Peru com Bacon e Castanha Portuguesa (Turkey with bacon and chestnuts)

For the stuffing:

400 g chestnuts, cooked and peeled

2 onions, sliced

2 Tbsp butter

150 g bacon, cubed

100 g pork belly, grounded

200 g pork tenderloin, grounded

1 Granny Smith apple, cubed

4 garlic cloves

1/4 tsp grounded cinnamon

1/4 tsp grounded bay leaf

1/8 tsp freshly grounded nutmeg

salt and pepper to taste

In a skillet put butter to melt and add pork belly. Let it quickly cook and add the bacon, the pork tenderloin, and let it cook until fat is out and tenderloin cooked. Add onions, garlic, apples.and for last add the chestnuts. Mix all well and set aside.

For the turkey:

1(8 pound) turkey

1 pound sliced bacon

Stuff the turkey with the stuffing. Set aside what is left for later. Sew up the open part of the turkey and put together the legs and wings with help of a cook string.

Fix the sliced bacon all over the top of the turkey and take it in the oven, 335 F, for about 1 hour and 50 minutes. When this time is over, remove the turkey from the over and transfer it to another cooking pan (saving all the cooking liquid and residue for the sauce). Place all the left stuffing around the turkey and take it in the oven again for 10 – 15 minutes.

For the sauce:

150 ml dry red wine

100 ml water

Reserve all the cooking liquid and residue of the cooking turkey (it is used in the next part of the recipe)

Skim out the excess of fat of the cooking and place all the liquid and residue in a skillet to boil. Add the wine and let it cook a little, add the water and let it reduce. Test the salt and pepper and serve in the top of the turkey slices.