Ingredients

18 bagels - slice and dry/toast in oven

3 lbs mild italian sausage browned in skillet

4 onions diced and sauteed in skillet

4 celery stalk diced and sauteed in skillet

1 1/2 cup Ocean Spray Craisins

1 cup dried apricots (diced)

1 1/2 cup Pecans (each half broken into 4 pieces

1 to 2 tbls poultry seasoning (adjust to taste)

1 to 2 tea caraway seeds

2 to 3 cups chopped parsley

2 quart turkey stock

4-6 eggs

salt & pepper to taste

Preparation

Two days before the meal:

  • Slice bagels into 3/8 cubes. I buy day-old bagels from “The House of Bagels” where they are boiled before baking. I usually try to get onion, all-in-one, a few garlic, and raisin, but not cheese or jalapeno bagels. I often discard the bottom crust. After drying / toasting in the oven store in a gallon zip lock bag.
  • Sautéed separately the sausage, onion, and celery.
  • Mix all the ingredients EXCEPT the bagels, eggs, and stock. Sauté in skillet and test. Adjust seasoning as needed. You can cook and store this mix also in a zip lock bag a few days before the meal.
  • I make 16 smoke bombs of wine barrel oak & spices (dried peppers, nutmeg, cloves, bay leaves, pepper corns, anise seed pods). Cut the oak stays in to 5" long pieces. Loosely wrap oak and spices in AL foil.

Night before the meal:

  • Remove the carcass from the turkey. Google “laid back turkey” to see how to do this. This opens up the turkey to more smoke and allows the meat to cook at the same rate.
  • Brine the turkey in salt, sugar, citrus, and spices.
  • Make the turkey stock from the carcass. Roast bones in oven; simmer bones carrots, onions, garlic, bay leaf and pepper for 2-3 hours.

Day of the meal:

  • Place the turkey on a cooling rack about 3" above a drip pan. This lets the smoke reach all parts of the turkey.
  • Smoke the turkey at about 200F for 4-6 hours. Add a new smoke bomb over low flames every 15-20 min. Remove old bombs after they stop smoking.
  • Mix all the dressing ingredients and put in large pan.
  • After about 3 hours, insert a thermometer into the white meat. When the meat gets to 140F, replace the dripping pan with a pan containing the dressing. This lets the dressing get smoke for the last 1-2 hours.
  • When the turkey gets to 165F, it is done.
  • I sometimes leave the stuffing in the grill/smoker longer or put it in the oven if I don’t think it’s done.