Leftover Turkey Tetrazzini

Another turkey post....

Because I've been swimming in turkey, I've been playing around with a few recipes so that I'm not eating the same ol' turkey dishes day in and day out.

So, here is my favorite way to get rid of turkey leftovers thus far:

Turkey Tetrazzini (as found on allrecipes.com)

Note: I cut this recipe in half since there are just two of us.  It normally means two nights worth.

1 (16 ounce) package uncooked spaghetti
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups chicken broth
2 cups milk
1 2/3 cups grated Parmesan cheese
4 cups chopped cooked turkey

I also like to add Panko to the top.  It adds a tasty texture to the dish.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking dish. 

Chop up your leftover turkey.

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add spaghetti, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente. Drain, and place in the prepared baking dish. 

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in flour. Mix in chicken broth and milk. 

Cook and stir until the mixture comes to a boil. Stir in about 1 1/3 cups Parmesan cheese, and remove from heat.

Mix chicken broth mixture and turkey with spaghetti.

Top with remaining cheese and sprinkle Panko to your heart's content.

Bake 1 hour in the preheated oven, until surface is lightly browned.

Leftover Turkey Pot Pie Pockets

Life has gotten slightly busy.  That's a good excuse, right?  In 2011 I worked full-time, finished my MBA, served as Executive Vice President of Communications and Social Media for my MBA class, had a baby, and finished by serving as the Director of Internal Communications for the Utah AMA.

Is that a good excuse?  Sigh, not really.

So, once again, the husband wanted a turkey again.  For me, that means a month of turkey.  We typically eat Thanksgiving at one of our parents' or grandparents' homes.  But we still must buy and prepare our own turkey.  And when you only have two people (and a baby) in your home, that equals a lot of turkey and, in turn, turkey centric meals.

So here is my New Year's Gift to you.  Two more turkey recipes to help you get rid of leftover turkey.

Turkey Pot Pie Pockets

1 can Pillsbury Grands (or generic brand)
1/2 cup peas and carrots (frozen or your leftovers)
1 can cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup
2 cups chopped turkey

Optional add-ins
Leftover stuffing
Diced onion
1/2 c chopped celery

Salt and Pepper to taste

Mix all of the innards together in a bowl.  Spray a rolling pin and surface (I cheat and use my cookie sheet as my surface) with cooking spray.  Roll each biscuit out to approximately 6-7".  Fill half of the biscuits with a heaping scoop (you can use an ice cream scoop if you like) of filling.  Do this with each biscuit.  Place remaining biscuits on top of filled biscuits.  Use a fork to press edges together.  Score top lightly with three lines.

Bake at 375 F for approximately 15 minutes.  Check on the pot pies and take out when golden brown.

Serve and enjoy!  These work great to bring to work for lunch - just throw in a ziplock bag!  You don't even need a plate and fork if you don't have one. 

 

Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey Enchiladas

As I mentioned in my last post, my husband REALLY loves turkey.  Or at least, right before Thanksgiving he thinks he does, which means even though we have ten plus available homes to attend and eat turkey at on Turkey Day, we still must make our own a few days later.

While on my journey to find creative uses for the oodles of leftover turkey (two people are not really a match for a 14 lb turkey) I found another usable recipe.

Enter my easy chicken enchiladas recipe.  Simply substitute your leftover white meat (chopped) for the chicken and you have another possibility in the month long journey of finishing off a large bird.

Good luck to you!  We're down to a bag of turkey.  Maybe another recipe or two and we'll be down to 0.  Curry turkey perhaps?

Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey Shepherd's Pie

My husband loves turkey.  What does this mean?  Even though we attend Thanksgiving at any one of five family dinners, we have to make our own turkey to truly satiate his turkey addiction.  I suppose I'm lucky this isn't a year-round obsession.  Two people attempting to eat a 14 pound turkey?  I'll leave it at, we have leftovers.

So I'm passing along to you, an incredibly fast and easy way to get rid of your Turkey Day leftovers (without using the garbage or compost).

What you will need:

Leftovers:

Turkey:  approximately 2 1/2 cups of turkey, shredded by hand
Mashed Potatoes - approximately 3 cups
Gravy: 1 cup
Stuffing (optional):  1 1/2 cups

Additional Ingredients:

1 large carrot, sliced
1 celery stalk, chopped
2 cups chicken stock
1/4 tsp Thyme
1 cup shredded Irish cheddar cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste

If you don't have leftover mashed potatoes (I didn't) then you will also need these:

5 medium potatoes
1 cup milk
2 tbsp. butter

If you're missing the mashed potatoes, start here.  If not, you can move to the next section:

Peel and chop five medium potatoes into quarters.  Toss into a pot of boiling water and cook until tender.

Drain, add one cup of milk, two tablespoons of butter (I honestly just pour milk in and glob some butter in to my own merriment) and salt and pepper to taste.  Get out your hand masher (you can also use a food processor for super smooth potatoes) and get your best Popeye arm muscles out and start mashing.  Once this is done and you've tasted the potatoes several time to deem this delicious, you can move on.

Life is pretty simple from here.  Take your sliced carrots, celery and chicken stock, and dried Thyme and add them to a deep skillet.  Simmer these together until the carrots soften, about twenty minutes.  If your liquid gets a bit low, feel free to add more chicken stock.  You won't need to add salt to this part of the dish as the chicken stock should contain plenty for just about anyone.  

You can now add your turkey.  I shred mine by hand as I throw it in.  You could also chop it if you prefer to keep your nails turkey free.

Your turkey should be nice and juicy now.  This is where, if you have leftover gravy, you will stir it in.  If you don't, no worries.  Just add a little more chicken stock, maybe a little butter, and a little flour and let it simmer to create a cream sauce within your mixture.  You'll want a little excess sauce so that if you picked up a scoop with a slotted spoon, gravy deliciousness would be dripping through.

Layering time.  Get out a baking dish and dump your mixture in.

If you have leftover stuffing, layer this on next.  After the stuffing, add the mashed potatoes.

Final step, add the shredded Irish cheddar cheese to the top.  Toss into the oven at 375F for 20 minutes.  At the end, change your oven's setting to broil and watch closely as the cheese turns a lovely bubbly brown.  You'll want to watch closely because this will happen quickly and if you decide to step out of the room to do something else, you may return to flambé.  Once you see the level of browned cheese you desire, pull out of the oven.  Can be served immediately.  Enjoy your turkey Irish style!