Wild Turkey Pot Pie

I'm sure most of you know by now that my hubby is an avid hunter. As such, over our married years, I have learned how to cook with a variety of types of wild game. Most often, we eat venison as our red meat and so when I post a recipe that calls for beef, you can assume it was cooked in my home with venison.

This spring, the dude harvested his first wild turkey of his hunting career. Because it was the first one, I didn't really know what to do with it. You see, wild turkey differs from domestic turkeys in that it is much much tougher so you can't just cook it the same as you would cook a normal turkey.

The dude cook some of it by breading with a bread crumb/herb/parm coating and fried it like chicken nuggets. I wasn't too pumped about it. They were dry and somewhat tasteless and well, fried in oil. Not my ideal meal.

With the rest of the turkey, I decided to try to tenderize it a bit by cooking it in the slow cooker, covered with broth. This helped a bit, but the meat still wasn't 'fall off the bone' like it is when you normally cook meat in the slow cooker.

So, I have been trying to find recipes to use the pre-cooked turkey that would help with the toughness.

One of the recipes I tried was a pot pie which was delicious. The veggies and the gravy base really worked well to help make the turkey taste much much much more tender than it would have on its own. The recipe I used is similar to one I have made in the past using wild duck (see, I told you we are wild game eaters around here), but I made a few changes this time. Overall, we were very impressed with the results as was our company! (Don't worry - if I have you over, I promise I will not feed you wild game if you unaware!)

This recipe works really well to tenderize the wild game but would also be fine for domestic turkey as well, I would assume.

Wild Turkey Pot Pie
2 cups potato, finely chopped
2-3 carrots, chopped
1-2 stalks celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup frozen green beans
2 cups cooked and chopped wild turkey
1 package turkey gravy mix (or make your own)
2 packages multi-grain crescent rolls**

**This pie would also be yummy with a traditional pie crust, I just used the crescent rolls because I had them. If you use a traditional pie crust, follow the same instructions except do not bother pre-boiling the veggies and increase cooking time to about 1 hr to cook the crust.

Preheat oven to 350.

1. Place carrots, potatoes, onion, and celery in a medium stock pot. Cover with water. Boil for 5-6 minutes until veggies are beginning to soften. Drain and remove from heat.

2. Meanwhile, prepare gravy following package instructions.

3. Grease a large pie plate and spread one package of crescent rolls along the bottom. Smoosh to blend them together.

4. Place chopped turkey in the crust.

5. Top with boiled veggies and frozen green beans.

6. Pour gravy over entire surface.

7. Form second package of crescent rolls over the pie to completely cover.

8. Bake uncovered for 15-20 minutes, cover and continue baking for 10 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Makes 4-6 servings.

Turkey Tetrazzini Crisp

This week's chef for the Food Networking Chef's Cooking Challenge was George Duran. I chose to make the Turkey Tetrazzini Crisp because I still have leftover turkey from Christmas in the freezer. So, while the recipe calls for ground turkey, I just used cooked/shredded turkey. I cut the recipe in half because I did not need 8-10 servings. Even cut in half, this made quite a lot. Enough for both of us to have a big portion and then 3 lunch portions! I also added mushrooms and green onions, because that's what I do. And I switched from parm to swiss cheese, because I had some grated swiss that I needed to use! I found the cayenne pepper added a bigger kick to it than I had expected. Next time, I would tone it down. It was a bit spicy for me. Overall, we really really enjoyed this recipe and hope you will too.

Turkey Tetrazzini Crisp - adapted from George Duran
Vegetable oil cooking spray
2 cups rotini
3 T butter, divided
8 oz mushrooms, sliced
3-4 green onions, chopped
3-4 cups cooked, shredded turkey
Black pepper
2 T all purpose flour
2 cups milk (he calls for whole milk, but I just used 1%)
1 cup chicken stock
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (**I would use less if you are not looking for something with kick)
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
A dash of sage
Topping:
1 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated Swiss cheese
1 T butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Cook the pasta in plenty of boiling, salted water until it has softened a bit but is still not quite cooked all the way through. (The pasta will absorb the liquid from the sauce as it finishes cooking in the oven.) Drain, rinse with cold water to stop the cooking, drain again, and set aside.

Melt 1 T butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat and add the mushrooms and onions. (This is the step where George has you cooking the ground turkey, so if you are using that, be sure to cook it first!) Cook until browned, but not fully cooked. Season it with a little salt and pepper. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

Let the pan cool a bit, then add the remaining butter and melt it over medium heat.

Add the flour and whisk to combine. Whisk constantly until the flour has cooked but not browned, about 2 minutes.

Add the milk slowly, whisking to avoid creating any lumps.

Add the chicken stock, cayenne, and nutmeg and cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture begins to thicken, about 5 to 10 minutes.

Stir in the sage and season with some salt and pepper.

Fold in the turkey, mushrooms, and pasta, making sure it is all well coated with the sauce.

Pour into a greased 9x13 pan (I did the entire thing in my new handy dandy cast iron grill pan to avoid using unnecessary dishes).

To make the topping, combine the bread crumbs and cheese and moisten with the melted butter.

Spread topping evenly over the tetrazzini.

Put the pan into the oven, and cook until the top is golden brown and the mixture is bubbling, about 30 minutes. Let rest for 10 minutes before serving.

A note from George: You can also fill 8 individual greased 10 to 12-ounce ramekins with the tetrazzini and topping. These will bake in about 20 minutes. These can be frozen: Make sure they are cool, then add 1 tablespoon milk, chicken stock, or water to each ramekin. Wrap them well in plastic wrap and put them into the freezer. Poke a hole in the plastic wrap and microwave on defrost for 5 minutes, then microwave on high heat for about 8 to 10 minutes or until the tetrazzini is hot and bubbling.

My adaptation of the recipe makes 4-5 servings. I served with roasted broccoli and a green salad.

Chicken, Bacon and Spinach Alfredo

This is a spin-off of one of my favourite's and came into existence because I had some ingredients I needed to use up.

Chicken, Bacon and Spinach Alfredo
1/2 cup chopped onion
A drizzle of EVOO
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups Alfredo sauce (1/2 of this recipe or one jar of store bought sauce)
1 package frozen cheese filled tortellini
1 cup cooked, chopped chicken or turkey
3 slices bacon crisp cooked and crumbled
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 package frozen spinach, thawed and drained
Pepper

Topping:
1/4 cup Parmesan
1 cup bread crumbs

1. Preheat oven to 400. Over medium heat, cook onion and garlic, drizzled in EVOO for 2-3 minutes, until onion is tender.

2. Stir in Alfredo sauce, tortellini, chicken, milk, water and peas.

3. Heat mixture until it comes to a gentle boil (about 10 minutes), whisking occasionally. Remove from heat. Stir in bacon and spinach.

4. In a small bowl combine the bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese.

5. Transfer pasta mixture into a 9x13 baking dish.

6. Sprinkle with crumb topping.

7. Bake at 400 for 25-30 minutes, until the edges are bubbly.

Makes 6 servings.

This recipe is being shared the Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap.