A yummy Stuffed Turkey Breast with a sherry cream sauce! A great alternative if you don’t want to cook up the “big” bird for Thanksgiving!
Wow! Can you believe that Thanksgiving is next week already? I can’t, especially when I am still running around in a tennis skirt and flip flops this far into November. I’m on my 27th year in Colorado and I have NEVER done this before. I’m certainly not complaining though. I got to take one of my favorite hikes in Deer Creek Canyon last week with my dogs. The views are always stunning and it felt good to get some good cardio and a good “butt” workout! LOL! Anyway, tomorrow it’s supposed to change, get cold and snow! I can’t wait. Tommy my dog has never seen snow before so it will be fun to see what he does. I’ll take pictures for sure!
With Thanksgiving on my mind and another year of not cooking on the big day (Mom takes over here), I decided on doing my own “little” version of a turkey last weekend for a dinner party. I made a Stuffed Turkey Breast with a sherry cream sauce! OMG. I wanted to make something lighter (gluten free folks)with out all the bread stuffing normally served on the holiday, so I whipped up a version with a turkey tenderloin, mushrooms and spinach as a delicious alternative. Don’t get me wrong, this is a totally decadent dish with addition of lots of butter, cream and sherry. It’s so worth the calories though (it is the holidays afterall) and it’s way less time consuming than cooking a big bird especially when you only have to cook for a small crowd! Give this a try even for a dinner party later in the season!
Enjoy!
- 2-3 pounds of turkey tenderloins
- 2 tbs butter
- 2 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- [br][b]For the Stuffing[/b][br]
- 2 tbs butter
- 2 tbs olive oil
- 3.5 oz of Shitake mushrooms, chopped small
- 4 oz of Crimini mushrooms, chopped small
- 1/4 cup onions, diced small
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 2 tsp fresh thyme, chopped
- 1/3 cup walnuts, chopped
- 1 cup Fontina cheese, shredded
- 1/4 cup cream sherry
- 5 oz fresh spinach
- [br][b]For the Cream Sauce[/b][br]
- 2 tbs butter
- 1/4 cup onions, chopped fine
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tbs flour
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 1/4 cup cream sherry
- 1/2 cup half and half
- 1 tsp fresh thyme
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- To prepare the stuffing, melt the butter and the olive oil on medium heat. Add the onions, mushrooms, garlic, salt, pepper and thyme and saute for 8-10 minutes. Or until the vegetables are cooked through. Add the walnuts, cheese, sherry and the spinach and cook until the spinach is wilted. Incorporate well and set aside.
- To prepare the turkey, cut a slit down the center of the tenderloin. Be careful not to go all the way through. With your knife try and open it up (kinda like a book). At this point, take a meat pounder (or heavy pan) and flatten. You are just trying to enlarge the surface area. See the picture below. It shouldn’t be too thin, just thin enough so that you can close tightly around the stuffing.
- Put about 1/4 cup or so of the stuffing in the center of the turkey. Fold over and secure with picks. See picture.
- Heat up a saute pan with the butter and olive oil. Season the turkey with salt and pepper on both sides. Brown on each side. Remove from heat and place in a baking dish and add the chicken broth. Cook at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until the turkey is cooked through.
- To make the cream sauce, in a medium sized saute pan, add the butter, olive oil, onions and garlic and cook on medium heat for about five minutes. Stir in the flour and cook for another minute. Add the salt and pepper, chicken stock and sherry. Stir until incorporated and starts to thicken. Add the half and half. Simmer for about 5 minutes.
- To serve, slice the turkey tenderloins and pour the sauce over it.
Pounding out the turkey breast makes it easier to roll up and secure with picks!
Wow! Check out this view! Looking North to Boulder. I love all the red rocks glowing with the sunset!
View from the top of Deer Creek trail. Such a cool view of Denver looking over the hog back!
The Super Moon peaking through the cottonwood tree in front of my house! Seriously reminds me of what you would think about during the Salem witch trials! Spooky!