Ina Garten's Roasted Turkey Roulade and Homemade Gravy | Barefoot Contessa | Food Network

I don't know anybody who looks forward to carving a turkey on Thanksgiving. There you are, you're at the table, hot bird in front of you, everybody's watching, and you have to carve it beautifully. That's not easy. So I decided there's got to be an easier way. So I'm making a boneless turkey breast stuffed with fig and cranberry stuffing. So delicious. It's going to roll up and then all I'm going to do is just slice it when everybody arrives. First thing I'm going to do is make the stuffing. So that's three quarters of a cup of dried figs. Into a pan. Three quarters of a cup of dried cranberries. I'm just going to reconstitute them with a little bit of calvados, which is apple brandy. So good. About a half a cup of apple brandy plus a half cup of water. I'm just going to bring this up to a simmer and then just let them soak. Next I'm going to cook the onions. I've got one stick of butter that I've melted, one and a half cups of onions. Onions are really the beginning of anything that's got lots of flavor that's savory. One cup of chopped celery. It's about three stalks, but it depends on how big the stalks are. I'm just going to simmer that just for about five or ten minutes, just until they get tender. Don't want to brown them. Turkey's actually fairly bland, so I like to make a really flavorful stuffing, and sausage is perfect. So I've got three quarters of a pound of sausage. I like to sweet and hot, half and half. I don't like it too sweet, I don't like it too hot, so I figure half and half is just perfect for me. But if you like it hot, go for it. I'm just going to cook this for about ten minutes, just until the sausage is nicely browned. Remember to be sure to take the casings off if it comes as sausage links. You want to really break this up. Now I'm just going to add the dried cranberries and figs. I cooked it in calvados just for a minute and then let it just soak. Next, some fresh rosemary. I like rosemary in this, but if you love thyme, you can use thyme. You can use really any herb you like, but I think fresh green herbs really make such a difference in a stuffing like this. Okay, one and a half tablespoons, that should be about that. Just add it to the stuffing. And then some pine nuts, three tablespoons that I actually toasted. I think it really brings out the flavor, and they're cool. Really nutty, wonderful flavor, a little crunch. This is my secret little cheat, is packaged bread stuffing, herb bread stuffing from the store, and it's just so easy, so much easier than cutting up all that bread. I need three cups, and it's really good. Okay, three cups of bread stuffing, all of this sausage and figs and cranberries, all the mixture, and also the juices from soaking the cranberries, the water and calvados. One and a half cups of chicken stock. No point in making stuffing if it's really dry. One egg to hold it together. Just give it a little stir. A teaspoon of salt, half a teaspoon of pepper. Stir it all up. Does that look like good stuffing or what? So I've asked the butcher to give me a boneless turkey breast, which is actually two halves, it's not just one, so it's big, with the skin still on. You know, one of the great things about this is that usually with a whole turkey, by the time the dark meat is cooked, the white meat is dry as a bone, and everybody likes the light meat anyway. So in this case, it's just light meat. So I'm going to cook it to perfection. So I've asked the butcher to butterfly this too, so it's cut open a little bit, and you want it about the same thickness all the way through so it cooks evenly. Okay, just sprinkle it with salt and pepper, evenly on the inside. And pepper. No boring turkey at my Thanksgiving. Okay, and then the stuffing. I'm going to take enough stuffing so it's about a half inch thick. Leave a border around the outside, you don't want it to fall out of the turkey. About a half inch thick, and there's obviously too much stuffing here, so I'm going to put the rest in the pan and bake it separately. I'm going to take one end and just roll it up, just like a jelly roll. And this is why it's important to have the skin on it, because on the outside, it's going to get nice and brown, the skin's going to be just gorgeous. This is where butcher string comes in. I love this stuff. And I know there's a really fancy way the butcher does it, but you can just tie it with knots. It's so much simpler. You don't need some fancy technique. Just give it a tie on one end. See? And then cut a long length and run it underneath the turkey breast, and just loop it underneath, just like that. And then do it one more time. Just loop it underneath, underneath the whole turkey. And you have a nice little package that'll roast evenly, and it'll be really easy to take the string off. Voila. Okay, just brush the top with butter. Make sure it's nice and brown, like the Thanksgiving turkey. Sprinkle it with salt and pepper. Actually, roast it on a sheet pan with a little bit of a rack on it. It just roasts really nicely that way. Into the oven, 325 degrees for just under two hours, and it's going to be moist and delicious. Stuffing, cognac gravy, cranberry conserve. It's just not Thanksgiving without them. So first, I'm going to bake the stuffing. 45 minutes at about 325 degrees until it's crisp on the outside and just so delicious inside. Cranberry fruit conserve. I've made it the same way every year for 40 years. Why mess with a classic? This is how I make it. First, I simmer a 12-ounce package of fresh cranberries in a cup of water. Add one and three-quarter cups of sugar. Cook it for about five minutes, just until the cranberries start to pop. Meanwhile, I peel a Granny Smith apple, chop it up, and put it in a bowl with the zest of one lemon and one orange, and then the juice of the lemon and the juice of the orange. And then I add that to the cranberry mixture and let it cook for about 15 minutes. And then off the heat, I add three-quarters of a cup of raisins and three-quarters of a cup of chopped walnuts. I always make the cranberry fruit conserve early, chill it, and then just serve it for dinner. Okay, the next thing's gravy. I make a cognac gravy every year. It's absolutely delicious. This is how I make it. I heat some turkey drippings that I have left over from the last turkey I roasted. I add two cups of chopped onions and saute them over low heat for 10 to 15 minutes until they're brown and caramelized. If I don't have turkey drippings saved, I just use some butter. Then I add a quarter of a cup of all-purpose flour and cook it for about three minutes just to get rid of that raw flour taste. Then add a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of pepper, and two cups of good chicken stock, one tablespoon of cognac, or you could use good brandy, and just cook it until it thickens. I always make it in advance and just reheat it before dinner. This is such delicious gravy. So the turkey roulade and the stuffing are in the oven, cranberry fruit conserve's done. I've got the gravy cooking. Oh, the turkey's perfectly cooked. Look how nice and brown it is. I'm just going to cover it with aluminum foil and let it rest for 15 minutes, then all the juices get back into it. It's wonderful. I'm in charge of the turkey, the stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy, and dessert, and my friends are bringing everything else. How cool is that? I'm ready for a party.