- Prep: 300 min
- Cook: 90 min
- Yield: 10 servings
Ingredients
1 whole turkey, around 4 kg
100 gm onion
10 gm green cardamom
5 gm cinnamon sticks
10 gm black cardamom
10 gm cloves
2-3 bay leaves
2 litres of clear chicken stock
40 gm butter for basting
For Marination
250 gm yoghurt
60 gm garlic paste
60 gm ginger paste
15 gm red chilli powder
15 gm salt
For Filling
500 gm chicken mince
50 gm clarified butter
20 gm garlic flakes
15 gm ginger
5 gm green chilli
5 gm fresh red chilli
20 gm roasted pistachio
20 gm almonds
10 gm royal or black cumin seeds
5 gm black pepper powder
5 gm green cardamom powder
5 gm mace powder
10 gm salt
For Gravy
75 gm clarified butter
30 gm garlic paste
20 gm ginger paste
250 gm yoghurt
6 gm coriander powder
3 gm red chilli powder
3 gm turmeric powder
10 gm salt
60 gm almond paste
30 gm char magaz / melon seed paste
60 gm fried onion paste
2 gm green cardamom powder
1 gm mace powder
1 gm saffron
10 ml rose Water
Directions
For Marination
1. Whisk yoghurt in a bowl, add the remaining ingredients, and mix well. Evenly rub the turkey with this marinade and set aside for at least two hours (preferably overnight).
For Filling
1. Wash green and red chillies. Slit, de-seed and chop finely. Heat ghee in a kadhai, add the garlic and ginger pastes and bhunno/stir-fry over medium heat until the moisture evaporates.
2. Add the mince and saute for 2-3 minutes. Remove, cool, add the remaining ingredients, and mix well.
For Stuffing
1. Stuff the abdominal cavity of the turkey with the filling and the eggs from the tail end, then double up the legs, ensuring that drumsticks cover the opening through which the filling was stuffed and tie firmly with string.
2. Gently twist the winglet bones to make the bird more stable when placed on its back.
For The Mire Poix
1. Peel, wash and slice onions.
For Gravy
1. Whisk yoghurt in a bowl, add coriander, red chillies, turmeric and salt, mix well and keep aside. Crush the saffron threads with a pestle or the back of a spoon, soak in rosewater and then make a paste.
For Cooking
1. Preheat the oven to 190°C.
2. Spread the onions in a large food pan. Sprinkle cardamoms, cinnamon, cloves and bay leaves, and arrange the stuffed turkey on top.
3. Pour the chicken stock. Braise the turkey for 50 minutes in a preheated oven. Remove and arrange the turkey on a greased roasting tray and reserve the jus for the gravy.
3. To prepare the gravy, heat ghee in a handi/pan, add the garlic and ginger pastes, bhunno/stir-fry until the moisture evaporates.
4. Remove handi/pan from heat, stir in the yoghurt mixture, return handi/pan to heat, bhunno/stir-fry over medium heat until specs of fat leaves the sides
5. Then add the almond and char magaz pastes, bhunno/stir-fry until the fat leaves the sides, add the fried onion paste and bhunno/stir-fry until the fat leaves the sides. Add the reserved jus.
Assembly
1. Pour the gravy over the turkey arranged in the roasting tray and cook in the preheated oven, basting with butter at regular intervals for 20-25 minutes or until the turkey is fully cooked and the gravy becomes brown.
2. Remove, untie the turkey and reserve the gravy.
