I created the Fortune Turkey 富貴火雞 (fù gùi hǔo jī) to try to make a Chinese turkey dish. My friend, who loves turkey, gave me the idea after I made a very successful Fortune Chicken 富貴雞(fù gùi jī) dish. Fortune Chicken has many names. Some people know it as Beggar’s Chicken 乞兒雞 (hut yi gai) in Cantonese and 叫化雞 (jìao hùa jī) or 叫花雞 (jìao hūa jī) in Mandarin.

First, a bit of history…during the Ming Dynasty, a homeless man, Jiaohua (叫化) got his hands on a chicken one day. Without any equipment or seasonings he decided to mix some clay with twigs and water and covered the chicken with it. He roasted it on an open flame. He cracked open the clay and the feathers came off with the clay and the aroma was amazing. People heard this story and started to make chicken wrapped in clay and called it Jiaohua Chicken.

Fast forward one hundred years to the Qing Dynasty when a woman name Huazi (花子) was making Jiaohua Chicken and she saw a man she thought was homeless. She offered the chicken to him and found out that he was actually the emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty! Qianlong loved the chicken and asked for the name of the dish. She felt that the name Jiaohua Chicken was not worthy for an emperor and so she answered, “Fortune Chicken 富貴雞 (fù gùi jī)”. And this is why this dish has so many names.

Let me tell you, my blood, sweat and tears went into the making of this Fortune Turkey富貴火雞 recipe! I made 3 turkeys in 4 days! The first one was a complete disaster. I roasted it for 7 hours thinking that it would need extra time because I stuffed it and put a dough shell around it. The meat thermometer showed that the meat was done in just over 2 hours. But I didn’t believe it. A 10 pound turkey be done in just over 2 hours? I was sure the thermometer was malfunctioning.

So the second time around, I roasted it for 3.5 hours. Still overcooked, but not too bad. I had some friends try it and they thought it was great. I wasn’t happy with it though. The third time, I used a new thermometer and I trusted it! It showed that the turkey was ready in 2 hours and 15 minutes but I gave it another 15 minutes. And it turned out perfectly!

The meat was juicy, moist and tender. When I cut into the meat, I was able to get nice, clean cuts. The meat paired with the glutinous rice, abalone, pork belly, chestnuts and shitake mushrooms was delightful. But the dried scallop gravy made it over the top delicious!

Wow your friends and family by trying this amazing Fortune Turkey 富貴火雞 recipe. It’s not the easiest recipe, but I’m sure you’ll agree it was worth the effort!!

Need dessert ideas? Try my recipes for Beer and Calpico Jelly 啤酒可爾必果凍 or Snowflake Crisps 雪花酥.

If you're interested in getting a meat thermometer, here's the link to the one I purchased from Amazon:

ThermoPro TP03 Digital Instant Read Meat Thermometer Kitchen Cooking Food Candy Thermometer with Backlight and Magnet for Oil Deep Fry BBQ Grill Smoker Thermometer

(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)

Fortune Turkey 富貴火雞

The original form of this dish is for chicken and not turkey. The Fortune Chicken I had made came out perfectly! And so, my friend, who loves turkey, suggested that I try making it with turkey. So, after much thought, I decided to take on this challenge and make a Chinese turkey dish. After two failed attempts, the third time really was a charm! The turkey meat was tender, moist and juicy!

You can stuff the turkey with pretty much anything you’d like. Just make sure that anything you stuff is already cooked since the turkey is in the oven for only 2.5 hours, the stuffing will not be cooked through, it will only be heated.

If you can substitute the pork belly, with crispy bbq pork from a Cantonese bbq store.

I can tell you that this is not an easy recipe, but the turkey was amaaaazingly good and impressive!!!

Approximate cost (CAD) $80

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Prep Time 4

Cook Time 2 30

Total Time 6 30

Course Main Course

Cuisine Chinese

Servings servings

Calories 1149 kcal

Ingredients

10-12 lbs Turkey
3 cups* Uncooked glutinous rice I prefer the long grain type because it’s less sticky than short grain (or rounded) type*3 cups for a 10lb turkey will give you approx. 1 cup of extra rice because I find that the rice that can be stuffed into the turkey isn’t enough for sharing.
6 Dried shitake mushrooms
4-6 Small abalone, frozen You can also use canned. If you use dried abalone, you will have to braise it separately for approx. 8 hours beforehand
2 Chinese sausages , sliced
6 Dried scallops
40 g Dried shrimp
8 Black fungus
300 g Pork belly , small chunks
100 g Chestnuts , ready to eat
4 cloves Garlic , chopped
4 Shallots , diced
2 tbsp Sweet soy sauce
1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
1 tbsp Oil for frying ingredients of the rice
5 Lotus leaves you’ll need around 9 leaves if they’re small
1 tsp Oil for browning pork belly
2 cups Water or broth for glutinous rice

Note: You will also need a baking rack that has a small grid. The bottom of the dough wrapped around the turkey needs to have air circulating all around it so it won’t get soggy and break. I used the Gotham Steel Copper Non-Stick Crisper Tray and it worked perfectly. You will also need an electric mixer that can mix dough.

Ingredients for braising sauce/gravy:

3 tbsp Abalone sauce You can also use oyster sauce
1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
1 tbsp Light soy sauce
1 tbsp Dark soy sauce
1 tsp Sugar
3 cups Water or broth (chicken, pork or seafood)
1 tbsp Corn starch for slurry
100 ml Water for slurry

Ingredients for turkey marinade:

2 tbsp Oyster sauce
2 tbsp Dark soy sauce
2 tbsp Sugar
1 tbsp Salt
2 tsp Garlic powder
1 tsp White pepper powder

Ingredients for dough to wrap the turkey:

2.25 kg All-purpose flour (5lbs) 50% of the weight of the turkey
300 ml Shaoxing wine
1125 ml Hot water

Instructions

Instructions for night before: If you can’t soak these items the night before, note that they need to be soaked for a minimum of 2 hours

Soak 3 cups of glutinous rice in approx. 1 litre of water. The next morning, discard the water and let it dry in a colander
Rinse and soak 6 dried scallops in ½ cup of water. The scallops and water will be added to the braising sauce Do not discard the water
Rinse and soak 6 dried shitake mushrooms in 1 cup of water. The shitake mushrooms and water will be added to the braising sauce Do not discard the water
Rinse and soak 8 pieces of black fungus in approx. 2 cups of water
Rinse and soak 40g of dried shrimp in ½ cup of water. The dried shrimp and water will be used in the glutinous rice Do not discard the water

Instructions for marinating the turkey:

Clean and wash the turkey. Pat dry with paper towels
Combine 2 tbsp abalone sauce, 2 tbsp dark soy sauce, 2 tbsp sugar, 2 tsp salt, 2 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp white pepper powder in a bowl and mix together
Rub half the marinade all over the outside of the turkey
Rub the other half of the marinade in one hour

Instructions for braising sauce/gravy:

Remove abalone from shell and remove all organs. Clean the abalone by rinsing with water and use a spoon to scrape off black stains. Set aside
Pour the dried scallops with the water into a pot and turn heat to medium-high
Wash shitake mushrooms and remove stem
Add abalone, shitake mushrooms (leave whole) with the water (the bottom of the water may have some sand or particles so don’t pour in all the water), dried scallops with the water and black fungus. If you’re using canned abalone, pour the juice from the can into the braising liquid for added flavour. There’s no need to braise the abalone, just add it to the braising liquid at the end to heat it up before stuffing into the turkey
Add 3 tbsp of abalone sauce, 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine, 1 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tbsp dark soy sauce, 1 tsp sugar and 3 cups of water or broth to the pot and wait for it to boil then turn the heat down to low and let simmer for one and a half hours
Heat a pan to medium-high heat. Add 1 tsp oil and brown the pork belly. Set aside You can start working on the glutinous rice
After one and a half hours, add the pork belly and chestnuts and braise for another 30 minutes
After 30 minutes, turn off heat and set aside

Instructions for the glutinous rice:

Wash Chinese sausages by blanching in boiling water for one minute
Pour the rice into a pan suitable for steaming. Place the Chinese sausages on top, and steam at high heat (100˚C or 210˚F) for 30 minutes
Chop up dried shrimp
After steaming for 30 minutes, remove the Chinese sausages and either slice in thin pieces or dice into small pieces
Heat a pan to medium-high heat, add 1 tbsp oil, add chopped garlic and sliced shallots. Fry until fragrant
Add Chinese sausage, dried shrimp, 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine and 2 tbsp sweet soy sauce to the pan and mix well. Turn off heat
Put the rice into a rice cooker, put the contents of the pan on top of the rice and spread it out evenly If you do not have a rice cooker, then use a casserole dish with a lid that can be steamed and steam at high for one hour
Pour the saved water from the soaking of the dried shrimp into a measuring cup. Add water to the measuring cup until you have a total of 2 cups of liquid. Pour it into the rice cooker in a circular motion
Turn on rice cooker. When the rice cooker has finished cooking the rice, wait another 20 minutes before opening the lid
Open the lid and mix the rice with the ingredients on top
Taste and add sweet soy sauce or some dark soy sauce if necessary
Set aside for later use

Instructions for dough to wrap chicken:

Use your dough hook attachment for your mixer
Add 2.25 kg (5lbs) of flour to the mixing bowl and add 1,125 ml of hot water My mixer was not big enough to handle 5 lbs of flour at one time so I divided everything by 2, did it in 2 portions and then combined them by hand at the end
Turn mixer on and mix at lowest setting for 2 minutes then use the setting for dough for another 2 minutes On my Kitchenaid mixer, I use the “mix” setting first and then the number “2” setting
Add 300 ml of Chinese wine and keep mixing for another 5 minutes or until it forms a ball
Remove dough from bowl and let the dough rest for 30 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap

Instructions for stuffing the turkey and wrapping in lotus leaves:

In a big pot, fill with approx. 4 litres of water and bring it to a boil. Submerse 1 lotus leaf into the boiling water with the stem first. It takes a few seconds to soften and submerse the rest of the leaf into the water. Once the entire leaf softens, you can remove it from the water and set aside. Each leaf should take only 10 seconds. Repeat for each leaf and set aside. Discard water
Remove the abalone, pork belly, shitake mushrooms, black fungus, and chestnuts from the braising liquid and put it on a dish or bowl
Stuff the turkey. Start with adding some of the glutinous rice then alternate with the braised items. Keep alternating until the turkey is stuffed
Open up the lotus leaves on a table and use a cloth to wipe each leaf and stack one leaf on top of the other. Put the biggest leaf on the bottom of the stack. Most leaves will not be able to lay flat which is fine The last package of lotus leaves I bought were very small, so I laid 3 of them overlapping a bit to act as 1 layer. I was able to get 3 layers, so 9 leaves in total
Put the turkey in the middle of the lotus leaf, breast side up. Try to remember which is the breast side. We want the breast side up after wrapping all the layers of the lotus leaves. At the very end, we will insert a meat thermometer through the breast and it looks nicer when you open it up. (I keep messing this part up)
Wrap by folding two sides onto the length of the turkey and then fold the two remaining ends up and then flip the turkey over so that the open side of the leaf faces down. Repeat until all the leaves are used. Set aside

Instructions for wrapping with the dough:

Set the temperature for the oven to 200˚C or 400˚F
Sprinkle a large surface with flour
Take the dough and roll it out to a circle shape with a rolling pin so that the dough can completely wrap the chicken. You want to make the bottom extra thick to prevent the juice from seeping out
For this 10 lb turkey, I had to roll the dough to approx. 69cm or 27” in diameter
Put the turkey, wrapped in lotus leaf, in the centre with breast side down
Bring 2 sides of the dough together, wrapping the turkey length-wise first
Fuse the 2 ends by pressing them together and fold it down so that the dough lies flat on the turkey
Then bring the 2 other sides together. It is preferable that the 2 ends can be fused together to make the bottom extra thick. Press all the remaining open edges onto the dough to seal the turkey completely
Line the baking rack with parchment paper. The baking rack should be on a baking sheet
Turn the turkey over so that the breast side is up and place onto the parchment paper
Insert an oven-safe meat thermometer into the breast of the turkey
Bake at 200˚C or 400˚F for 30 minutes and then turn the heat down to 180˚C or 350˚F and bake for approx. 2 hours or until done

Final Instructions:

Heat the braising sauce
Mix 1 tbsp corn starch with 100 ml water. Pour into the hot braising sauce and stir until the sauce thickens. Make more slurry if it’s not thick enough. Remove from heat and set aside and serve with the turkey
Reheat the remaining glutinous rice in a pan and add all the remaining braised items into the pan with the rice. Mix and stir until all of it has been reheated and combine with the stuffing from the turkey.
Prepare a large serving dish
Remove the turkey from the oven after it’s done
Be careful of the steam that will come out when you crack open the shell. Use a mallet to crack open the shell and then use kitchen shears to cut an “X” in the shell and open it up
Remove the turkey together with the lotus leaves and put it on the serving dish
Use kitchen shears to cut an “X” in the lotus leaf and open it up
Carve the turkey and remove the stuffing
Serve with the braising sauce

Nutrition

Calories: 1149kcalCarbohydrates: 81gProtein: 94gFat: 42gSaturated Fat: 14gCholesterol: 349mgSodium: 2862mgPotassium: 985mgFiber: 3gSugar: 12gVitamin A: 431IUVitamin C: 5mgCalcium: 71mgIron: 5mg

Keyword Albalone, Glutinous Rice, Pork Belly, Shiitake Mushroom, Turkey

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Fortune Turkey 富貴火雞