Turkey with Cranberry Wine Reduction

Year after year, the star of our Thanksgiving feast is unquestionable: turkey!

I love roast turkey. I love the crispy skin, I love the natural gravy, and I really love the leftover sandwiches with potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and gravy.

I do not, however, love how long it takes to make. I am in no way implying that making a huge roast turkey should only be done on Thanksgiving, but I was not about to make a 12-lb bird for my fiancé and myself alone. We can handle a big meal, but that’s just not necessary.

Instead, after we drove home from Boston to partake in a lovely engagement celebration, we stopped at our favorite market (Fairway) and picked up a small turkey tenderloin.

Who knew? I had been searching for a turkey breast, but instead found this smaller, less expensive cut. There would be no crispy skin or pan juices, but I’ll have all that stuff in two weeks anyway. The best part? This turkey can be made in less than a half hour.

Directions
Preheat an oven to 350 F.

Season both sides of your turkey tenderloin generously with salt and pepper.

Heat a large pan over medium-high heat, then add 1/2 tablespoon of butter.

(**Interesting fact: the chef I’m working with taught me that you should always use a hot pan and cold oil or butter. It helps ensure nothing sticks to the pan.)

So do as the chef says: heat your pan, then add butter.

The turkey will finish cooking in the oven, but in order to get that nice golden brown color, we first sear it on all sides.

Side 2:

Side 3:

This should take about 1-2 minutes per side, or 6 minutes total.

Pop the whole thing in the oven, and let it cook for 20 minutes, or until the turkey has reached an internal temperature of 165 F. We took ours out at 160 F and let it rest on a cutting board for 5 minutes. The turkey will continue to cook during this process.

(**Interesting fact #2: all meats encounter residual cooking when taken out of an oven, so if you’re gauging doneness by temperature, shoot to be about 5 degrees cooler than you want to be when you remove an item from the oven.)

Perfect!

After about 5 minutes, slices your tenderloin on a slight angle.

To make the cranberry wine reduction, grab some wine, water, and a cup of fresh cranberries.

In a small sauce pan (not a small sauté pan like I used originally), toast the peppercorns until fragrant.  Add the sugar and caramelize.

Once the sugar turns brown, carefully add the wine, cranberries, and brown sugar.

Increase the heat to high and reduce for 10-12 minutes, or until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Basically, you want this to become thick like a syrup.

Remove from the heat, add in butter, and taste to adjust seasonings. The original recipe called for molasses, which I didn’t have.. so I used brown sugar instead. If the sauce is too tart, just add more brown sugar (or molasses if you have some).

Plate up a big pile of sweet potato mash, a few slices of turkey, and spoon some sauce on top.

Can’t wait for Thanksgiving to eat some turkey? Problem solved.

The turkey was incredibly moist, the cranberry sauce was tart (but in a good way, we had sweet potatoes to round it out), and we were in heaven. Why can’t every day be Thanksgiving?

Stay tuned to see what other side dishes were served with our pre-Turkey Day feast.