What a beautiful turkey. Hey! Where are the drumsticks and wings???? What about the breast???? This looks more like a beautiful pork roast than a turkey! What gives??? A whole lot of work and love. That’s what.
Can you imagine, this 16.5 pound turkey turned into a 12 pound hunk of moist, flavorful, boneless, meat? This is a true labor of love. You have to love doing this and the people who are going to eat this because you won’t do it otherwise. It really is that much work. I’m just a lucky man the Baby Lady loves me so much! 🙂 This was a delicious turkey.
Although Baby Lady and I both cook and cook together, I do the bulk of the cooking. Every now and then she looks at me with her big, beautiful brown eyes and tells me she wants to cook. How can you look into those soft, big, beautiful, brown eyes and say no? Then there are days when she has a knife in her hand telling me she is fixing dinner. Now, would you really argue with a woman with a knife capable of doing this to a 16.5 pound turkey?
I promise you that before she got to it, there were bones in there! 😮
Part of Baby Lady’s traditional Thanksgiving was cooking a turkey roll. It does make a beautiful presentation, provides a moist, flavorful, succulent meat and is easy to carve and serve. How can you possibly go wrong with a turkey like this? You can’t! That’s why when we were discussing Thanksgiving dinner and couldn’t decide between a smoked turkey and a turkey roll, we did them both. Of course, this translated into an enormous meal and a huge amount of leftovers. Nonetheless, we were not to be deterred and Thanksgiving was not only plentiful but very good, too!
Ingredients
- 1 Turkey, 16+ pounds
- 1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
- 3 medium cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary, plus 3 large sprigs
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 1 pound ground pork (you can also substitute ground turkey or chicken)
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 3 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 3/4 teaspoons freshly ground pepper
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
Instruction
Debone the turkey taking care not to cut the skin. This is not for the feint of heart and takes about an hour.
Baby Lady does a good job.
One the turkey is deboned, time to make the stuffing for the roll. To make the stuffing, add the onion, garlic, rosemary, sage, Dijon mustard, ground turkey, ground pork, eggs, heavy cream, salt, pepper and maple syrup in a large bowl.
Mix to incorporate.
Now, spread the turkey out flat. Either pound the turkey to flatten or cut it. Just make sure it is of roughly equal thickness.
Apply stuffing.
Roll Turkey.
Tie roll with cotton twine and place a sprig of rosemary along the top.
Roast at 375 F until an internal thermometer reads 155 F, roughly 12 minutes per pound. Remove from oven, tent and let rest for 15 – 20 minutes. Serve & enjoy!
NOTES: As an afterthought Baby Lady says she definitely should have cooked a smaller turkey. 😉
REMCooks 
That looks delicious!
Baby Lady says thanks for your very nice compliment. It was. 🙂
Baby Lady must love you very much 🙂 very impressive!
Thanks. I’m a very lucky man. 🙂
Baby Lady did it…I totally agree and understand how both of you work. My hubby is my sous chef and more like the critic but we do work together 🙂
It’s a great life! We make a pretty good team. 🙂 It’s a good thing to since we’re committed to each other forever. 😉
Looks good! I can tell you are a chef by the way you wrote down this recipe. Two words (debone turkey) for an hour of work (and probably more if not gifted with Baby Lady’s knifing skills).
Never argue with a woman with a knife in her hand. 😀 She did a beautiful job with this turkey. All I did was watch and help tie the twine.
Incredible! A lot of work but so worth it!
Very much worth it! Thanks. 🙂
I like making a turkey roll but I have always had the butcher debone it for me. My hat’s off to Baby Lady and her knife skills.
She is pretty incredible and did a beautiful job deboning this turkey.
She certainly is…she did a great job.
Wow!!! This looks fabulous!!! Oh my goodness!
Thanks, Alice. It was an incredible meal. 🙂
It does look like a lot of work, but I bet it was good!
It was delish and she loves to make it. As long as she makes it I will definitely keep eating it. 🙂
Looks delicious and I am so sure it tasted as good as it looks!
Adieu, scribbler
Thanks. 🙂 It was superb.
Everything is just so elegant and beautiful.. and your turkey is as well:) Great to see a photo of your love! She’s quite talented, I would let her cook any time she likes. This might be one recipe that’s out of my league. I can’t even begin to imagine how to debone a turkey! It must have been fantastic!!
She is very talented and I never argue with her when she is holding a knife. 😉 Thanks for your nice compliment. 🙂
Holy moley! Another meal I can use to impress people (the first was your awesome quiche). I like picking out bones from the turkey carcass after it’s been cooked, maybe I’ll enjoy de-boning the raw version, too!
Thanks, Jennifer. Deboning a turkey is tricky and time consuming. If you have never done it before, a good starting point is to debone a turkey breast. Cutting out the bones of the back, wings and legs without breaking the skin is tough but you never learn if you don’t try. 🙂
Yes, I can imagine those ribs will be a challenge…thanks for the tip (and the encouragement!)