Linden Creek Dairy & Blackberry Meadows Farm Thanksgiving Recipes | Turkey, Stuffing, Mac & Cheese
Combining the amazing ingredients from both Linden Creek Dairy and Blackberry Meadows Farm, we have unconventional recipes to try for your Thanksgiving dinner, or next big dinner party.
What we’re featuring from each of the farms:
Linden Creek Dairy
Cheddar Cheese Curds
Regular Creamline Whole Milk
Blackberry Meadows Farm
Pork Chorizo
Free-range Turkey
Bacon
SPICY CHORIZO STUFFING
We’ll start by making our stuffing for the turkey. This is going to go inside of the bird, so we want to make this first. As an untraditional stuffing, we’ll make this with chorizo from Blackberry Meadows Farm. With the spicy chorizo, this stuffing will be one of a kind. Place ½ a stick of butter into your pan to melt this down. Then add ½ tablespoons of oil before adding in your chorizo mixture.
Next, we’ll take the chorizo and cook this down in the butter and oil. Just cook this about halfway, since we are going to be throwing this into the oven to bake either in the turkey or the rest of the way. Move on to adding in your aromatics which can be carrots, onions, and celery. Then season everything with salt and pepper.This chorizo sausage already has a lot of seasoning and punch, so you don’t need to add too much more seasoning.
Let your veggies simmer until mostly translucent. Then go in with a cup of chicken stock and simmer everything together for 3 to 5 minutes. Season this with salt and pepper again, and then slowly add in your breadcrumbs. How much of your breadcrumbs you add depends on how much they absorb the moisture from the broth and butter. Be careful not to add to much bread, because this will dry out your stuffing.
Chef’s Tip: This is the time to add poultry seasoning. If you add it too early on your stuffing will get dark. Then finish it off by adding fresh thyme and chervil.
Take majority of the stuffing and place it onto a sheet pan. Save some to stuff inside of the turkey. You’ll know your stuffing is the right consistency if you can take a small amount of it and form it into a ball that doesn’t fall apart. This means that it’s not too dry.
This will bake for about 15 to 20 minutes at 350°. We’ll take this and place about half into the turkey, and the other half we will serve by itself.
Ingredients
- 1 lb spicy pork chorizo
- 1 large carrot
- 1 celery sticks
- ½ white onion
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 4 cups breadcrumbs
- 1 tbsp poultry seasoning
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp pepper
- 1 stock thyme
- 1 stock chervil
- 1 stick butter
- 1 tbsp oil
Method
- Place butter in pan and let it completely melt
- Add oil into pan, and then chorizo sausage
- Cook the sausage most of the way
- Add in carrots, onion, and celery and cook till mostly translucent
- Add in chicken stock and simmer for 3 – 5 minutes
- Fold in bread a little bit at a time
- Form a ball to check consistency of stuffing, if the ball falls apart it’s too dry
- Bake at 350° for 15 – 20 minutes or add to turkey to bake
GRASS FED FARM-FRESH TURKEY
We had the honor of getting on the list for a Blackberry Meadows Farm turkey. Even though they had a limited stock, we still got a bird so we can walk you through how to get the best tasting farm-fresh turkey.
This turkey was 10 pounds, so if you calculate that it would be 12 minutes per pound. Which means this turkey will take about 2 hours to cook completely. If you have a bigger turkey that’s around 20 pounds, it will take 3 to 4 hours instead.
Pat the outside skin dry and season this with salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning. Don’t miss any of the sides. If you’re worried about your turkey burning, one thing you can do to prevent the wings from burning is bend them back and tuck them under the turkey. They will sit in the bottom of the pan where the juices are, and they won’t be exposed to direct heat and burn.You can also just place tin foil over top of the wings.
Then take the skin and separate it from the breast. This is the perfect cavity to stuff butter, fresh thyme and rosemary, or even lemons. It will add seasoning to the breast and make the whole turkey flavorful. Once you’ve seasoned the turkey to your liking, place it on a sheet tray and pour 2 cups of water into the base of the tray. This will ensure that the inside of the oven steams, keeping the moisture in the turkey.
If you’re using a roast probe that plugs into your oven, dial it into 165° for the internal temperature. Make sure you insert it 80% of the way into one of the thickest parts of the bird: breast or thigh. If you aren’t using a roast probe, you can monitor the internal temperature with a regular meat thermometer.
Regardless of what you’re using, the internal temperature should reach 165°. If you are using a convection oven with the roast probe capabilities, you’ll only need to set the roast temperature to 350°. If you are using a non-convection oven, then set your temperature to 375°. Place your turkey on the lowest rack or as close to the bottom of the oven as you can. If it’s too close to the top the skin will burn before the inside of the turkey cooks completely.
Around 120° check the turkey for browning. At this point you will probably want to put aluminum foil over the top of the turkey, that way it continues to cook without the skin burning. After about 2 hours or until your turkey reaches 165° internal temperature, let it rest for at least 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Ingredients
- 1 whole turkey
- 2 tbsp poultry seasoning
- 2 tbsp salt
- 2 tbsp pepper
- 1 stock rosemary
- 1 stock thyme
- 2 cups water
- 3 tbsp butter
Method
- Pat turkey dry before adding choice of seasonings on the outside
- Season with poultry seasoning, salt and pepper
- Separate breast and skin, and place butter and fresh herbs between skin and breast
- Tuck wings under to prevent from burning
- Preheat oven at 350° convection roast or 375° non-convection
- Set roast prove to 165° (or monitor as you cook until turkey reaches internal temp of 165°)
- Roast for 2 – 4 hours, or 12 minutes per pound
MAC AND CHEESE
Mac and cheese is untraditional for Thanksgiving or the holidays, but you really can’t go wrong with mac and cheese. We are going to do a thick and creamy traditional mac and cheese with Linden Creek Dairy’s cheese curds and milk.
Start by adding 1 stick of butter to the pan and letting it melt down. Then take about ½ cup of flour and mix this into the butter. This is going to create what’s called a golden roux. It’s a mixture that will just bind everything together. Then we can add in 1 cup of the milk, which is so fresh and natural that it looks like heavy cream.
We will add 2 cups of chicken stock into this as well. Bring this up to a boil and let it cook for 2 to 3 minutes. You can cook your pasta off to the side, or have it already done and ready to go right in.
Add your pasta and let this cook for 2 to 3 minutes on simmer. Don’t forget to add your cheese. We are going back in with the Linden Creek Dairy’s cheese curds.
Stir this on a simmer until the cheese completely melts. You’ll also want to season this with salt and pepper. Kick this up a notch with some bacon. We also have bacon from Blackberry Meadows Farm and tying the two together we added some bacon on top of the mac and cheese and overall presentation of our turkey, stuffing, and mac and cheese.
Ingredients
- 12 oz elbow noodles or pasta or choice
- 1 cup fresh milk or heavy cream
- 1 stick butter
- 1 ½ lbs cheese curds
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp pepper
- 2 cups chicken stock
- ½ cup flour
Method
- Melt butter in pan until completely melted
- Add ½ cup of flour and mix in until smooth
- Mix in the heavy cream and chicken stock
- Bring to a boil for 2 – 3 minutes
- Add pre-cooked pasta and season with salt and pepper
- Let simmer for 2 – 3 minutes
- Add cheese and mix until completely melted
- Season with salt and pepper again, then serve
With all these amazing ingredients from Linden Creek Dairy, and Blackberry Meadows Farm, we were able to make an atypical Thanksgiving or holiday dinner. When it comes to flavor and freshness, you can’t beat buying local. Support your local farms and businesses, and you’ll find that your food tastes fresh, and flavorful. Try out these recipes this holiday season!
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