Pete Goffe Wood’s Braaied Christmas Turkey with Mango Salsa
https://foodloversmarket.co.za/recipes/braaied-turkey-mango-salsa/
This dish is the essence of the Southern Hemisphere Christmas experience – family and friends around the fire, screaming kids in the pool, glaring sunshine, ice cold bubbles and not a care in the world. There’s no better way to do a turkey than on the Weber braai! Fresh, juicy mangoes in season, they’re the pair perfectly with the succulent turkey in this Mango & Chill Salsa.
Pete’s favourite side dish for this Christmas is a simple New Potato salad with pancetta.
Ingredients
- 1 x 3.5kg Food Lover’s Market turkey
- 2 onions
- 50g butter
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 150g streaky bacon/pancetta
- ¼ loaf white bread
- 500g pork sausage meat, removed from casing
- 100g chicken livers
- 10g sage
- 3 eggs
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Mango and Chilli Salsa
- 4 large mangoes
- 1 cucumber
- 2 red peppers
- 2 red chillies
- 30g ginger
- Zest and juice of 2 limes
- 30ml (2 Tbsp) sugar
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 2 handfuls coriander, roughly chopped
New Potato & Pancetta Salad
- 2kg new potatoes
- 200g pancetta
- 2 red onions
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 100ml balsamic vinegar
- 300ml extra virgin olive oil
- 20g mint
- 20g flat leaf parsley
Directions
- Cut off the legs and thighs, then remove the skin and the bones. Cut the meat into chunks and feed through a mincer.
- Cut out the spine using poultry shears, leaving the breast on the bone, or the crown, as it is known.
- Remove the wings as well. Keep the wings and backbone – freeze them and use them for stock at a later date.
- Put the breast on the bone into the brine and leave in the refrigerator for maximum 6 hours.
- Finely chop the onions and garlic and dice the bacon/pancetta. Gently fry the onion, garlic & bacon in the butter in a saucepan. When the onion is translucent, remove from the heat and allow to cool.
- Roughly chop the chicken livers and combine them with the sausage meat, as well as the minced turkey.
- Cut the crusts off the bread and blitz into fresh breadcrumbs in a food processor.
- Add the breadcrumbs and egg to the meat. Add the cooled onion mixture together with the chopped sage to the rest of the ingredients and season to taste.
- Shape the mixture into a long roll, then roll in tin foil and leave in the fridge overnight.
- Remove the turkey breast from the brine and pat dry with kitchen paper. Brush with a little olive oil.
- Put the breast skin side up, together with the rolled stuffing wrapped in the foil, on a Weber over indirect coals. Close the lid, leaving the top and bottom vents open and cook for approx. 90 minutes. Cooking times may vary depending on the size of the turkey, so it may be best to use a meat thermometer to determine when the bird is done. You are looking for an internal temperature of about 80ºC.
- When the breast and stuffing are done, they both need to rest for about 30 minutes. The best way to keep them both warm while they rest is to wrap the breast in foil and put both the breast and the stuffing into an empty cooler box and close the lid – they will retain their heat while resting.
- When the bird has rested, bring to the table and carve.
- Serve with the potato and pancetta salad and the mango salsa.
- Peel the mangoes and cut into a large dice.
- Cut the cucumber in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds.
- Dice the cucumber and peppers, and add to the mango. Grate the ginger into the salsa. Chop the chillies and add to the mix.
- Add the lemon juice, sugar, salt and pepper. Finally, add the chopped coriander.
- Put the potatoes in a pot, cover with water, add a hefty pinch of salt and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and cook until they are just soft.
- Remove from the heat and leave to cool in their cooking liquid.
