Christmas meal rehearsal

This weekend, I test-drove the recipe I'll use for the turkey this christmas. I did it with chicken for this attempt and it was simply amazing. So amazing that I'm going to share it :)

Chimay Bleue turkey pot

Ingredients:

• 1 turkey
• 1l of Chimay Bleue
• 250g block of bacon
• 250g button mushrooms (fresh, whole, small)
• 2 big onions
• 15 white pearl onions
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 big carrots
• 1 celery stick
• 50g butter
• 4 cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 1 branch of thyme
• 2 laurel leaves
• salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:
Cut (or ask your butcher to cut for you) the turkey in parts (wings, thigh, breast, ...)
Peel the garlic, carrots and big onions
Cube the carrots and the celery stick, quite small
Mince the big onions and the garlic
Cut the bacon block in slices (you'll cut those slices in match-stick size later on)

Put the turkey in a freezer bag, add the celery, carrots, garlic, onions and bacon
Cover with the beer
Add the laurel leaves, the thyme branch, the cinnamon, the cloves and salt to taste
Close the bag and leave in the fridge for 12 hours

Cooking:
Peel the white pearl onions
Clean the mushrooms, removing the soil without cutting the foot
Remove the turkey from the marinade and drain it
Remove the cloves from the marinade, throw them away
Filter out the marinade to separate the beer and the vegetables. Set both aside

Melt half the butter in a deep pot, on medium heat
Lightly brown the turkey, both sides, for 10 minutes on medium heat
Throw in the white pearl onions, mushrooms, solids from the marinade... let it sweat for 5 minutes
Pour the beer back on and let it cook for 1.5 to 2 hours on medium-low heat

Remove the chicken from the pot and keep it somewhere warm (in the oven, for example)
Fish out the bacon, the pearl onions and the mushrooms, keep aside.
Filter the rest to get rid of the remaining solids, pressing them to remove all the remaining juice, then throw them away.

Cook the juice on high heat until it starts thickening
Add the remaining 25g of butter
Slice bacon into large match-sticks
Throw the mushrooms, tiny onions and bacon back in
Cook one more minute, gently stirring

Serve with chips and either a glass of Chimay Bleue or a wine like "Madiran Château Bouscassé Vieilles Vignes 2000".

If you can't get Chimay Bleue in your shop, any dark strong tasty trappiste beer will do (Westmalle, Rochefort, ...). If you can't get trappiste beer, try a dark strong tasty stout instead.
The recipe won't work with a pils beer.