WGRS: Tatay’s Filipino Turkey for Thanksgiving

When I was growing up, this is how my dad made Thanksgiving turkeys. As you’ll see from the recipe, traditional stuffing isn’t used here – in fact, I never really understood what other people meant by “stuffing” or “dressing” until I went to high school! This meal was always one of my favorites. The turkey is always moist and flavorful, and even traditionalists enjoy it thoroughly!

I should definitely take a moment to give a shout out to my parents, who taught me you don’t need a special day to give thanks for life’s many blessings (or have a giant, tasty meal for that matter!)

ingredients:
2 red apples, cored and cut into chunks
1 can of pineapple chunks in natural juice, or 1 large fresh pineapple, with juice, cut into chunks
2 medium sweet potatoes, cut into chunks
~2 cups raisins
~1.5 cups packed brown sugar
2-3 stalks of green onion, chopped into 2-inch pieces

olive oil
salt
fresh ground pepper

1 14-16 lb. turkey, defrosted

directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine apples, pineapple and juice, sweet potatoes, raisins, brown sugar and green onion in large bowl. Mix thoroughly. This is the stuffing!

3. Wash the turkey, place in roasting pan generously lined with foil*, breast side up, and pat dry with paper towels. Place stuffing into cavity and around the bird as possible. Pour juice all around. Massage bird liberally with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and fresh ground pepper. Bring foil up and around turkey to wrap it.

4. Bake according to size of turkey, around 2-2.5 hours for 14-16 lb bird. Check temperature for doneness (should be around 161 degrees when thermometer is inserted into the meat… don’t hit the bone, though). Pull back the foil during the last 30 minutes of cooking to brown the skin if desired.

5. Let turkey rest for 15 minutes, loosely covered with foil, before carving. Enjoy!

* This assumes you are cooking the turkey in the regular oven; if you are using a roasting pan, you might not wrap it in foil – check the recommendations. Also, you can consider lining the roasting pan with carrots, celery, and leeks to raise the bird off of the floor of the pan (and forget about the foil wrapping). Lastly, you can think about soaking the defrosted turkey in a brine for at least 6 hours before roasting to intensify flavor and moisture. For the brine, heat 1 gallon veggie stock (or a mix of veggie and chicken stock), 1 cup kosher salt, 1/2 cup light brown sugar, and 1 tablespoon black peppercorns to a boil, stir to dissolve solids, then cool completely. Add to 1 gallon of ice water in a bucket, stir, and drop in the turkey. Turn the turkey once during every 6 hour period. Wash inside and out, and continue with step 3.