Hoagie stuffing, anyone? We made the most Philly Thanksgiving meal possible.
A pho-spiced turkey, birria tacos, cranberry water ice, and, of course, potatoes au Gritty.
Every year, Thanksgiving rolls around and the same classics get trotted out: turkey, potatoes, pie. But what if Thanksgiving this year got Philly-fied?
“Most Philly” is a slippery concept. It depends on whom you ask, particularly when it comes to food. Philly is famous for pretzels, hoagies, and water ice, of course, but to just focus on those ignores the vast diversity of the Philly food scene — we have incredible Mexican food, a next-level Southeast Asian market, and a thriving Ethiopian scene, just to name a few (for more on Philly’s thriving international cuisines, check out Craig LaBan’s Taste Philly newsletter).
Above all, Philly is a place that can really have fun. So in honor of the many faces of Philly, we developed a menu of delicious dishes that don’t take themselves too seriously — they’re tasty, wacky, and perfect to switch up the usual Thanksgiving routine.
The showstopper is the hoagie stuffing, which started as a joke and became my favorite dish out of the bunch — spicy from fried long hots and hot soppressata, tangy from pickled banana peppers, and sharp from the provolone. It’s so good that I’m going to make it for non-Thanksgiving occasions. I also included a dirtbag version that’s just a chopped up hoagie with a few ingredients, for a last-minute dish you can bring to a potluck or a Friendsgiving, or as a leftovers stunt.
You also might not be able to resist potatoes au Gritty, a twist on mashed potatoes that look like Gritty in all his chaotic orange glory, courtesy of Poi Dog sauce queen Kiki Aranita.
The pho-spiced turkey is inspired by the excellent Vietnamese spots around the city, like Gabriella’s Vietnam and Càphê Roasters. The turkey birria tacos, a perfect use for that leftover meat, are a tribute to the unctuous, spice-rich birria at Cantina la Martina and Mi Pueblito. And, obviously, it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without dessert. We have two, both developed by wildly talented pastry chef Rachel Sherman: a salted caramel soft pretzel bread pudding, and a cranberry water ice. Don’t be surprised when your Thanksgiving guests clamor for seconds. And, Go Birds!
Hoagie Stuffing: Rittenhouse-Style
Hoagies and stuffing don’t usually have a lot in common, except that both require bread. But honestly, why don’t they? This dish takes all the best parts of a great hoagie — salty, umami deli meats, spicy banana peppers and long hots, savory oregano onions, sharp provolone — and turns it into a side dish that’ll steal the spotlight from the turkey. It’s great for Thanksgiving, but it would be just as welcome at a Super Bowl party. You can download the recipe here.
Ingredients
¼ pound each genoa salami, capicola, soppressata (sweet or hot), and pepper ham, or sliced deli meats of your choice, roughly chopped
1 tbsp oregano
2 medium or 3 small onions, thinly sliced
1 cup chopped celery (about 4 stalks)
3 hoagie rolls, preferably at least a day old, torn into roughly 1-inch pieces (I used Sarcone’s)
4 cups low-sodium chicken stock
½ pound sharp provolone, cut into roughly ½ inch cubes
½ cup pickled banana pepper rings, drained
¼ cup jarred fried long hots, like Mancini’s or Cento’s
4 eggs, whisked together
Sesame seeds (optional)
Directions
Put the meat into a large, cold skillet, and heat the skillet at medium. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the meat has crisped up and rendered some of its fat, about 5 to 7 minutes.
Remove the meat from the pan, but keep the rendered fat. Add the celery, onions, and oregano — if the pan looks dry, add a tablespoon or two of olive oil. (If you choose deli meats that aren’t pork-based, this won’t render as much fat — that’s OK, just add more oil to the pan to cook the onions.)
Cook the celery and onions over medium until they’re soft and translucent. Normally this is a place where you’d add salt, but in this case, hold off — the meats are salty enough.
Add a quarter cup of stock to the pan and scrape up any browned bits.
Add the celery, hoagie rolls, provolone, banana peppers, and meat to a casserole dish, using tongs to mix the ingredients together and make sure they’re roughly evenly distributed.
Pour the stock and eggs over the mixture, giving the whole thing another toss with tongs to make sure that all the bread gets some of the liquid. If it seems dry, add up to a cup more stock.
Cover with foil. Bake at 350ºF for 30 minutes.
Remove the foil and bake for another 15 minutes, until the bread on top is golden brown. Sprinkle with sesame seeds (if using) and serve.
— Recipe by Margaret Eby, Deputy food editor at the Inquirer
Hoagie Stuffing: Dirtbag-Style
White Castle, famously, has a stuffing recipe that uses its sliders as a main ingredient. Why not do the same thing with a hoagie? This version of hoagie stuffing requires little more than a leftover hoagie, a bag of chips (Herr’s, please), stock, eggs, and milk. The ending texture is closer to a breakfast strata than a sandwich, and it’ll transform your leftovers into a side dish worthy of bringing to any Thanksgiving gathering. You can download the recipe here.
Ingredients
1 large or 2 small Italian hoagies, no lettuce or tomato
1 small bag Herr’s Crisp ‘N Tasty
½ cup chicken stock
1 egg
½ cup milk
Directions
Preheat oven to 350ºF degrees.
Tear or slice the hoagie into bite-size pieces and arrange in a medium cast-iron skillet.
Crack the egg into a bowl and whisk until the white and yolk are relatively homogenous. Add the milk and stock, and stir together.
Pour the egg-milk-stock mixture over the hoagies, mix to coat the hoagie pieces with the liquid. Top with crushed Herr’s chips.
Bake, uncovered, until the bread on top is golden and the liquid is absorbed, about 35 to 40 minutes.
— Recipe by Margaret Eby, Deputy Food Editor at the Inquirer
Pho-Spiced Turkey
The complexity and flavor of classic Vietnamese pho comes from the broth, redolent of spices like cumin, coriander, and star anise. (The Philly Pho-natic is a nickname just ripe for plucking; call me Rob Thomson.) This turkey harnesses those same flavors and infuses them into the skin thanks to a long hangout in the fridge. Dry brining a turkey takes some time — at least leaving the bird overnight, and up to three days — but it pays off with shatteringly crispy skin and juicy meat. Butterflying the turkey also means that the bird roasts quickly, so you can use the oven for other things. You can download the recipe here.
Ingredients
1 12-14 lb turkey, thawed if frozen and spatchcocked to remove the backbone — a butcher can do this or you can do it at home. (Note: Look for an organic turkey — conventional turkeys can be injected with saline. If your turkey has sodium among the label ingredients, reduce the salt in this recipe by one tablespoon.)
2 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
1 tbsp coriander seeds
½ tsp fennel seeds
6 cloves
1 black cardamom pod
1 tbsp baking soda
4 tbsp Diamond kosher salt
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp neutral oil, like canola
Freshly ground black pepper
Vegetables like baby bok choy, mushrooms, and onions for roasting under the bird (optional)
Directions
In a small skillet, toast the spices over medium-high heat until they’re very fragrant, about a minute, stirring or shaking the pan constantly so they don’t burn.
Using a coffee grinder or mortar and pestle, finely grind the toasted spices. Mix the kosher salt, brown sugar, and baking soda with the spices to make a rub.
Position the turkey on a wire rack on a rimmed baking sheet. Rub the turkey all over — inside and outside — with the spice mixture. You may not need all of it, but make sure the turkey is well-covered.
Put the turkey uncovered in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours, and up to 3 days.
Remove the turkey from the refrigerator at least an hour before cooking, and preheat the oven to 450ºF.
Set the brined turkey, skin side up, on a wire rack covering a clean baking sheet, or in a roasting pan. You can sprinkle torn up vegetables like sliced onions, baby bok choy, and mushrooms under the rack so they roast in the turkey drippings — and personally, I would — but it’s optional.
Pat the turkey dry with paper towels, coat with oil, and season the skin and the inside of the bird liberally with black pepper.
Roast until the breast meat registers 150ºF, and the thigh meat hits 165ºF, about 70 minutes. Let rest for 20 minutes, then carve.
— Recipe by Margaret Eby, Deputy Food Editor at the Inquirer
Leftover Turkey Birria
After the dishes are cleared and the guests leave, you get one of the best parts of Thanksgiving: leftovers. That includes the bones, scraps, and carcass of the turkey, which make for rich, flavorful stock. Birria tacos, born in Jalisco, Mexico, and now beloved across the United States, come with a side of consommé, which is a more concentrated version of stock, sometimes clarified. It makes perfect sense to use that good turkey stock to make birria by infusing leftover turkey meat with an adobo full of chiles, onion, garlic, and spices. The inspiration from this recipe came from Claudette Zepeda, whose excellent birria recipe I once had the pleasure of helping test for Food & Wine. You can download the recipe here.
Ingredients
4 dried chiles de arbol, stems removed
3 dried pasilla chiles, stems removed
3 dried guajillo chiles, stems removed
1 large yellow onion, roughly chopped
6 garlic cloves, smashed
3 cloves or ¼ tsp ground cloves
1 cinnamon stick or 1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp cumin seeds or ground cinnamon
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp Mexican oregano
1 turkey carcass and any accumulated turkey bones or scraps (meat removed and reserved)
1 lb leftover turkey meat, shredded
Tortillas, for serving
Cilantro sprigs, for serving
Lime wedges, for serving
Directions
In a dry skillet, toast the chiles over medium-high heat for 4 to 5 minutes until fragrant, shaking the pan occasionally so they don’t burn. Transfer to a plate.
In the same skillet, toast the spices, stirring constantly, for 30 seconds to a minute, until fragrant.
Put the toasted chiles and spices into a medium-size pot, add the onion and garlic, and add 5 cups of water to cover. Heat over medium-high heat until it comes to a boil. Lower heat and continue to simmer for 15 minutes, until the chiles have rehydrated. Transfer to a blender — carefully, the liquid will be hot — and process into a smooth sauce.
In a large stock pot, cover the turkey carcass (and whatever herbs, spices, or meat that’s clinging to it) with water. Bring the contents of a stockpot up to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for at least an hour, and up to two hours.
Strain the stock into a bowl, discarding the carcass and any scraps or bones, and return the stock to the pot.
Bring the stock back up to a simmer. Stir in a cup of the adobo (the chile sauce mixture) and season with salt to taste.
In a small pot, combine the shredded turkey with another cup of the adobo, and bring to a low simmer to heat through the meat.
Arrange the turkey meat mixture in tortillas for tacos. Pour the stock-adobo consommé into a ramekin, cup, or gravy boat on the side, for dipping. Serve with lime wedges and cilantro.
— Recipe by Margaret Eby, Deputy Food Editor at the Inquirer