• Tweet
• Sharebar

• Tweet

I really love roasted turkey. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday meal and somewhere around midyear between the last Thanksgiving and the next, I start to crave a taste of the big bird. Fortunately, turkey parts are readily available in the supermarket.

Perhaps when you think of turkey, you simultaneously think of the-belly-busting meal we associate with Thanksgiving, but it doesn’t have to be that way if you don’t fill your plate with 12 side dishes!

This dinner which I prepared for myself was lovely…tasty and aromatically scented by the preparation and the finishing sauce.

I had planned to stuff the turkey thigh with the polenta but it just didn’t look like it was going to work so I cooked them separately. My thigh was so plump (oops, I mean the bird’s) that, even butterflied, it didn’t lend itself to stuffing.

Turkey
• turkey thigh (or part of your choice)
• fennel
• orange (juice + zest)
• garlic
• dried seasonings

Rub turkey with olive oil and powdered seasoning. I used my FOODalogue seasoning. Stud with garlic cloves and marinate with the juice and zest of an orange.

Bake with orange shell, sliced fennel and a few pieces of frond at 350 degrees until it reaches proper internal temperature.

Polenta
I used prepared polenta that comes in a tube. Sliced off a round, pressed in fennel fronds and pan fried it.

Sauce
The sauce was made with minced fennel, a few fronds and orange zest braised in olive oil, a spoonful of the ‘juice’ from the turkey roasting pan, a pat of butter and a splash of white wine.

Finishing Touch: I placed polenta in the orange cup which baked along with the turkey and drizzled the sauce.