This is the only way I will ever serve turkey for the rest of my life. Super moist and tender turkey, slathered in fig jam, sprinkled with sage, and wrapped in flakey puff pastry. I’m pretty sure if I didn’t make this for Thanksgiving, my husband would find that grounds for divorce.
I’ve been promising to get a post written about this recipe for ages, but I’ve been avoiding it because I’ve never had an exact recipe written down. I first made this about 15 years ago, when I was hosting Thanksgiving, and I was vegan at the time. I researched the heck out of how to roast a turkey since I had never made one, and then decided to be extra and make a wellington. I wrote down exactly what I did, in pink pen, in a Hello Kitty cupcake journal, and I’ve finally transcribed it all for you.
Ingredients
Roast Turkey
- Bone in turkey breast
- 3-4 large carrots
- 1-2 white or yellow onions
- 4-5 celery stalks
- 3-4 cups chicken or turkey stock
- Some garlic cloves
- Kosher salt
- Black pepper
- Dried thyme
- Dried sage
- Butter (optional)
- Maybe an orange or lemon
Wellington
- Puff pastry (thawed)
- Fig jam
- Dried Sage
- An egg
Gravy
- Drippings from roast turkey
- Gravy packet from turkey
- Half-and-half or cream
- Cornstarch
- Seasonings to taste
Roast Turkey
Step 1:
- Buy yourself a bone-in frozen turkey breast, bonus points for one that comes with a gravy packet. They’re sold just like whole turkeys, but they’ve had their wings, thighs and legs removed. You only need the breasts for this recipe, but if you want to roast an entire turkey, buy one of those so you can munch on a drumstick while you impatiently wait for your wellington to finish baking.
- Defrost the bird in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours before roasting. No, you can’t cook an entire frozen turkey. And no, you can’t thaw that bad boy in the microwave. Do not thaw it at room temperature! Plan ahead and thaw your turkey for a day in the refrigerator like a civilized individual.
- I’ve never brined my turkey, and they always come out amazing, flavorful, and juicy. If you want to brine your turkey, go nuts, but I don’t have a recipe or instructions for that.
Step 2:
- Rinse off your defrosted turkey in a clean sink with the faucet on a low setting so you don’t spray salmonella all over your kitchen. Remove the gravy packet from the turkey cavity, wash it with soap and water, and then keep it so you can make some gravy later. Then pat your clean turkey dry with some paper towels.
- Roughly chop up some carrots, celery, an onion or 2, and toss them in the bottom of a roasting pan with some cloves of garlic. If you don’t have a roasting pan, like I didn’t when I took photos for this recipe, toss the veg in a big pie pan or casserole dish. Anything you have that is oven safe and will fit a turkey will work.
Step 3
- Preheat your oven to 325°F
- Rub your turkey with some thyme, sage, pepper, and kosher salt. How much? I never measured, but maybe like 2-3 teaspoons of everything. Sage is a strong flavor, so a little less of that. Don’t be afraid, season that birdy.
- If you’re feeling extra fancy, take some room temperature butter and squish it up with some of those herbs and rub it all up under that turkey skin.
- Now take some of those vegetables and shove them up inside that turkey cavity. If you have a lemon or an orange, chop it up and shove it in the turkey along with those vegetables.
- Pour some turkey, chicken, or veggie stock in your roasting pan.
Step 3
- Roast that turkey in the oven.
- At this point, if your puff pastry is frozen, remove it from the freezer and set it on the counter to thaw out.
- And wipe your kitchen counters and sink down with some clorox wipes incase you got raw turkey on anything. Do not feed your family or guests food poisoning for Thanksgiving.
- Keep an eye on your turkey while it’s roasting and add some more stock to the pan if dries out.
- How long do you roast a turkey? It depends on how big it is, and I borrowed a guide from the Food Network…
Turkey Roasting Times (per the Food Network)
- 4 to 8 pounds (breast only): 1 ½ to 3 ¼ hours
- 8 to 12 pounds: 2 ¾ to 3 hours
- 12 to 14 pounds: 3 to 3 ¾ hours
- 14 to 18 pounds: 3 ¾ to 4 ¼ hours
- 18 to 20 pounds: 4 ¼ to 4 ½ hours
- 20 to 24 pounds: 4 ½ to 5 hours
Step 4
- When your turkey looks all golden and delicious, stick a meat thermometer in it.
- I might have forgotten to tell you you’ll need a meat thermometer for this part, but you’ll need a meat thermometer.
- If it reads 165°F, remove it from the oven. If the temperature is lower than that, let it roast for longer so you don’t give anyone food poisoning.
- Once you’ve removed it from the oven, place a little foil tent over it and let it camp out under its tent until its cooled down a bit. This may take an hour or so.
- Once it’s cool enough to handle, move it to a big cutting board, remove the skin, and cut off the breasts. I don’t have a tutorial on how to remove the breasts, I just start in the center of the breast bone and cut down along the bones with a sharp serrated knife. You can probably google how to do that if you don’t already know how.
- If you want to make turkey stock, save the turkey carcass.
- Discard the veggies in the pan and inside the turkey, and reserve any drippings and liquid left in the pan for your gravy. Strain the liquid thru a fine mesh strainer.
Turkey Wellington
A traditional Beef Wellington consists of a beef tenderloin wrapped in layers of pâté, a finely chopped mushroom mixture called duxelles, and prosciutto, all baked in puff pastry.
If you look for Turkey Wellington recipes, most consist of turkey with cranberry sauce, and a layer of stuffing. So if you wanted to add a layer of stuffing, I’ve never done it myself, but I imagine that would be delicious.
Step 1
- Slather an entire turkey breast with fig jam. I usually use about a half jar per breast. Then sprinkle on some dried sage and place it on one of the sheets of puff pastry.
- Repeat the same process with the second breast.
Fig Jam
If you can find Dalmatia fig spread, it’s my absolute favorite. Occasionally I have been able to find it at Target. But they always have it at World Market, if you have one of those nearby, and just make sure not to get the chocolate fig spread. Otherwise, you can order it online, or use whatever fig jam that’s available in your local supermarket.
Step 2
- Wrap up the breasts tightly in puff pastry. Cut off any excess puff pastry, and use some water or egg wash to stick the puff pastry to itself.
Step 3
- Beat an egg in a bowl, and then brush an egg wash all over the puff pastry.
- Pop the unbaked Wellingtons in the freezer until the puff pastry is cool to the touch. You don’t want to put warm puff pastry in the oven, or it will just stay doughy and not get all flakey and crispy.
- While your Wellingtons are chillin’ in the freezer, preheat your oven to 400°F.
Step 4
- Bake your Wellingtons in a 400°F oven, on a parchment paper or silicone mat lined sheet pan, until nice and golden brown. It’ll take anywhere between 20-40 minutes, depending on how large they are.
How to Make Gravy
- Take the drippings leftover from the turkey and pour into a sauce pan.
- Empty contents of the gravy packet from the turkey into the same saucepan.
- Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat, then measure a couple tablespoons of the hot liquid into a bowl, add a tablespoon of cornstarch, and make a slurry.
- What is a slurry? A slurry is a small amount of liquid and cornstarch that helps thicken a sauce. If you were to add the cornstarch to the entire saucepan of liquid, it wouldn’t dissolve and you’d just get a bunch of gross clumps of cornstarch in your gravy. So you dissolve it into a little bit of liquid, and make a slurry.
- Now add the slurry back into the simmering liquid and add some half-and-half or cream. Depending on how much liquid you have, and how creamy you like your gravy, somewhere between ¼ – ½ cup. If you don’t like creamy gravy, don’t add any cream.
- Taste your gravy and season to taste with salt, pepper, thyme and sage. Throw some garlic in there if you like garlic. Maybe some rosemary, onion powder, or seasoning salt too. Whatever you like, just make it taste yummy.
- Let the gravy simmer, stirring frequently, until it’s nice and thick.
Turkey Stock
- If you hung on to the turkey carcass, you can make some delicious turkey stock.
- Clean all the meat off the bones, and then toss the bones into a crockpot with some chopped onion, carrot, celery, garlic cloves, teaspoon of peppercorns or ½ teaspoon of ground pepper, bay leaves, and some sprigs of fresh herbs. I used sage, rosemary, thyme, and parsley. If you don’t have fresh herbs, use a teaspoon or 2 of dried herbs.
- I don’t add salt to my stock, so that I can control the amount of salt in the recipe for whatever I’m using the stock for.
- Fill it up crockpot with some water, leaving about ½ inch room at the top, cover and then cook on low for at least 12 hours.
- Let the stock cool for about an hour so you don’t burn yourself, remove all the large pieces with tongs and discard, then strain liquid thru a fine mesh strainer. If you want a really clear stock, you can double strain the liquid thru some cheesecloth or a coffee filter.
- Store in containers in the fridge for up to 5 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.
- If you don’t have a crockpot, you can make stock in a large stockpot on a stovetop. Bring everything to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cover with a lid, and simmer for 3-4 hours.
- If you want to use your instant pot, 30 minutes on high pressure, then allow to naturally release.
Fig and Sage Turkey Wellington
Equipment
- mixing bowls
- whisk or fork
- pastry brush
- serrated knife
- roasting pan or large casserole or pie dish
- foil
- meat thermometer
- sheet pan and parchment paper
- sauce pan if making gravy
- crockpot if making stock
- large strainer
Ingredients
Roast Turkey
- 1 bone in frozen turkey breast thawed in refrigerator for at least 24 hours
- 3-4 large carrots roughly chopped
- 1-2 white or yellow onions roughly chopped
- 4-5 celery stalks roughly chopped
- 6-10 garlic cloves
- 3-4 cups chicken, turkey, or vegetable stock
- 2-3 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2-3 teaspoons black pepper
- 2-3 teaspoons dried thyme
- 1 ½ teaspoons sage
- 1 stick room temperature butter optional
- 1 orange or lemon optional
Turkey Wellington
- 1 jar fig jam/spread
- 1 box puff pastry, 2 sheets thawed
- 1 teaspoon dried sage
- 1 large egg
Turkey Gravy
- strained and reserved dripping from turkey pan
- gravy packet from frozen turkey
- ¼-1/2 cup half-and-half or cream (optional)
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- salt and pepper
- preferred herbs
Turkey Stock
- reserved turkey carcass
- 2-3 large carrots roughly chopped
- 2-3 celery stalks roughly chopped
- 1 large onion roughly chopped
- 6-10 garlic cloves
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon peppercorns
- 2-4 sprigs each of your favorite fresh herbs (thyme, sage, rosemary, or parsley)
- water
Instructions
Roast Turkey
- Defrost the turkey in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours before roasting.
- Preheat your oven to 325°F
- Rinse off your defrosted turkey in a clean sink with the faucet on a low setting so you don't spray salmonella all over your kitchen. Remove the gravy packet from the turkey cavity, wash the packet with soap and water, and then keep it so you can make some gravy later.
- Pat your clean turkey dry with some paper towels.
- Rub your turkey with thyme, sage, pepper, and kosher salt.
- If you want, you can also mix up some room temperature butter with the salt, pepper, sage, and thyme, and rub it under the turkey skin.
- Place chopped veggies and garlic in the bottom of roasting pan or large casserole dish with 2-3 cups of stock.
- Fill cavity of turkey with some of the chopped vegetables, along with a chopped lemon or orange (optional), and place turkey on top of veggies.
- Roast in oven until internal temperature reaches 165°F. Refer to turkey roasting times in notes.
- Remove from oven, tent a piece of foil over turkey, and allow to rest for 20-30 minutes, then transfer turkey to a large cutting board and allow to sit for another 20-30 minutes, until it's cool enough to handle.
- Strain liquid left in roasting pan, reserve the liquid for gravy, and discard vegetables.
- Once turkey is cool enough to handle, remove skin, and carve off each breast.
- Reserve turkey carcass if making turkey stock.
Turkey Wellington
- Unroll or unfold 2 sheets of thawed puff pastry and set on counter.
- Slather 1 of the turkey breasts with ½ jar of fig jam, then sprinkle on ½ teaspoon of dried sage, and place it on one of the sheets of puff pastry. Repeat the same process with the second breast.
- Wrap up the breasts tightly in puff pastry. Cut off any excess puff pastry, and use some water or egg wash to stick the puff pastry to itself.
- Place wrapped breasts on a silicon mat or parchment paper lined sheet pan, seam side down, and brush with an egg wash.
- Place the wrapped breasts in the freezer for 20-30 minutes, until puff pastry is cool to the touch.
- Preheat oven to 400°F
- Bake Wellingtons in oven for 20-40 minutes, until golden brown.
- Remove from oven, allow to cool on sheet pan for 10 minutes, slice and serve.
Turkey Gravy
- Take the drippings leftover from the turkey and pour into a sauce pan along with the contents of the gravy packet from the turkey.
- Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat, then measure a couple tablespoons of the hot liquid into a bowl, add a tablespoon of cornstarch, and whisk together to make a slurry.
- Add the slurry back into the simmering gravy and add some half-and-half or cream. Depending on how much liquid you have, and how creamy you like your gravy, somewhere between ¼ – ½ cup.
- Taste your gravy and season to taste with salt, pepper, thyme and sage. Throw some garlic powder in there if you like garlic. Maybe some rosemary, onion powder, or seasoning salt. Use whatever seasonings you like.
- Let the gravy simmer, stirring frequently, until thickened.
Turkey Stock
- Clean all the meat off the turkey bones, and then toss the bones into a crockpot with some chopped onion, carrot, celery, garlic cloves, teaspoon of peppercorns or ½ teaspoon of ground pepper, bay leaves, and some sprigs of fresh herbs. I used sage, rosemary, thyme, and parsley. If you don’t have fresh herbs, use a teaspoon or 2 of dried herbs.
- I don’t add salt to my stock, so that I can control the amount of salt in the recipe for whatever I’m using the stock for.
- Fill it up crockpot with some water, leaving about ½ inch room at the top, cover and then cook on low for at least 12 hours.
- Let the stock cool for about an hour so you don’t burn yourself, remove all the large pieces with tongs and discard, then strain liquid thru a fine mesh strainer. If you want a really clear stock, you can double strain the liquid thru some cheesecloth or a coffee filter.
- Store in containers in the fridge for up to 5 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.
Notes
Turkey Roasting Times
- 4 to 8 pounds (breast only): 1 ½ to 3 ¼ hours
- 8 to 12 pounds: 2 ¾ to 3 hours
- 12 to 14 pounds: 3 to 3 ¾ hours
- 14 to 18 pounds: 3 ¾ to 4 ¼ hours
- 18 to 20 pounds: 4 ¼ to 4 ½ hours
- 20 to 24 pounds: 4 ½ to 5 hours
- Buy yourself a bone-in frozen turkey breast, bonus points for one that comes with a gravy packet. They’re sold just like whole turkeys, but they’ve had their wings, thighs and legs removed. You only need the breasts for this recipe, but if you want to roast an entire turkey, buy one of those so you can munch on a drumstick while you impatiently wait for your wellington to finish baking.
- Defrost turkey in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours before roasting. No, you can’t cook an entire frozen turkey. And no, you can’t thaw that bad boy in the microwave. Do not thaw it at room temperature! Plan ahead and thaw your turkey for a day in the refrigerator like a civilized individual.
- I’ve never brined my turkey, and they always come out amazing, flavorful, and juicy. If you want to brine your turkey, go nuts, but I don’t have a recipe or instructions for that.
- Make sure to disinfect countertops and sink after rinsing and handling raw turkey.
- To reheat leftover Turkey Wellington, I find it best to heat up in a toaster oven at 350°F for 5-10 minutes, to crisp up the puff pastry.
- If you don’t have a crockpot, you can make stock in a large stockpot on a stovetop. Bring everything to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cover with a lid, and simmer for 3-4 hours.
- If you want to use your instant pot to make stock, 30 minutes on high pressure, then allow to naturally release.
Cristina
Read your hubby’s comment in Twitter and we have to try it. Love all the tips in the recipe. Made it today (Thanksgiving ’22) and it’s delicious. Thank you!
Tyler April Townley
I love everyone that found me from my husband’s comment on twitter🤣 I’m glad you liked the recipe! It’s the only way we eat turkey in this house.
Lola Mirt
You’re the absolute best. Thank you