Thanksgiving Turkey And cornbread Dressing With My Family

Ugh!!!!!!! This is the only pic I have with a cooked turkey as a presentation for this recipe. My oldest brother in law came to have thanksgiving with us on Thanksgiving. He is the guy in the red shirt doing us the honors of cutting the turkey that I nearly had labored over all night to make for the holiday. I have another dish I used with the left over turkey but I can not begin to write out that recipe until I do this one first and get it out of the way because it requires leftover turkey to make.

My husband is in the white shirt standing in the background and my sister in law and my nieces were there that day too they are off to the side while waiting on my brother in law to cut the bird.

My husband and I ended up with a fresh turkey that was processed under zabiha standards. I had washed it out and took out the giblits and washed and boiled them with 3 dashes of seasoned salt and 1 pinch of black peppercorns that I ground in mortar and pestle. I let the giblets cook for 1 hour or until tender and on low heat. I made the cornbread batter by making my standard cornbread recipe.

Cornbread/ Halal Cracklin’ Bread

I am cutting to the chase, just click the link above. Just only make the cornbread and don’t add the fried chicken skin because you will need it for dressing.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 176 degrees Celsius

Now after the giblets has boiled the gizzard should be soft enough to take that hard membrane off of it. Remove it, It comes off easily. After the cornbread comes out of the oven let it cool and crumble it in to tiny pieces. Add the stock from the giblets in to the cornbread and cut the giblets up in tiny pieces. Also chop 4 stalks of celery and chop 1 onion. No it doesn’t matter which color onion you use as long it isn’t a green onion.

There is seasoned salt and black pepper already in the giblets just add the rest of the seasonings by adding 1 pinch each of sage, thyme, lemon pepper, marjoram, rosemary and tarragon. Mix and combine all of the ingredients and set the stuffing aside for stuffing the turkey later.

This spice combo is perfect for any type of poultry and makes it tastes very special.

Wash and season the turkey and put 1 cup of water in the roaster. The turkey will cook and make a lot of its own juice. The turkey seasonings is same as the one you used for the giblets. Add 5 shakes of seasoned salt on the turkey and 1 pinch of black peppercorns ground in a mortar and pestle. It tastes a lot better then already ground black pepper powder but for those that want to use it then use it. The spice grinding with mortar and pestle as you can tell is a me thing. Add 3 cloves of garlic crushed and add it all over the turkey and coat the turkey with 4 tbs of olive oil.

Add the rest of the spices 1 pinch each of sage, rosemary, marjoram, tarragon and thyme. Add 3 dashes each of maggi or knorr aroma, Worcestershire sauce and liquid smoke in the boiling giblets and turkey.

Now it is time to stuff the turkey. By this time the dressing is cool to the touch and you can stuff the cavity with this yummy dressing. Keep packing it in there until it is all used up.

Cover the turkey and put it in the oven. It is very heavy and I tag my husband to do the honors of course which he doesn’t mind at all. Cook the turkey in this oven for 6 to 7 hours or until done. Note all ovens are not the same temps so keep an eye on it by setting the timer for an hour each time as a reminder to check the bird.

When you do check it be sure there is enough juice in the roaster from the bird and baste the bird each time you check on it.

When it is done it is time to eat with the rest of the dinner and it is best to do this way before guests come.

Last year I broke with tradition because I was too tired to make Thanksgiving dinner so I opted on using the ground turkey for making pasteles instead, lol. It is still a lot of work too but I didn’t lose sleep. 😀

It was a win win situation and everyone is happy.