I have been fortunate over the years, when turkey was the centerpiece of the meal, that my grandma or mother were in charge of cooking the turkey. They knew how to deliver a juicy bird to the table. In later years, when the torch was passed, the family occasionally joined hands around a slightly over-cooked bird, but we were nevertheless grateful for gravy. And pie.

This year, one of my sons-in-law, an expert at grilling, hosted us for prime rib on Thanksgiving Day. No troublesome turkey to contend with. My other son-in-law cooked an impressive and juicy bird, but alas, he cooked it the Saturday after Thanksgiving for his side of the family.

You might be thinking, Thanksgiving is over, Christmas is coming. Why are you still talking turkey?

A challenge came in the mailbag last month that I couldn’t resist:

Dear Chef Glenn,

A group of us are going camping close to Thanksgiving and I'm the chef so I'd like to surprise my friends with a dehydrated Thanksgiving meal. What do you think about baking a turkey breast and dehydrating slices and then taking mashed potato powder and some kind of dehydrated vegetable, along with your pumpkin pie bark for pudding? Any suggestions you can offer would be gratefully accepted.

PS: I dehydrated meatloaf from your Recipes for Adventure II book, and it was a HUGE success. I would never have thought of doing that! –Sidney

Knowing that dehydrated slices of baked turkey breast would not rehydrate well, my reply to Sidney was to consider dehydrating ground turkey infused with breadcrumbs or ground oats if she wanted tender turkey for her trail celebration.

I’ve featured several dehydration methods that work for chicken or turkey in earlier newsletters. The links to those articles are below, but Sidney inspired me to come up with something new and festive, and the result was Stuffed Turkey Loaf. I think you’ll enjoy it any time of the year.

Stuffed Turkey Loaf

Following the meatloaf principle, my idea was to bake stuffing and gravy right into the turkey loaf and then lather the turkey loaf cubes with more gravy before drying them.

The stuffed turkey loaf was flavorful and moist when I rehydrated it into backpacking meals with mixed vegetables, baked sweet potatoes, and mashed potatoes. I baked the sweet potatoes in the oven at the same time as the turkey loaf. Since the loaf only took up two Excalibur dehydrator trays, I was able to dry the sweet potatoes and mixed vegetables in the same load. I took a short cut and used instant mashed potatoes to round out the feast.

Dominique and I have enjoyed stuffed turkey loaf three times already, and there’s more on hand for December hikes.

Here’s the new recipe and instructions:

How to Make & Dehydrate Stuffed Turkey Loaf

And here are the other articles:

Dehydrating Canned Chicken

Pressure Cooking Chicken

Dehydrating Ground Chicken & Turkey

Turkey Chili Recipe

Happy Holidays!

That’s a wrap for 2025. We hope you had a fabulous year hiking and dining on the trail. Feel free to send us a note or a photo. We love to hear your stories. And thanks to everyone who sent us their houseless chimney photos last month.

Dominique and I wish you the happiest of holidays, and a great start to the new year.

Freundliche Grüsse,

Chef Glenn & Dominique

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