Sausage and Herb Stuffing

Standard fare sausage stuffing. This can be prepared in advance and reheated. Just thaw it in the fridge for 24 hours, then reheat it covered at 325 until hot. 

Ingredients

400 g of unseasoned stuffing cubes (sorry, but that's 1 + 60 g from a 2nd package)

1 stick or ½ cup unsalted butter

1 ½ cups diced yellow onion

1 cup diced celery

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped or pressed

1 lb bulk sweet Italian sausage

2 ¾ cups low-sodium chicken broth

1 large egg, beaten

1 tbsp. fresh chopped rosemary (or ½ tbsp. dried)

1 tbsp. fresh chopped sage (or ½ tbsp dried)

¼ cup fresh chopped Italian (flat leaf) parsely

½ tsp. Kosher salt

½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease a 9" x 13" baking dish with unsalted butter.

Dump stuffing cubes into a large mixing bowl.

Sauté onions and celery in butter over medium heat, stirring occasionally for about 7 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute more. Add vegetable mixture to stuffing cubes in bowl making sure to get all of it. 

In the same pan, brown the sausage till cooked through, about 8-10 minutes. Break it up as you cook it. 

Add browned sausage to bowl with cubes and vegetables. 

Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl and mix until bread is well moistened. Transfer mixture to prepared baking dish and bake for about an 65-70 minutes, uncovered. You should have a nice crispy top. 

Smoked Turkey Breast

Loved how this turned out. Perfect for smaller gathering or for those who prefer white meat. I got my boneless turkey breast from Whole Foods. I used this video but used a salting technique from Cooks Illustrated. Start the day before you need it since you'll be salting it overnight. I use an electric CookShack smoker, so if you are using something else plan accordingly to prepare your smoker. 

Ingredients

1 or 2 turkey breast halves (usually 2-3 pounders are available)

Kosher Salt

Coarse black pepper - I used Sam's Choice . Reasonably priced at Walmart. 

Dried thyme (optional)

Unsalted Butter

Instructions

1. Remove skin from the breast and salt all over with ¾ tsp per pound. 
2. Wrap with plastic wrap, put on something to catch any leaking liquid and refrigerate about 12 to  hours. 
3. Unwrap turkey breasts and sprinkle black pepper VERY LIBERALLY all over turkey. I used prepared coarse black pepper. You could grind fresh, but it's a lot of pepper. 
4. I added some thyme but that's up to you. You are after all 
5. Smoke the breast at about 250 to 275 for  2 hours.  Double wrap in foil, breast side down with the butter. I think I used about 1/2 stick per breast. 
6. You can return these to the smoker or to a 275 degree oven. Insert a meat probe and cook till internal temp is about 160-162 degrees F. I think this was about another hour. 
7. Remove from oven or smoker and let rest in foil for about 30 minutes. 
8. Remove from foil and slice. Reserve liquid for drizzling over turkey once sliced.