I tried this over Thanksgiving, as it turned out it was just the two of us for dinner. I wanted the whole meal without working for an entire day. Since I’m low-sodium, I couldn’t order a meal from a restaurant or grocery store. Could I do the entire dinner in the slow cooker?
Yes and no. I made the entire meal, except for the pie and cranberry sauce, in the slow cooker. It was WAY overcooked, since the internet led me astray.
I made the meal again to get the timing right. Some parts of the meal, like the turkey, I made several times, experimenting until I was happy with the outcome. It’s pretty cool to make turkey and four side dishes all in one slow cooker. You put the turkey breast in foil, then foil packets with new potatoes, cinnamon-maple sweet potatoes, and cumin-carrots on top. The stuffing goes in for the last hour.
I tested the following methods for cooking the turkey:
All five tests involved rubbing the turkey breast with olive oil and spices before cooking.
- Boned breast in 2 cups broth at the bottom of the crockpot (several recipes I found use this method): This made the meat fibers clump together very densely, resulting in dry meat. (After cooking a very expensive boned turkey breast and being unhappy with the outcome, I realized my mistake while watching Chopped: cooking unseared meat in liquid sucks the flavor out of the meat.)
- Bone-in breast seared for five minutes, then set in the bottom of the crockpot: Better meat texture, but still pretty dry.
- Bone-in breast (raw) set in the bottom of the crockpot: Better meat texture than the seared breast, but still drier than I would like.
- Bone-in breast seared for five minutes, then wrapped in a foil packet: Much better meat texture, and less dry.
- Bone-in breast (raw) wrapped in a foil packet: The best! Deliciously juicy, great turkey texture.
It turns out that the least expensive and easiest option (bone-in turkey breast) simply rubbed with olive oil and spices and wrapped in foil gives you delicious results. Winning! Have the butcher cut the breast into two or three pieces for you and wrap each piece separately.
This serves four people comfortably, possibly six with no leftovers and if you add bread or rolls. I also suggest adding a green salad, steamed green beans, or broccoli—something green and fresh. The nice thing is that each vegetable has a different seasoning, and the cleanup is simply recycling the aluminum foil and washing the slow cooker.
The prep for the entire meal, including making pie and whipped topping, was three hours the first time. When I made the dinner for the photograph, prep was under one hour. And it can all be done a day ahead.
Note, the entire meal cooks in four hours on low, so don’t leave the house for more than three hours (you need to add the stuffing after three hours). If you cook it longer, even on low, it gets very mushy. My newsletter readers will get a special tip this week for using overcooked vegetables.
You’ll need a large 6-quart slow cooker to fit everything in. Paleo eaters can omit the bread from the stuffing, skip the new potatoes, and use all olive oil if you don’t eat dairy.
Serve with cranberry sauce and your favorite pie, like my chocolate-bourbon-pecan pie.
Suitable for:
low-sodium, migraine, gluten-free, paleo, reduced-sugar diets. You can skip the turkey and use olive or coconut oil for vegan and vegetarian diets.
You might also like:
Easy Thanksgiving Dinner for Two (vegan) from Kathy at Healthy Slow Cooking (the original inspiration for this concept)
Turkey dinner for two
Ingredients
Stuffing
- 1/2 cup celery
- 6 ounces onions (green) (scallions, spring onions)
- 8 ounces mushrooms cremini or button
- 1-1/2 tsp thyme (dried) crushed
- 1-1/2 tsp rosemary (dried) crushed
- 1-1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 slices bread (gluten-free) cubed
- 1 apples large, Rome Beauty or Honeycrisp
- 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds pepitas
Turkey breast
- 2 pounds turkey breast bone-in, cut into 2-3 pieces
- 1 tbsp olive oil (extra virgin)
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp cumin (dried)
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp sage (dried)
Cumin carrots
- 4 carrots peeled, in uniform chunks
- 1 tbsp olive oil (extra virgin)
- 1/4 tsp cumin (dried)
- 1/8 tsp white pepper
New potatoes
- 14 ounces potatoes small new potatoes, like Dutch yellow, in quarters
- 1 tbsp butter (unsalted)
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
Maple-cinnamon sweet potatoes
- 1 sweet potatoes about 350 g, peeled, in uniform slices
- 1 tbsp butter (unsalted)
- 1/2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg (dried)
Instructions
Stuffing
- Saute the celery, onions, mushrooms, and spices over medium heat in about 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil until golden and the mushrooms have released their moisture, about 10 minutes.
- Mix with the apples, bread cubes, and pumpkin seeds (pepitas). Place in the center of a large piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil and make a tight packet.
- Wait until the last hour of cooking to add this packet to the top of the others in the slow cooker.
Turkey
- Rub the turkey pieces with the olive oil. Mix all the spices together, then rub into the turkey pieces until they are coated. Wrap each piece tightly in foil, then place in the bottom of the slow cooker set to Low. Do not place water in the slow cooker.
Cumin Carrots
- Mix carrots with their ingredients, then wrap in a foil packet and place on top of the turkey pieces.
New Potatoes
- Mix potatoes with their ingredients, then wrap in a foil packet and place on top of the turkey pieces.
Sweet Potatoes
- Mix sweet potatoes with their ingredients, then wrap in a foil packet and place on top of the turkey pieces.
- Close the lid and cook on Low for three hours.
- Add stuffing packet on top for the last hour.
- Remove packets carefully, unwrap, and serve onto plates.
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This will be a great one to try. Thanks for all your hard work in getting the timing right. I will skip the pie since I’m not a dessert eater, especially with all that good food!