It’s for the Stuffing
Birds:
And I really like imitation crab, like what you get in a California roll. It soaks up the juices like a thirsty sponge.
Chickens, ducks and turkeys all work fantastic. Rabbit tastes like chicken, so that should work too. But whatever bird you are able to stuff, large or small, you might find yourself with more stuffing than you can possibly cram into your bird.
The easiest thing to do is to stuff it around the bird, along with the potatoes, and let it melt in the pan juices. Another option for too much stuffing: pull the skin away from the bird and stuff it on up between the skin and bird. If basted properly, this layer of stuffing can help keep the bird moist. And finally, we can do the almost unthinkable: bake that excess stuffing in a side pan. Put it in a pan as if you are making a dish of dressing. Put a bunch of chicken wings on top, and cook it until they melt into the dressing. And just like that, after all of my huffing and puffing, I have figured out a way to make it taste like stuffing.
But my favorite part of this fishy bird dish is the clam juice brine. You’ve probably heard of clam juice as a mixer, adding deep umami notes from earth and sea to your Bloody
Mary. And we can thank James Beard for nationalizing the idea that you should brine a chicken before baking it, because the salt gets in the meat, and salty meat absorbs more water so it stays moist.
My salty clam brine combines the two concepts and brings them deep into the meat. It flavors the stuffing via the fat, and adds delicious authenticity to the feast. It may not dissolve the animosity at the table, but perhaps it will at least help keep everyone’s mouths too stuffed with food to talk. And that, my friends, is the true point of Thanksgiving.
Rinse the bird, take out any giblets stashed in the cavity, and brine the bird in the clam juice with the salt and two cups of water.
Push down on the bird hard, so the body cavity fills with brine. Turn it occasionally, and marinate for at least four hours in the fridge.
Rinse the bird, pat it dry, and put it in a roasting pan. Add the oil to a fry pan and saute the onions, garlic, carrots, celery and apple with the black pepper, thyme, rosemary and sage on medium heat. After 10 minutes, add the seafood, wine and lemon juice and squeezed lemons, and cook a few minutes longer, but don’t try to cook all the seafood. Add the breadcrumbs, stir it all together and stuff it into the bird. Place the potatoes around the bird, along with extra stuffing if you go that route.
Cover with foil and place in the oven preheated to 350. After 90 minutes remove the foil. The skin of an extra-stuffed bird will have receded like the tide, leaving a bunch of mussels clinging to the bird like it’s a beach rock. The stuffing on top, including the seafood, will hold the baste like a sponge. Turn the oven down to 300. Baste every 15 minutes until done. After about an hour, use a meat thermometer to make sure the bird’s internal temp is at least 165. Rest, serve and eat.