Small Batch Turkey and Stuffing Dinner

This small batch turkey and stuffing makes it possible to eat like it's Thanksgiving year-round while also being exactly the kind of meal you'll be grateful to share with other human beings in a year plagued by, well, a literal plague.

My last Thanksgiving involved a wedding, a funeral, four cross-country flights, and three different preparations of pretzel stuffing. I thought it would hold the title of "strangest Thanksgiving" for at least several more years, but then 2020 arrived and threw every normal ranking scale out the window.

So how is this Thanksgiving going to be different from most Thanksgivings? For one, it's going to be smaller. Much, much smaller. And this small turkey and stuffing recipe is exactly what you need to pull it off.

A smaller Thanksgiving calls for a smaller Turkey. And my mother-in-law, whose standard stuffing recipe includes garlic, has been making this small batch version — which can be made using one or two turkey breasts, legs, or quarters — to accommodate relatives with garlic allergies at her huge thanksgiving dinners.

She still makes the big bird, of course, but this smaller cut of turkey goes in the oven right along with it on top of garlic-free stuffing for garlic-free guests. And it's kind of the perfect size for a pandemic Thanksgiving dinner.

You know how when you make a whole turkey, the best stuffing is the stuffing that cooks inside the bird? That's because it gets to soak up all the rendered turkey fat and flavor. When you make a small turkey and stuffing dinner, you get the same benefit — only all the stuffing is the best stuffing.

The small recipe I've given you below is a very, very, very extremely simple and basic version of turkey and stuffing.

There's an herb compound butter under the turkey skin. There's sausage in the stuffing, which uses plain white bread — I really like Pepperidge Farm's Farmhouse Hearty White Bread (#notanad) — and your standard rosemary, thyme, and sage poultry blend of fresh herbs.

But I've kept it basic for a reason! You can and should absolutely use your favorite stuffing and your favorite turkey preparation. Just measure everything in smaller quantities.

If brining is your thing, brine the turkey! If you dry brine your turkey, you can do that! If you go the Helen Rosner route and take a blow dryer to it, you can do that too! It's really up to you!

a few quick expert turkey and stuffing tips

• A good rule of thumb for how much turkey you need is to assume approximately 1 pound per person.
• Patting the turkey dry before seasoning it is crucial to getting that extra crispy skin. Beyond that you can use whatever your favorite turkey seasoning methods are — brining, dry brining, different herbs, different butters, etc. I like using this method for garlic and herb roast chicken and scaling it up for a whole turkey.
• Some advice straight from my mother in law: If you're someone who regularly buys loaves of bread, save the heels of the bread in a bag in your freezer. That way you don't need to buy new bread for stuffing — the heels are perfect!
• To prevent the stuffing from browning too much on the bottom, if you have two nesting casserole dishes, put the stuffing in the smaller one and place it inside the larger one before sticking it in the oven. This helps insulate the bottom of the pan. When you take the turkey off the stuffing to let the stuffing brown, you can also use the bigger pan to put the turkey in to finish cooking.
• As always, there's going to be some carryover cooking on turkey as it rests once it's out of the oven. When the turkey hits 160F in the thickest part of the meat it is almost done (165F is when it is for sure done), so I like to pull it out at this point and let it finish cooking as it rests.
• Letting the turkey rest before slicing it helps keep it juicy — don't slice it right away. give it at least 10-15 minutes on a cutting board before you slice it up.
• Serve with this make-ahead turkey gravy!

📖 Recipe