LEFTOVER TURKEY

 

We visited our daughter in Florida for Thanksgiving and her spouses' mom put on a big spread. All the traditional foods were on the table and there was plenty of it. So when we left that beautiful home on the water, we brought back a huge bag of turkey including the carcass.

The next day my BW picked through the bag and separated all the meat. We decided to prepare a casserole using items already on hand. Everyone raved about the casserole so I thought I'd mention it here. It is not difficult to prepare and is a taste sensation. I know because we all finished the casserole that night. My daughter had these cans of soup in her cupboard and they became the flavour base.

Turkey Pasta Casserole           serves 8 normal people

Ingredients:

4-5 cups chopped cooked leftover turkey

1-pound of macaroni, I used Ziti
¼ pound of butter
½ cup flour
1-teaspoon of seasoning salt, such as Lawry's. I used Tony Chacherie's Creole Seasoning

2-cups milk
 

2-18.5 ounce cans of soup, I used Progresso brand Bacon, Potato Soup but there is a wide variety of these prepared soups to choose from.

1-2 cups grated cheese, I used mostly Asiago with Parmesan directly on top but Mozzarella, Monterrey Jack and Provolone would also be good.

Method:

Put on a pot of water to boil the macaroni. When boiling, add a little salt and macaroni

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F/175C
2. In a large saucepan, melt the butter on medium heat
3. Heat the milk almost to boiling in microwave or stove-top saucepan
4. Add the flour and seasoning to the butter, stir to combine, cook a minute or two
5. Pour the hot milk into the flour/fat roux and stir to make a white sauce
6. Drain the cooked macaroni
7. Grease or spray non-stick on a 13inch by 9 inch baking pan
8. Spread the macaroni in the pan
9. Add most of the cheese to the white sauce and stir thoroughly. Reserve some cheese.
10. Add the cans of soup to the cheese sauce and combine
11. Pour into the macaroni and combine
12. Place in middle of oven and bake 20-30 minutes
13. Shut oven, turn on broiler
14. Spread some grated cheese atop the casserole. Optionally, shake black pepper all over.
15. Place under broiler a minute or so to make top golden.

And that is a wonderful way to deal with leftover turkey. Quite frankly, if it wasn't for tradition, I would serve turkey this way on Thanksgiving day, but of course it wouldn't be the same, would it? But the next day? Oy, what a treat. Deja vu never tasted so good.