Christmas Dinner – 2024

Christmas Dinner attendees for this year were the four of us (Bev, Pat W, Cindy, and me), our neighbors Pat L and Steve and special guest granddaughter Madison (also her birthday) and the one thing I wanted to do for sure was smoke a ham half and a turkey breast on my yet-to-be-used pellet smoker.  As Bev and I discussed menu items many things popped up and the two things we knew we wanted for sure was gravy for the turkey and homemade bread.  Then we considered many side dishes such as dressing, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, etc. until Pat L pointed out it could be simpler and healthier to just make green beans rather than the casserole.  Then Bev and I realized we had plenty to eat without the dressing and our favorite way to cook sweet potatoes was to simply bake them and so a menu was born that was way easier and much healthier - smoked turkey breast and smoked ham, gravy, green beans, baked sweet and Irish potatoes, salad, and homemade bread.

The table is all set.

To cook the meats, I ran the smoker at 250F using a blend of wood pellets and had a remote probe thermometer in each meat.

Jenny-O Festive Turkey Breast – When you read the ingredients list you discover that it has been injected with a salt and sugar solution so no need to brine it. 

I just added some herbed compound butter under the skin.

I cooked it to an internal temp of 158F then covered it in foil and kept it warm in my Masterbuilt electric smoker set at 150F (so it wouldn't cook anymore.  Note that the skin won't get crispy cooking at this low temperature.

To serve, I removed an entire half breast then sliced it across the grain.

Food City Spiral Cut Glazed Ham

I added the fully cooked ham to a pan, cut side down, then glazed it about 30 minutes prior to serving time using the glaze recipe from Fatty Butts BBQ. 

Since the ham was already glazed, I made just a half recipe (shown below) of the glaze and painted the ham with it two times.  To serve, I cut the ham along the bone about six slices at a time.

Brown Sugar Honey Glaze – adapted from Fatty Butts BBQ

1/2 cup Brown sugar

1/6 cup Honey

1/4 cup Pineapple juice

1 tablespoons Apple cider vinegar

1/2 tablespoon Dijon mustard

3/8 teaspoons Ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon Black pepper, freshly ground

1/8 teaspoon Garlic powder

Mix all of the glaze ingredients in a medium sauce pan and simmer for 10 minutes or until thickened.

To round out our meal, we baked the potatoes in the toaster oven, Pat L brought green beans, salad, and assorted sweets for dessert and Bev made bread using a new recipe which was very good.

We served family style and here is my plate.

The Verdict:

Everyone seemed to enjoy the meal and the turkey and green beans especially got several positive comments.  Bev had to talk me into the spiral sliced ham but I have to admit, it was easier to remove for service.  I like that we changed the menu which made for less work and less stress.  My original thought was to eat a sweet potato that goes with the ham but I reconsidered and had an Irish potato topped with the gravy – I love gravy.  It took about an hour for the smoker to get to temp then 4½ hours for the turkey to get to 158F and the ham only got to 125F.

And while a white Christmas is usually considered a bonus, it was nice cooking outside in the mid-50’s.

Photos can be slightly enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

12/25/24 meal date