thanksgiving dinner
4 lbs. boneless turkey breast
3 cups chicken broth
1/2 stick of butter
onion
rosemary
garlic
garlic powder
bay leaves
dead rooster co. black gold rub
1 acorn squash
4 sweet potatoes
honey, cinnamon, olive oil, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper (for sweet potatoes & acorn squash)
stuffing
boxed mushroom bisque
white mushrooms
other items
cast iron dutch oven
meat thermometer
aluminum foil
aluminum pie tin
as always, you'll want to start you fire are early as possible. the coals are key to this meal and are needed for the dutch oven along with the foil packets for the sweet potatoes and acorn squash.
i have traditionally cooked a turkey breast in a slow cooker for past thanksgivings, i wanted to try my hand at recreating the same thing while out in the woods and followed what i normally would have done at home; the only difference being the cooking time.
using a thawed turkey breast start by poking holes throughout, i try to jam as much garlic and onion into the actual turkey as i can, the long cooking time allows the flavors to permeate the meat. the netting that these come in are actually perfect for the next step so i always leave that on during the cooking process. take the rosemary sprigs and onion slivers and weave them through the netting, this will allow them to stay right on the meat during the cook.
the folks over at dead rooster co. (click to check them out) were nice enough to send me some of their black gold coffee based rub, i generously coated the turkey with it and then topped it off with a couple of spoonfuls of minced garlic.
now that the turkey prep is done take an aluminum pie tin, flip it upside down, cut a bunch of slits in it and place it in the bottom of the dutch oven. pour in the chicken broth add some more onions and the half a stick of butter and place the turkey on top of the pie tin. a four pound breast raised above the coals on a cooking rack took approximately three hours, so we had plenty of time to explore caddo lake before starting the sides. every half hour or so we would spin the dutch oven just to even out the heat.
of course you'll need some snacks while ya cook! cheese plate with candied pecans.
turns out four sweet potatoes is a ton when all cubed up. along with the sliced acorn squash we decided to try out a couple different flavors for these.
a few with just olive oil and pepper, one with butter and onions, one with olive oil and cayenne and a sweet one with butter, honey and cinnamon. we used three layers of aluminum foil and just made sure packets were folded tight before throwing them directly in the coal. there was no real science behind these, just make sure you have some sort of oil or butter in each one so they don't get dried out during the cooking process. we left these on the fire for about an hour until they felt tender.
for other sides we just had a box of stove stop stuffing with added onions and some mushroom bisque to which we added more of our own mushrooms. straight forward, simple, just cooked these on the coleman stove.
i started checking the temperature of the meat every half hour or so after the first hour. you'll want to pull this off the fire when it reaches an internal temp. of 160 degrees. it will continue to cook as you let it rest (fifteen minutes).
thats it! a lot of ingredients but with a few people helping we pulled everything off without a hitch.
a huge thank you to my friends folklorica and fortuna monsoon for all their help and for making this thanksgiving an amazing experience.