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Have the best tasting holiday dinner with this amazing Rolled Stuffed Turkey recipe.This moist Rolled Stuffed Turkey is perfect for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Or any time of the year you want a delicious dish!
The turkey is filled with a stuffing, rolled up, and tied before roasting. During roasting, the stuffing absorbs the juices from the turkey.
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An impressive main dish
This recipe is also a great alternative to roasting a whole turkey during the holiday season! It cooks up much faster than roasting a whole bird in the oven, the turkey fits well in the oven, the bird comes out moist and delicious, and it saves carving time and mess after the bird is cooked.
All the work for this delicious main course is done on the front end, so you can do all the prep work before hand, and actually spend time with your family and friends on the holiday.
And, it eliminates the mess that carving creates.
Looking to spice your turkey up a bit, take a look at this Cajun Turkey Recipe.
Benefits of this method
Just give yourself some time to debone the bird, and understand it may not be that easy at first, but it’s really cool in the end.
This method is also great for making the turkey stock ahead of time, as the bones are all taken out before cooking. This also means you can make the turkey gravy ahead if you want.
I love everything about this simple and delicious turkey
Some of this will depend on what size turkey you need. We get a small one, as it’s usually a small group that I cook a turkey for.
In my case, this year we got a little less than a 12-pound turkey. I only had 4 people to feed, and well, one of those is a vegetarian, so only 3 people for the turkey itself. That’s a lot of turkey leftovers.
This recipe is a keeper
We’ve made this Rolled Stuffed Turkey for many years now. It’s probably been 5 or 6 times that we’ve done this. Take a look at some of the previous year’s menus: here in 2014, and here in 2012.
And, I feel like each year it gets better and easier. So, we made some pretty specific notes from this year’s turkey.
Ask the butcher, or become your own butcher
I see people say to ask the butcher to debone the turkey for you. Maybe they will. I really have no idea, as we’ve never asked. That seems like something they just wouldn’t do at our grocery store. Maybe they might debone to turkey at a nice small butcher shop. And, we do have a couple of those around us. But, I kinda don’t believe that it would happen. So, my husband has gotten pretty good at deboning the turkey.
This year, Dan found a great tutorial on YouTube on the Boneless Whole Turkey for Thanksgiving – How to Bone, Stuff, & Roast a Whole Turkey. Take a look; we think Chef John does a great job.
Stuffing
Use your favorite stuffing for the bird. Really, any kind will work. I only make one vegetarian stuffing dish, and that’s what we place in the bird when we roast it.
Here’s my recipe for my favorite stuffing and, I have a new crock pot stuffing recipe as well. Give either of those a try, or use your traditional favorite recipe.
And, make sure that when you’re stuffing your bird, you use cold stuffing, not hot. Adding hot stuffing to a cold bird can lead to increased bacteria, and possibly salmonella in your turkey.
Some notes from this year’s bird
Set yourself up for success; get a good tasting turkey. I went with an organic turkey from Sprouts. Yes, it cost a little more, but Thanksgiving only happens once a year. I think it’s nice to have a great bird during the holidays.
This year we had one large turkey roll, and the dark meat was on one end of the roll, while the white meat was on the other end.
In past years we have done two rolls with both dark and light meat throughout the roll. When we made two rolls, it took about 45 minutes to cook them all the way through.
The photo above: Rolled Stuffed Turkey – the raw turkey, deboned, stuffed, rolled, and ready to roast. We added the turkey wings to the side, they can be used for meat for the stuffing, gravy, or toss them in soup.
Recipe & cooking tips
Use a large metal roasting pan, and well oil the bottom of the pan with a neutral tasting oil like grapeseed or vegetable oil. We didn’t use any oil, butter, or syrup on the outside of the bird (other than in the bottom of the pan) this year, and it turned out great.
Position the rack in the oven at the second to the lowest position. This gives lots of room above for the bird, and sill allows for air movement around the bird.
We have a convention oven, which I love! And we set ours to the convection roast 325° F.
Cover the turkey with aluminum foil half way through roasting. This will make sure the bird doesn’t get too brown, and helps keep the moisture in.
We used the temperature probe from the oven and set it to 150° F, setting it in the largest part of the turkey. You’ll also want to test other places in the turkey to make sure that it reaches temperature. The bird will continue to cook after it has been taken out of the oven, while it rests on the counter.
Roasting times
For our 12-pound bird, it took about 1 ½ hours to roast. Again, I think understanding doneness is much more important to cooking than going by a strict temperature. This is also where the temperature probe came in handy. We also double-checked the temperature with an instant read meat thermometer.
Serving
The rolled stuffed turkey slices so nicely after its roasted. We serve these beautiful round slices that are filled with stuffing. I love how easy that it, both on the guests and on me, the cook.
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Kitchen tools you may need for this recipe
Sharp boning knife for deboning
Large metal roasting pan
Instant read meat thermometer
Oven probe
Knife and fork for carving and serving
Aluminum foil
Kitchen twine
Rolled Stuffed Turkey Recipe
Rolled Stuffed Turkey
Ingredients
- 12-15 pound turkey
- Prepared stuffing cooled
- oil
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Debone the turkey. Take a look at the video that we have linked in this post on how to debone the turkey. Place the turkey on a work surface with the breast side down. Be sure to use a sharp boning knife, and carefully debone the turkey. Save the bones for the stock and gravy.
- With a long side of the turkey nearest you, lightly salt and pepper the inside of the deboned turkey. Place some stuffing inside the center of the deboned turkey leaving at least a 1-inch border on each long side. Fold the long side nearest you over the stuffing to enclose the stuffing, then roll up the turkey from the long side around the stuffing. Do not roll it too tightly or the filling will slip out of the ends.
- Using kitchen twine, truss the rolled turkey breast crosswise at 1-inch intervals.
- Oil the bottom of a large metal roasting pan, and place the turkey on top of the oil in the pan.
- Position the rack in the oven to the second lowest, and preheat the oven to convection roast 325° F. Set the oven probe temperature, if available, to 150° F.
- After 45 minutes of roasting, or about halfway through cooking, cover the bird with foil, and continue roasting until an instant read meat thermometer reads 150° F, about 1 ½ hours for one turkey roll from a 12 pound bird.
- Carefully remove the roasted turkey from the oven, and cover loosely with aluminum foil (if not already done) and let rest for 30 minutes. Remove the twine and cut the turkey into 1-inch slices.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations, and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary based on brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes, and more.
Sandra
Fabulous presentation for any special occasion! Thanks for sharing how to debon the turkey. It’s not as intimidating as it sounds..
Brandi
This is such a great idea! I know it is so delicious too! So want to try it!