The Complete Thanksgiving Meal (Meat Church)

Original recipe here.

Today we're gonna make 3 things for the Complete Thanksgiving Meal. I figured we could keep it all in one place and make your Holiday meal easy.

This is my classic turkey recipe along with my takes my recipes for sides from two talented friends of mine. Amanda Haas & Dennis Prescott. Both sides are EPIC!

• Smoked Turkey
• Smoked Sausage Stuffing - This is an adaption of the recipe by my talented friend Amanda Haas
• Garlic, Lemon & Goat Cheese Smashed Potatoes - This is a combo of my smashed potatoes that I learned from Grady Spears with a twist off the recipe from my buddy Dennis Prescott's recipe.

Well, don't forget the Old Fashioned to drink and dessert...but here are all 3 recipes in one simple place. Here are all 3 recipes. Enjoy!

Smoked Sausage Stuffing
Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 Cup celery, diced
• 1 Cup yellow onion, diced
• 1 tube breakfast sausage
• 1/2 Cup pecans, pieces
• 1/2 Cup various herbs, chopped (oregano, rosemary, thyme)
• 4 Cup Bread, Cubed (I used a fresh rustic loaf of bread from our bakery)
• 2 1/2 Cup chicken stock

Prepare your smoker or indirect grill setup
Prepare smoker at a temperature of 350 degrees F. I used hickory for this cook.

Prepare the stuffing
Pour the olive oil in a large cast iron pan and sauté the onion and celery. Remove the vegetables, set aside and now cook the breakfast sausage. Drain. Set aside. 

Mix the veggies, sausage, nuts & herbs.

In a very large mixing bowl, mix the bread slowly with the veggie\sausage\herb mixture. Add the chicken stock slowly. You want the bread to moist, but not soaking wet. Go slow, because you can add more, but can't take away. If the bread feels dry at all just add more.

Pour the stuffing into a large buttered cast iron pan or baking dish and cover with foil. Alternately, reserve half of the stuffing for use in the turkey if preferred.  

Smoke the stuffing
Place on the grill and cook for 30 mins. Covered with aluminum foil for the first 15 minutes and uncovered for the remainder of the time. All of the ingredients were previously cooked so we are ensuring it's warmed all the way through and the bread starts to toast.

Garlic, Lemon & Goat Cheese Smashed Potatoes
you certainly can use other cheese but goat cheese is amazing in this dish!
Ingredients

• 3 lb potatoes. I prefer Yukon golds, but russet or reds work as well
• 5 T, unsalted butter, melted
• 3/4 C, heavy cream
• 3/4 C, goat cheese
• 2 T, roasted garlic
• zest of 1 lemon
• 1-2 T Chives, diced for garnish
• Meat Church Holy Cow to taste

Potatoes
Peel ¾ of the skin off each potato. I leave a little skin on. Cut into 1 – 2” pieces. Cover with water in a stock pot, bring to a boil for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Remove from heat, drain and then smash the potatoes.

Melt the butter in a small sauce pan and combine with the heavy cream. Reduce by ¼. Combine this mixture with the smashed potatoes along with goat cheese, lemon zest and garlic. And add any extra butter or sour cream you like. Add Holy Cow to taste.

The Turkey

Ingredients

• 1 12-13 lb turkey
• 1 stick of butter for melting
• Meat Church Honey Hog, Holy Voodoo, The Gospel or Holy Gospel rub.

Brine

• 1 gallon water
• 1 package Meat Church Bird Bath Poultry Brine

Optional Holy Cow Honey Mustard Glaze 

• 1/2 C Honey 
• 1/4 C Dijon mustard 
• 2 T Meat Church Holy Cow

Brine:
Thoroughly mix entire contents of the package with 1 gallon of water or enough to completely submerse your turkey. You can also stir this in a pot over low heat to completely dissolve the contents. Be sure to allow the mixture to cool before proceeding to the next step.
Place the turkey in a brine bag or food safe bucket. We recommend a YETI Loadout bucket. Fill the container with the brine and refrigerate overnight or an average of 1 hour per lb.

Turkey:
Remove turkey from brine, rinse thoroughly and pat dry.
Season the outside of the turkey with our seasoning.
Smoke the turkey at 275 degrees, basting periodically with melted butter.
This cook will take approximately 3 hours.
The turkey will be done when the  internal temperature reaches at least 165 in the thickest part of the breast. The dark meat will be a higher temperature and that is ok.

Optional glaze:
While the turkey is cooking you can go ahead and prepare your glaze. Mix all glaze ingredients in a small sauce pan and bring to a simmer. Reduce by 1/3. Remove from the heat and set aside. 
Drizzle the glaze on the turkey for the last 15 minutes of the cook. I recommend doing this around 158 - 160 degrees internal temperature.