Thanksgiving Throwdown

Nothing says Thanksgiving like a turkey-and-stuffing Throwdown!

Renee: Hi food network, welcome to my kitchen. We’re going to work on a fantastic Thanksgiving turkey and apple sausage dressing. Bobby: While Renee talks turkey in Illinois, I'm in the test kitchen in New York City to glaze a bird of my own. Let's see what we got. For this holiday inspired meal we’re making a wild rice in goat cheese dressing. But first, we've got to get the turkey in the oven. For time now, we’re going to be making a turkey with pomegranate, black pepper glaze. We’re going to rub the turkey first with a compound butter that has fresh sage and roasted garlic in it. Renee: We’re ready to season our turkey, and if you're looking for the most consistent results and simplest results whether you're an expert or a novice, just simply brushing the skin with olive oil is the way to go. Bobby: Now it’s time for the secret ingredient, chicken stock. A little in the bottom of the pan will help steam our turkey while it roast and 450 degree oven for 2 hours. Renee: I've got my turkey in the oven set at 325 degrees, and you know what? I'm not going to glaze it at all. I’m just closing the oven door and I'm going to do something else. Bobby: Alright, so now we’re going to make our pomegranate and black pepper glaze. I'm going to start with a very cool ingredient known as pomegranate molasses. Renee: We’re going to work on our apricot amoretto sauce. First we’re going to melt the butter, 2 tablespoons butter. Bobby: We’re going to use some Dijon mustard in our pomegranate molasses, some horse radish, pickled horse radish. Some salt, some pepper. And that’s your glaze. Look how quickly it happens. Renee: Our butter is already melted so it’s time to add the apricot jam. And a quarter cup of amoretto. Bobby: Now it’s time for the dressing. It starts with a base of crumpled chorizo and sautéed aromatic vegetables. Renee: So we’re just going to take our sautéed onions and give them a whirl with the apples and I'm going to put the Italian sausage in there. Bobby: Next we add the chorizo and vegetables to a bowl of country white bread. Renee: There's a lot of different dressing out there that just use plain white bread. And you know what, there's nothing wrong with that. But, we have a combination of whole wheat and rye plus a country white. Bobby: Red stuff with rice in it. Notice the wild rice how puffy it is. We actually over cooked the wild rice. Woman: Well a lot of people don’t cook it until it splits, but for this recipe, it’s important that it actually. Bobby: You want it to puff. You want it to kind of flower. We round up our dressing with some chicken stock and fresh herbs. Renee: To that we need to add some fresh parsley, dried just doesn’t cut it. And one egg. Bobby: One egg. And you just quickly kind of pour it in so it doesn’t scramble. Just kind of fold it in. And last but not least, some creamy goat cheese. Renee: And just put our dressing right into the casserole. Bobby: The dressing bakes for just about 45 minutes until it’s crusty and brown on top. But now the judges are seated and dinner is served. May the best bird win. First they tried Plate A, Renee’s traditional turkey served with apple and sausage dressing and top with an apricot amoretto sauce. Chef Kacky: Turkey is good. Male2: Is that for none. Dried grandma’s turkey melted something. Bobby: Next, they tried Plate B, my twist on turkey served with a wild rice goat cheese dressing and top with a pomegranate glaze. Chef Kacky: The gravy is interesting. Male2: Yes. It’s so acidic. Chef Kacky: It is. That’s not necessary to my liking. Male2: Well after conferring with Chef Kacky, we’ve decided the winner of today’s throw down is B. Bobby: It’s a tough fight today. It’s one of those things, it’s another edition of Throwdown where it’s like you take one ingredient and two people do two very different things to it. Chef Kacky: In the end, we picked Bobby’s. It was fantastic. It was just so unique. The stuffing has lots of different flavors and textures. Renee: Bobby’s dish was absolutely fantastic. But you know what, you can't mess with tradition. And I guess I'm just a little traditional girl.