Sous Vide Whole Stuffed Turkey

Hi -

I am a Studio Pass member and have been a fan and user of ChefSteps for a couple of years now. I love stuffing that has been cooked inside a turkey but do not love so much the dangers associated with this if one cooks the meat to the proper temperature or, alternatively, the dry meat if one cooks the stuffing to the proper (safe) temperature. I was thinking about trying to sous-vide an entire stuffed turkey, followed by browning in the oven for Thanksgiving this year. I have not been able to locate a recipe for this (maybe because it does not work?) and thought I would seek advice on how to approach this from ChefsSteps or other forum members. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks!

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Comments

brian_martin2001

If you throw a whole stuffed turkey in the sous vide, while i could be wrong, I'm pretty sure your stuffing would come out as goop. Personally, I'd make the ChefSteps turkey: https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/a-better-way-to-turkey-cook-that-bird-sous-vide-for-the-best-feast-ever

Burr instead of putting the body in the crock pot, put your stuffing in there, roast as you would, basting.

That's just what i would do. Let us know what you end up doing and how it comes out.

FrankM_3301

I agree that you don't want to sous vide the whole bird. First, the white and dark meat are best at different temps. The advantage of sous vide, in this case, is that you can cook each perfectly. I have had the best success butchering the bird and cooking the breast independently from the thigh and leg. I have deboned the thigh and leg, stuffed, rolled, and tied. Then sous vide and brown to finish. It works well.

whenric

you can also pre-heat the stuffing, and shove the (hot) stuffing into the bird. Dave Arnold and Kenji have discussed this technique before.

bkeene12

I don't think the end result would be what you'd want to eat. The volume of liquid fat and juices rendered would leave you with slosh-able stuffing instead of something you'd like to eat. Now maybe you could remove all the skin from the bird and let it dry and perhaps if you deboned the turkey you could make a giant roulade with your stuffing wrapped inside- cook this a little under done, then take the roulade from the water bath, wrap your turkey in the skin you set aside, tie it on with butcher's twine, then deep fry this to crisp the skin. Might be worth an experiment! (I would also have the backup bird on stand by in anticipation of the possible disaster.)

dancurren

I agree with the comments so far that I don't think this would work well. Cooking the dark and white meat sous vide seperately is your best bet for success. Would also try to locate some Turkey Wings and bones (a local Wild Turkey Farmer and Meat Processor in my area has these available but chicken would work otherwise) and toss them with skim milk powder and roast them then make a brown stock with them. If you can get you hands on enough a double stock would be even better... Use this for your liquid when making your stuffing on the side and you will get that roasted Turkey dripping flavour.

afrankum001

Hmm...clearly I did not think this all the way through. You all bring up very good points and this sounds like it probably is DOA. I will give this more thought and let you know if I come up with some kind of a work around. Appreciate all the responses!

FrankM_3301

By the way, I have also had luck deboning an entire turkey, stuffing, rolling, tying, and roasting. All traditional cooking, and the deboning is a little tricky, but pretty cool for something different.

meyer8863

Agree with everybody else, but I do have an idea for an alternative. Buy a couple pounds of chicken wings, and put them on top of the stuffing when you put it in the oven. The fat from the wings, will drip into the stuffing. And you can cook the hell out of wings, and they will still be yummy. I think I got this idea from America’s Test Kitchen.

tshewman

Though uncertain why you would want to do it in the bird....??? Is it for presentation and serve table-side? If that's the case, then simply do the stuffing separately and pipe it in the cavity after the Turkey is done. This will actually help insulate the bird from being overcooked during the searing stage (assuming you would sear in oven). I'm personally more of a fan of taking it apart, use the skin as a base for the stuffing (crisp in oven before serving), use the carcass for stock and sauce (and moisture for the stuffing).