What to do with leftover turkey thread
 

Let's face it. Unless we cook for 25+ people, we're going to have some leftover turkey. I'm buying a 10 lb bird and we will have leftovers.

Some things I traditionally do with leftover turkey is:

Roast the bones and make quarts and quarts of stock to freeze and use throughout the year.

Make turkey noodle soup. Use wonton noodles, they're silkier.

Make turkey egg drop soup.

Make turkey wontons. Easy to do. Freeze in a single layer on a baking sheet. When frozen, put into a resealable freezer bag. Great for soups.

Make Chinese turkey salad.

Of course, turkey open face. I usually have 1/2 slice of bread and forego any mashed potatoes.

Turkey tetrazinni.

I'd make croquettes but those blasted things never workout for me.

What will you do with yours?

Turkey Tetrazzini
 

:chef:
This is a chicken tetrazzini recipe I ran across a few weeks ago, wish I could remember where so I could give credit where it's due (& also because I might find some more good recipes) I thought it just might be a good way to use up some of the left over turkey!


Ingredients
1 tablespoon butter
Cooking spray
1 cup finely chopped onion
2/3 cup finely chopped celery
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 (8-ounce) packages presliced mushrooms
1/2 cup dry sherry
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 (14.5-ounce) cans fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
2 1/4 cups (9 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese, divided
1/2 cup (4 ounces) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese
7 cups hot cooked vermicelli (about 1 pound uncooked pasta)
4 cups chopped cooked chicken breast (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1 (1-ounce) slice white bread


Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°.
Melt butter in large stockpot coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add onion, celery, pepper, salt, and mushrooms; sauté 4 minutes or until mushrooms are tender. Add sherry; cook 1 minute.

Lightly spoon flour into a measuring cup; level with a knife. Gradually add flour to pan; cook 3 minutes, stirring constantly (mixture will be thick) with a whisk. Gradually add broth, stirring constantly. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat.

Add 1 3/4 cups Parmesan cheese and cream cheese, stirring with a whisk until cream cheese melts. Add the pasta and chicken, and stir until blended. Divide the pasta mixture between 2 (8-inch-square) baking dishes coated with cooking spray.

Place bread in food processor; pulse 10 times or until coarse crumbs form. Combine breadcrumbs and 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese; sprinkle evenly over pasta mixture.

Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove casserole from oven; let stand 15 minutes.

To freeze unbaked casserole: Prepare through Step 5. Cool completely in refrigerator. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing to remove as much air as possible. Wrap with heavy-duty foil. Store in freezer for up to 2 months.

To prepare frozen unbaked casserole: Thaw casserole completely in refrigerator (about 24 hours). Preheat oven to 350º. Remove foil; reserve foil. Remove plastic wrap; discard wrap. Cover casserole with reserved foil; bake at 350º for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 1 hour or until golden and bubbly. Let stand 15 minutes.

Yield
2 casseroles, 6 servings each (serving size: about 1 1/3 cups)

Nutritional Information
CALORIES 380(29% from fat); FAT 12.2g (sat 6.6g,mono 3.4g,poly 0.7g); PROTEIN 33g; CHOLESTEROL 66mg; CALCIUM 319mg; SODIUM 964mg; FIBER 2g; IRON 2.8mg; CARBOHYDRATE 32.7g

This sounds good too!
 

I don't have the nutritional info, I'll have to plug it into a recipe calculator.
Don't remember where I got this one either, I have to remember to bookmark these sites, so I can get back to them!

Shiitake Hot, Sweet and Sour Chicken Stew

Ingredients
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 3/4-inch chunks
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce
4 oz. shiitake mushrooms, stems finely chopped, caps sliced
1 ¾ cups organic chicken broth, such as Swanson’s, divided
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 ½ tablespoons cornstarch
3 cups thinly sliced bok choy leaves
1 pouch (10.5 oz.) fully cooked brown rice, such as Trader Joe’s, heated
¼ cup thinly sliced green onions

Preparation
Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add chicken, garlic and pepper flakes and stir-fry two minutes. Add soy sauce and mushrooms and continue to stir-fry two minutes. Add 1½ cups of the broth and vinegar and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer uncovered five minutes or until chicken is no longer pink in center.

Combine remaining ¼ cup broth and cornstarch, mixing well. Stir into stew and simmer two minutes or until thickened. Stir in bok choy and heat through. Spoon rice into four shallow bowls. Top with chicken mixture and garnish with green onions.

Usually just your traditional turkey sandwiches. I love those. Turkey on toasted bread with Light Miracle Whip and onions.

I've also made "Thanksgiving Dinner Wraps". I take a low carb-whole wheat tortilla and inside of that I wrap up a little bit of turkey, dressing and a touch of cranberry sauce (seedless raspberry jam works well, too) and heat it up in the oven wrapped in foil. Not exactly diet-friendly (mostly because of the dressing) but it's sooooo yummy.

I've tried boiling down the bones/carcass to make soup, but gads, once the broth cools, it's soooooo full of fat that I stopped doing it. It shocked me how much fat was released once the bones were simmered for a while. It grossed me out.

If you roast it off in the oven first, not only will you get a much richer stock, but some of that stuff kinda bakes out of it. Then you put it in the stockpot. My favorite kind of stockpot is one we got at Bed & Bath. It's actually a pasta pot with the strainer. We can lift out just about all the bones at once.

After you make your stock, you can put it in the fridge (pot and all) overnight. The next morning you will have a layer of fat that is easily lifted out. Another thing we do is to use little strainers. We will pour the stock from the pot through a strainer into a pitcher. Then hold the strainer over a quart freezer bag and strain it again. Between the fridge and double straining, we pretty much get all the gooey stuff out.

Oh, also, don't include any of the skin when you roast or boil. That should cut down as well.

Thank you for the tips :)

Yeah, I'm not sure exactly what I did, but even after I skimmed the fat off the next morning, the broth just felt so greasy. I ended up pitching it all out. Maybe I needed to strain it more than once, like you suggested.

It's a tradition in my family that my sons and I make turkey soup the next day out of the leftovers. After cleaning off the meat and setting it aside, I boil the turkey bones, strain, let cool and skim off the fat. Then we chop up whatever veggies we have, add the meat and some noodles, seasonings, maybe a low-sodium boullion cube or two and it's done. My two oldest boys are grown, and they still help me make this every year.

I made that turkey egg drop soup every year. When both my DDs got married, they called me and asked how to do it. I don't know why they had to call me. They helped me make it for years! :lol:

Your sons will probably do the same and want it every year after they leave home.

http://static.flickr.com/35/73042841_2a6586206f_m.jpg
turkey ceasar salads