it nice and moist and I will give it a second try at Christmas. Looking forward to tomorrow!

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  12. I am going to try this recipe for Christmas. And I think that it is still primarily women who are doing most of the cooking 🙂 I also think that for me, once I became a Mom I became much more conscious of food. My husband is completely not interested in any of this information 🙂

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  13. My firts attempt ended/bursted on me and on the kitchen floor, grrrrr out of frustation, but the turkey remained in the sink so I was lucky. I did not have much of the ingredients to make a second batch and had to improvised; at least I knew what went wrong and was not going to let it happen again. I wanted the brine to cover all the turkey not only half of it so I used big bags and a canning pot. I followed every step, I even think I memorized the recipe as it was my first time hosting Thanksgiving and wanted everything to be perfect, especially when my mother in law was coming over.

    Dinner was absolutely delicious. Even the skepticals were amazed at how moist and perfect the turkey was. The next day the phone did not stop ringing; my husbnad’s family called to thank us for dinner and ask again how I made the bird. Oh, I was also ask to make it again this year!! Thank you-thank you Denise! I don’t think I would have been this succesful using any other recipe.

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  14. OH, thank goodness I found this again. Made the stuffing last year and it is awesome…made it all winter 🙂 Getting ready to make my first batch next week…can’t remember, use whole fresh cranberries or dried (recipe says dry…???)
    Thanks, Haven’t tried the brined turkey… but the stuffing ROCKS!

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