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Le Chaudron recipe
Dinde farcie de Noël
Christmas stuffed turkey with chestnuts
⏱ 240 minServes 10Hard520 kcal
A recipe from Le Chaudron — the cooking of France’s regions.
01 — Ingredients10 servings
1free-range turkey, 4 kg / 8.8 lb, cleaned
500 g (18 oz)sausage meat
300 g (11 oz)cooked chestnuts
200 g (7 oz)tart apples (Reinette)
200 g (7 oz)pitted prunes
150 g (5 oz)smoked lardons
100 g (3½ oz)breadcrumbs
2whole eggs
2yellow onions
6 clovesgarlic
200 g (7 oz)softened unsalted butter
200 ml (¾ cup)Cognac
500 ml (2 cups)chicken stock
4 sprigsfresh thyme
3 sprigsfresh rosemary
5 tbspolive oil
1bunch of flat-leaf parsley
1 tspfleur de sel (flaky sea salt)
1 tspfreshly ground pepper
- 1 free-range turkey, 4 kg / 8.8 lb, cleaned
- 500 g (18 oz) sausage meat
- 300 g (11 oz) cooked chestnuts
- 200 g (7 oz) tart apples (Reinette)
- 200 g (7 oz) pitted prunes
- 150 g (5 oz) smoked lardons
- 100 g (3½ oz) breadcrumbs
- 2 whole eggs
- 2 yellow onions
- 6 cloves garlic
- 200 g (7 oz) softened unsalted butter
- 200 ml (¾ cup) Cognac
- 500 ml (2 cups) chicken stock
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 3 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 5 tbsp olive oil
- 1 bunch of flat-leaf parsley
- 1 tsp fleur de sel (flaky sea salt)
- 1 tsp freshly ground pepper
Quantities scaled for — some (egg, lemon, garlic…) are rounded to what’s practical.
Serves 10. In the app, quantities adjust to the number of guests on their own — and the ingredients go straight to your shopping list.
03 — Method
- Take the turkey out of the fridge 2 hours ahead — ABSOLUTELY essential for even cooking.
- Preheat the oven to 180 °C (350 °F) fan. For the stuffing, finely chop the 2 onions. Remove the germ from the 6 garlic cloves and chop them. Peel the 200 g (7 oz) of apples and cut into 1 cm (⅜ in) dice.
- Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in the large skillet over medium heat and brown the lardons for 5 minutes. Add the onions and cook 8 minutes until soft and golden.
- Add the garlic and apples and cook 5 minutes. Add 100 ml (½ cup) of cognac and flambé for 30 seconds. Let cool completely.
- In the large bowl, mix the sausage meat, apple mixture, halved chestnuts, chopped prunes, breadcrumbs, 2 eggs, parsley, salt and pepper.
- Season the turkey generously inside and out and rub the skin with the soft butter. Fill loosely with the stuffing and sew the opening closed with twine.
- Truss the turkey and set in the very large roasting pan with the thyme, rosemary and 200 ml (¾ cup) of water. Roast for 3 hours at 180 °C (350 °F), basting every 20 minutes.
- Raise to 200 °C (400 °F) for the last 30 minutes to brown the skin. It’s done at 75 °C (167 °F) in the thigh. Rest under foil for 30 minutes before carving. Deglaze the pan for gravy.
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