What would Christmas be without turkey on the table?! This is a traditional turkey recipe from Northern Croatia made with Mlinci, all time favorite. To make a flavorable turkey, you need to get your hands “dirty” 😀 All the flavor comes from the spices you rub inside and outside of it.

This recipe is part of Foodies+ Christmas Recipes from Around the World cookbook, amazing cookbook with over 400 pages that shares many recipes you can use all year round. All proceeds are going to Action Against Hunger.

Ingredients

Serves 8-10

• 1 turkey 3-4 kg
• 600 g (4 1/2 cups) all purpose flour
• 10 g (2 tsp) salt
• 400 ml (1 1/2 cup) of lukewarm water
• sunflower or vegetable oil per taste (you can substitute with butter or lard)
• 2 slices pancetta/bacon
• 2 cloves garlic
• herbs of your preference (oregano, thyme, parsley)

Preparation – flat bread

1. Mix flour, salt and lukewarm water to make a smooth dough.
2. Divide it into 8 equal parts and each roll out thinly into 40×32 cm (16×12 inch) size.
3. Spread each dough on a baking sheet and bake it at 230 °C (445 °F) for about 7 minutes.
4. When they are done, break them into large pieces and set store them in food container until you need to serve them.

Preparation – turkey

1. Couple of hours before roasting the turkey, you need to spice it up. Rub thoroughly the salt inside and outside of the turkey with addition of herbs on the inside. Also, for turkey to be juicer, make little pockets on the outside with the knife in which you press thinly sliced pancetta and garlic.
2. Stuff the turkey with the bread and bacon stuffing. Close it with toothpicks or cooking thread.
3. Put the stuffed turkey in a baking pan, pour over hot oil and bake for about two and half, three hours on 200-220 °C (390-425 °F). To make sure that the turkey is done, stab the white meat with the fork. If the fork enters easily, the turkey is roasted.
4. During roasting, slowly pour the oil on the turkey for the first half hour, and when you run out of oil, continue with water. After one hour, every half hour use the liquid in which the turkey is baked for pouring.
5. Cut the flat bread into small pieces and cover with boiling water. Leave them a few minutes in the pan to soften (not too much) and then drain well.
6. Remove the portion of the turkey fat liquid in which the turkey was roasting and pour over the flat bread in a serving dish.
7. Cut the turkey and serve with mlinci.

Tip: You can make Mlinci ahead and have them stored in a container for days before using.

What do you traditionally eat for Holidays?