How to Cook a Turkey, Lebanese Style
Author: Esperance Sammour
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Prep time: 1 hour
Cook time: 4 hours 30 mins
Total time: 5 hours 30 mins
An amazingly hearty and earthy Lebanese turkey recipe created with love.
Ingredients
Turkey Ingredients
Whole Turkey Cleaned, 10 lbs
Lebanese 7-spices, 2 table spoons
Cinnamon powder, 1 table spoon
Bouquet Garni (herb leave mix such as thyme, rosemary, savory, bay leaf..etc) , 5 table spoons
Salted Butter, 100-200 grams (1/4 to ½ lb)
A dash of salt
Garnish of Nuts, Ingredients
Pine Nuts ½lbs
Almond Halves ½lbs
Green Pistachio ½lbs
Raw Chestnuts (peeled) 1.5lbs
A dash of salt
Vegetable oil for light frying
Gravy Ingredients
Raw Chestnuts (peeled) 1.5lbs
Carrots cleaned and chopped 1lb
Leek, cleaned and cut, 1 cup
Celery cleaned and cut, 1 cup
1 Large onion peeled and cut
1 medium size potatoe peeled and cut into cubes
Butter (1/2 lb)
Lebanese 7-spices, 5 table spoons
Salt to taste (1/2 to 2 teaspoon)
Hashweh Rice Ingredients
1 Medium onion, chopped
Finely ground beef 100% lean, 1 lb
Salt, 1 teaspoon
Lebanese 7 Spices, 1 table spoon
Gravy, 1.5 cups
Rinsed and strained rice, 4 cups
Instructions
Preparing the Nuts
- Warm some vegetable oil in a frying pan, add all nuts and fry on medium heat until they turn golden. You may fry the nuts one category at a time.
- Place the nuts in a strainer for later use as a garnish.
Turkey Method
- Rinse the turkey with cold water, rub with salt and some flour then rinse again.
- Rub the insides and outsides of the turkey with about ¼ lb of butter, then rub it with all of the allotted spices (cinnamon, 7-spices, bouquet garni herb leaves etc..).
- Rub butter over a large aluminum foil and wrap the turkey tightly with it.
- Place the wrapped turkey on a tray in the center of an oven pre-heated to 500F and cook for 10 minutes.
- Lower heat to 350F (less than medium), and cook for 1.5 hours.
- Pull the turkey out of the oven very carefully and empty the melted butter and juices from the tray into a separate pot.
- Unrap the turkey, rub it with butter again inside and out (watch your hands), wrap it back with the aluminum foil and back in the oven for another 3 hours.
- Plan your timings so that the turkey finishes cooking about 30mins prior to serving time.
Gravy Method
- On a large aluminum foil rubbed with butter, pour all of the gravy ingredients.
- Mix well then wrap the foil tightly and place in the oven (on an optional tray) while the turkey is cooking for 30-45 minutes. We don't need to fully cook the ingredients here, but just tenderize them a bit.
- Empty the ingredients in the pot where you previously saved the melted turkey
- butter/juice, add 3-4 cups of water and boil gently until the veggies are fully cooked and
- soft. Leave contents in pot until it cools down.
- Grind finely in a food processor.
- Place contents back into pot and cover until serving time when you would reheat a few mins prior to serving.
Hashweh Rice Method
- In a pot, sautee the finely chopped onions on medium heat with some butter or vegetable oil until they start turning golden.
- Add the ground beef, salt and 7-spices, sttir well until the beef starts pinkish/brownish.
- Add the rice and stir well.
- Add 1.5 cups of gravy made in the above step and stir well.
- Add 4.5 cups of water, stir well. As soon as the pot boils, lower heat to minimum, cover and let
- simmer for 15 minutes or until fully cooked.
Serving the Feast
- Place cooked rice in a large serving tray and garnish with the fried nuts following this optional order: almonds on the outer layers, then pistachio, then pine nuts in the middle. And garnish the sides of the tray with the fried chestnuts.
- If your tray is large enough you can place the turkey in the middle, or you can place it on a separate tray along with the warmed gravy.
- Serve with love.
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