Martha Stewart shares a few of her most creative and delicious Thanksgiving recipes, putting a fun, modern spin on classic holiday dishes. From unique protein dishes to show-stopping desserts, these recipes will impress your guests and make your Thanksgiving meal more memorable.
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00:00It seems that every Thanksgiving, I look for a traditional dinner with a twist.
00:05Here's a simpler roast and one that's good for a big crowd if you want to make several of them
00:12or for just a small group. Instead of stuffing and roasting a whole turkey, you can stuff just
00:18the breast to create an equally delicious and elegant dish that cooks in less time. And in this
00:24recipe, we use a technique called ballotine, in which the turkey breast is boned, the skin is
00:32removed carefully, and I'm doing that right now by going underneath the membrane that holds the
00:38skin to the meat of the breast. And this is a half of a breast of a nice, looks like around a 12
00:47or 14 pound turkey. It's a nice piece of meat. And if you need to use the point of a sharp knife to
00:53help release it, do so. We don't want to get any holes in the skin, and we want to take it off
01:00carefully, leaving it in one whole piece, because this is what we're going to wrap the stuffed
01:08turkey breast in. And the skin, this is the whole skin, and it does stretch, so that's what we
01:16reserve. We reserve that. Now turn the turkey breast over, and now we have to butterfly it.
01:22We want to get it into a shape where we can flatten it, stuff it, roll it, and then wrap it.
01:29Get all that. Okay, so the turkey breast has some natural lines of demarcation here, and with the
01:37point of a sharp boning knife, what we want to do is get it as flat as possible, all the same thickness.
01:46Now again, if you have a good butcher, ask him to do this for you, but you can do all of this yourself.
01:55It's not difficult. So already I'm getting it much flatter. This white tendon here, you definitely
02:02want to take that out. It will be a little bit tough. And you can again take this piece of meat
02:13and fold it back with a cut. And I think a little bit here too. So now put this in between some
02:25plastic wrap. It's like unfolding a book, really. Like a nice long piece. Place your meat
02:35on it, leaving a little bit of space at the end, and fold this over, leaving some space like that.
02:50So we can spread out the meat and pound away.
02:53And pound away.
03:00Now this pounding actually spreads the meat, breaks down the fibers,
03:06and gives you a uniform thickness, which will enable you to stuff and roll. Okay.
03:16So there, that looks pretty good, and I think I will be able to roll that sufficiently well.
03:24Try to make as much of a rectangle as you possibly can, because we're going to roll it this way.
03:30Okay, here's our stuffing. This is two cups of sausage and sour cherry stuffing, with some
03:37onions, some bread squares, parsley, just a savory, delicious stuffing. Spread that out on the meat,
03:50leaving a little bit of the meat clear at that end. Very nice.
03:56Sprinkle with a little bit of salt, especially on the meat itself, and some pepper.
04:08And then you are going to roll tightly, starting with the short end.
04:15Some of the stuffing might fall out. Just put it back in.
04:21Okay, like that. And now, the turkey skin is going to go over the crease, the end,
04:37right here, and that will hold everything together with some string.
04:44So you want to cover the seam with the skin.
04:50There, that looks very good. So once you get the skin covering the seam,
04:56roll the turkey in a double piece of cotton cheesecloth. Make sure that it is cotton.
05:06Make sure that it is cotton. The cheesecloth will help keep its shape. This looks really,
05:15really good. And then we're going to tie it up.
05:21And now, to make it very even like a fancy balutin, you will tie along the plump little package.
05:33This is such a great way to eat turkey and not deal with the entire bird.
05:39Now, since the balutin is quite dense, by covering it in the turkey skin,
05:44and the buttered cheesecloth, you reduce the risk of drying out the outer layers before the roll is
05:51cooked inside. And so now, use six tablespoons of butter that's room temperature, nice and soft,
06:01and rub all over the cheesecloth. Nice thick layer. And then,
06:09with the butter, this is going to be delicious.
06:15And put this right on the baking sheet.
06:21Now, put this right into a preheated 400 degree oven and roast until the internal temperature
06:28registers 155 degrees. And that takes about 70 to 80 minutes. And then,
06:35So now, the turkey breast has rested out of the oven for 10 minutes.
06:40I am removing the trussing strings, which are coming off very easily here.
06:47Now, unroll the cheesecloth and look what's inside. A gorgeous golden brown turkey breast.
06:55Mmm.
06:56That, and it's juicy.
06:58I can just, I can smell it, I can see it. Really, really beautifully juicy.
07:05And look how pretty. Very beautiful. Now, if you want to eat this warm, just slice it into,
07:13I would say, probably like three-quarter inch slices. If you want to serve it cold as part of
07:19a buffet, you could do that, but I'm going to do it this way. I'm going to cut it in half,
07:25and then, if you want to serve it cold as part of a buffet, you could do so sliced,
07:30I think, a little bit thinner. Impressive. Delicious. Utterly gorgeous. Healthy and tasty.
07:41And out of one half of a turkey breast, you get this very, very beautiful dinner.
07:48So, now, this can be served just like that, or with a very pretty garnish of fresh herbs.
07:55Like this fresh oregano. It smells so good.
08:00You can just put a little bit down the plate. Just the tips.
08:07This would be very nice on a buffet.
08:10Now, it's your turn to impress your family and your friends with one of these delicious roasts.
08:15Now, this is the pork loin that makes the center of a porchetta. Porchetta is the name for crispy,
08:22roasted pork that's highly seasoned with aromatic herbs and spices. When Italians make porchetta,
08:28they typically debone an entire pig and then fold all the meat into the belly,
08:34roll it up, and roast it. My version today makes it much easier for the home cook to achieve the
08:40meltingly soft and juicy meat and crisp, crackling skin.
08:44This is the belly of the pork. This is typically what bacon is made out of. It's smoked or it's
08:51brined. And this should be the same size, width-wise, as the loin of pork with which
08:59it's going to be stuffed. There are several variations on seasoning, but first, before
09:04we get into the seasoning, butterfly the loin. Very carefully cut it in half and flatten it
09:11so that it's all the same thickness. There, that looks good. What a beautiful, beautiful piece of
09:19meat. This is going to be rolled up in the skin. And now take the skin side up of the belly and
09:28score it with a very, very sharp knife, approximately a sixteenth of an inch deep
09:36into two-inch diamonds. And it might take a little bit of elbow grease to get through that tough
09:44pork skin, but this is what cooks so crispy and delicious. And now we'll cut on the diagonal.
09:51Okay, so that is done. Now we're going to get ready to roll up the roast. And I'm putting down
10:00on my board butcher's strings about every two inches, long enough to tie the pork belly in a
10:07round around the loin. You'll see. But make sure you have enough strings. And use a nice cotton
10:15butcher's twine. There. Now put your pork belly on top of the strings, making sure that they are
10:26evenly spaced and nice and taut. And now make the filling. We're using for this particular porchetta
10:35three quarters of a cup of sage, very finely chopped, about a half a cup of rosemary,
10:42half a cup of really fragrant oregano, six tablespoons of fennel pollen. Now this is
10:51something that is unusual. It comes from the fennel plant. When the blossoms turn into seeds,
10:57there's this beautiful yellowy anise-flavored pollen on the plant that's harvested now as fennel
11:04pollen. And it's a wonderful scent. Twelve whole cloves of garlic that have been peeled and very
11:11finely minced. And essential, three tablespoons of lemon zest. Nice fragrant skin of yellow lemons.
11:24Stir this up with a goodly amount of black pepper and about a tablespoon of salt.
11:33This is the herb and spice filling. There are several variations on seasoning. In Rome,
11:40rosemary is dominant, while in Umbria, where this dish hails from, the Umbrians tend to play up
11:46crushed wild fennel. And now to roll up the meat. Lately seasoned the meat side of the pork belly
11:55with salt and pepper. In San Francisco in the marketplace, porchetta sandwiches are extremely
12:02popular and they are becoming more and more popular in many markets everywhere. It looks
12:09fancy, but it's street food. And ask your butcher when you're buying a pork belly
12:15that it's meaty, around 50% lean, and just get good quality pork.
12:23And now put your loin right in the center of the pork belly.
12:29Season this too with a little bit of salt and pepper.
12:36And the rest of the herb mixture.
12:40I must tell you, it smells really, really good. Pork loin does not contain much fat,
12:46so it would dry out if it's overcooked. And the juices from the pork belly keep
12:51this really, really moist. And now we can start to roll. Roll away from you.
12:59And we're going to tie with our strings. This is basically one giant roll. This is the only way,
13:07if you didn't put these strings underneath, one person could not do this. You'd have to have
13:12another person standing by to help. So this way I can tie and there. Got that one. I'll do the next.
13:26Space those strings evenly. And if it's your first time dealing with such a huge piece of meat,
13:33well, take your time and you're ready to air dry the roast in the refrigerator for three whole
13:41days uncovered. So no instant gratification here. Put this on a rack, uncovered, in your refrigerator.
13:52Now this is a little bit of make-believe. This has been in the refrigerator for three days. We
13:59made it three days ago so that I could show you an air-dried, refrigerated porchetta. The other one
14:04has gone into the refrigerator for the next three days. So place the pork, skin side up, on a rack,
14:10over a rimmed baking sheet. And I have lined the baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper.
14:16Your oven is preheated to 500 degrees. Set this on a rack in the lower third of the oven and roast
14:23for about 20 to 25 minutes. You're going to hear some crackling. And after 20 to 25 minutes,
14:30reduce the heat of your oven to 325 degrees and roast until an instant read thermometer,
14:36inserted right into the center of the roast, reaches 135 degrees. That's going to take about
14:42two and a half hours. So look how gorgeous this looks. Everybody's mouth is watering.
14:49It just looks beautiful. And it smells even better.
14:53I'm snipping off all the strings. We don't want any strings attached.
15:01And then we can slice this into less than half inch slices. Because if you're going
15:08to use this as sandwich meat, it's hard to eat through anything more than that.
15:12Look at that. Even the underside is beautiful. The skin is crackly, crisp, golden, everything it should be.
15:23I think the Umbrians would be very happy if they saw this and say, ah, they know what they're doing.
15:30So start to slice. It's very pretty. That's my favorite part.
15:38Be careful that your knife doesn't slip on the crispy skin. So each piece is beautiful.
15:47A spiral of herbs, of loin, of pork belly, and not a lot of fat at all. This is a well-cooked
15:56porchetta. You can make one just for show and then put all the slices around it if you're having a
16:02party. But let's see what a sandwich would look like. Slice your ciabatta in half lengthwise.
16:12And spoon a little bit of a salsa verde on the bread.
16:21And put your porchetta, I would slice it in half like this, and put it on the bread.
16:30And because you have so much, don't skimp. Pile on the pork and a tiny bit more of the sauce.
16:42And the salsa verde is made out of parsley and shallots and olive oil and oregano.
16:48And there you have a porchetta sandwich
16:52that will make you famous. I guarantee this porchetta will impress your friends and your
17:03family and even you. Now we're going to spatchcock a chicken. This funny word,
17:10spatchcocking, is believed to be an abbreviation of dispatch the cock, which was shorthand for
17:16prepare the chicken for roasting over a spit. I just find it very amusing and everyone loves
17:21to think of what does spatchcocking mean and what does it do? Well, I'm going to show you.
17:28I have two ways to spatchcock when you keep the breast in the center by taking out the backbone.
17:34And this is very easy to do if you have a good pair of kitchen shears.
17:39Just cut along the side of the backbone. Takes a little bit of elbow grease and you remove the
17:47entire backbone. This backbone will go right into the stockpot, so don't feel bad. You're
17:52not wasting it. There. Well, we'll put it here now and that'll go into the stockpot. And then
18:02you will flatten the chicken like this and press down on the breastbone. And that is a
18:12spatchcocked bird. And so it's all pretty even. You can trim the skin if you like, but I love
18:18skin so much that I leave all the skin on. And that is one version of a spatchcocked chicken.
18:26And then there is the other way, which some restaurants prefer to do, which is cutting down
18:32the breast, cutting this right in half along the breastbone and through the wishbone.
18:39And it makes a very different looking object.
18:44Now you can take this breastbone out. I don't know if you've seen the breastbone,
18:47but this is what it looks like. This is a piece of grizzly bone that holds that
18:53part of the breast out. That's the breastbone. And so now you can flatten this
18:59and it looks like that. And you can tuck the wings under. And this too cooks very nicely.
19:08So you can choose. You can do both if you're doing more than one chicken.
19:12So we're going to make a nice marinade by putting one medium onion into a blender jar with
19:20one half cup of parsley, two teaspoons of thyme, two tablespoons of sage,
19:30the skin from half of a lemon, two cloves of garlic, and a quarter of a cup of olive oil.
19:41Make sure you get all that olive oil out. And just blend this until it makes a nice thick paste.
19:50A nice green color.
20:01Gorgeous. It smells so good. There. So now this is going to go first under the breast of the
20:11chicken and you can put the chicken right in a resealable plastic bag. This chicken is going
20:18to stay in here for eight hours or overnight. It just really makes the meat extremely flavorful.
20:26Loosen the skin from the breast and use your rubber spatula
20:35to insert this right under the skin.
20:38And then the rest of the marinade can just go right into the bag front and back.
20:48Seal up the bag, put this on a tray, and refrigerate.
20:57So this is the fun part, wrapping the bricks. This chicken, this spatchcock chicken, is cooked
21:03under bricks and you don't want to put just a raw brick on top of your chicken. So wrap it in
21:08aluminum foil, roll it in a piece of heavy-duty aluminum, sealing the brick in completely.
21:21And then oil the brick a little bit before you lay it on top of your bird.
21:28So for a chicken this size you really do need two bricks. And these are reusable, you can use
21:35them over and over again, just change the foil. The chicken itself, well it's been wiped clean of
21:41the excess marinade and rub a little bit of oil on it. You need to to prevent it from sticking on
21:47the grill. We're using a grill pan that sits right on top of the stove and a tiny bit of olive oil
21:53on the grill pan too. You can do this in the oven, you can do this on a grill outside. Now just pick
22:02up your chicken, put it skin side down, and apply your bricks. The bricks really are to hold it flat
22:12and promote even cooking. Now if you don't have bricks, and many of us don't, you can use a large
22:18skillet, oil the bottom, and you can weight it down with cans and other heavy things. So it's
22:25been 30 minutes on the skin side, just remove the bricks and turn the chicken over, if it releases
22:35easily from the grill. And this one is releasing very nicely. So whichever way you feel comfortable
22:43turning it, with a pair of tongs and a fork such as this, doesn't that look amazing? So great, oh I
22:54love it. And now put the bricks back on, and finish cooking. It might take another 20 to 30 minutes,
23:07but test with your instant read thermometer to 165 degrees. If you don't have one of these wonderful
23:14stovetop grill pans, you should really get one. They really work well. Great for hamburgers too,
23:20because all the fat melts off and goes down in those little gullies.
23:24So we're going to continue to cook this for another 20 to 30 minutes. Now once your chicken
23:29is perfectly cooked, just let it cool for about 10 minutes. Not really cool, but rest. This will let
23:35the juices redistribute. You can carve it on the board, or you can put it on a platter like this.
23:44Garnish it with a few halves of lemon, a little flaky salt on top, a little squeeze of lemon juice
23:53overall. And you have a very simple technique which will give you perfectly cooked chicken
24:00each and every time. It is a new old way to cook chicken. Vorderman, Mississippi is the
24:06sweet potato capital of the world, and hosts an annual sweet potato festival
24:11featuring a pie eating contest and a sweet potato king and queen competition. That's how important
24:18the sweet potato is to the south. Now a nice alternative to pumpkin, especially if you don't
24:24like pumpkin, you're going to love sweet potato pie. Choose four sweet potatoes of equal size.
24:30I just make a few fork holes in it and get this right into a 400 degree oven and roast them
24:38until they are soft. It takes at least an hour, and while the sweet potatoes are roasting, it's a good
24:44idea to get your crust ready. This recipe calls for a blind baked crust, and it's a pot brisee.
24:51It's been chilled. That makes it easier to roll, and we'll get it rolled out into a nice round
24:58without falling apart. If it's well-made pot brisee, it does that. Work on a floured surface,
25:05and I like to keep turning the dough so that I'm getting a nice even thickness to my round.
25:15I like baking these pies in a glass pie plate. It bakes really well. This is a nine inch pie plate,
25:23and once you get the pastry to an even thinness, just roll it up. This is the easiest way to
25:31transfer from your rolling surface to your dish. Unfurl it. I like to use a scissor just to cut
25:41off the excess. I leave about a half inch overhang, and here I'm folding under the edge so that I can
25:50nicely flute it, and if your dough becomes a little too soft, get it right back into the
25:56refrigerator. Just a little bit of chilling will make it much, much easier to handle.
26:00So you see that looks good, and everybody has a different way of making a fluted crust,
26:08but if you use your two forefingers and your thumb, you can shape your crust very nicely,
26:16and this crust calls for blind baking, which means we're going to pre-bake the crust so that when we
26:21get the sweet potato filling ready, we pour that filling into the crust and then bake it again.
26:28Use a fork to dock the bottom of your crust. This will help the crust cook evenly and prevent
26:36bubbles or eruptions in the baking of the crust. Chill it now, and here's that gorgeous, gorgeous
26:42crust, all chilled. Oh, and make sure your oven is preheated to 375 degrees. We want to line this
26:50with parchment paper, so I have a nice round of parchment paper. A little hard to put that big
26:56round in there, so I just tumble up my paper, and now it will fit much more easily into the bottom
27:03of the crust. It works really, really well, and then pour your mixture of weights. I just use an
27:13assortment of different dried beans that I use over and over again as weights, and they fill all
27:19the nooks and crannies and do a very fine job of weighting down the crust. Get this right into your
27:25375 oven and bake until the pastry begins to color around the edges, about 30 minutes. Then you're
27:32going to remove the beans and parchment and continue to bake until the pastry is dried out
27:38and turns a light golden color, about 10 minutes more. And our sweet potatoes are miraculously
27:45ready, cooled, and we will start making the filling. So here's our beautiful pie crust. The underside is
27:53a lovely golden brown. The sweet potatoes have cooled also, and we need two and a half cups of
27:59sweet potatoes, and they peel very easily by hand. Just peel off the skin, which is loosened from the
28:06flesh by the baking, and we need two and a half cups of potato puree, and you can measure ahead
28:13of time. This looks like one cup. Just put this in your food processor, and this is exactly two
28:20and a half cups, so no problem. We'll just put this in and puree it nicely. So just process those potatoes
28:28until they're smooth. There, that's good. So that will go right into our bowl when we're ready.
28:38And into a large mixing bowl, three large eggs.
28:45Whisk those up.
28:49One and a half cups of half and half.
28:56Your sweet potato mixture. Good, deep color. That's what we want. You might ask, well, why not use canned
29:05sweet potato? This is so infinitely superior and so easy. There's no reason to use the canned variety.
29:15And sweet potatoes are readily available everywhere now. As soon as you get this pretty well mixed,
29:22add four tablespoons of melted, cooled butter,
29:26and a quarter of a teaspoon of salt, a half a teaspoon of allspice,
29:36so two quarter teaspoons of allspice, and three quarters of a teaspoon of cinnamon.
29:45Freshly grated nutmeg, about an eighth of a teaspoon.
29:49Fragrant and delightful. And the zest of a lemon, about a teaspoon.
29:57Now your oven at this point should be preheated to 400 degrees.
30:03And don't forget a third of a cup of sugar.
30:09And that's the filling. Very similar to pumpkin pie.
30:13There. Pour this right into your beautiful pie crust. Should be just about enough.
30:28Right into the oven. It'll come out in about 50 minutes.
30:32Wait till you see it baked. The pie is baked. Cool it completely before slicing.
30:38Mmm. Looks so good. Serve and delight. This delicious sweet potato pie is a
30:44southern favorite that really can't be beat. Try it instead of pumpkin.