Turkey Suizas Casserole

Turkey Suizas Casserole adapted from Everyday Magazine
2 poblano chile peppers
3 Tbsp EVOO
8 tomatillos, chopped
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 tsp ground cumin
1 Tbsp honey or agave
1 lime, juiced
1-1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 1/2lbs chopped or pulled cooked turkey
1 cup Mexican crema or sour cream
1 1/2 cup grated Swiss cheese
1 cup grated Monterey jack cheese
12 corn or 8 flour tortillas, warmed

Directions:  Char the poblanos over burners or under a hot broiler until blackened all over.  Place in a bowl, cover and let sit until cool enough to handle.  Peel, seed and chop.

Preheat the broiler.  Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the EVOO, 3 turns of the pan.  Add the tomatillos, onion, garlic and bay leaf; season with salt, pepper, the cilantro and cumin.  Cook until tender, about 10 minutes.  Discard the bay leaf.  Add the tomatillo mixture, poblanos, honey and lime juice to a food processor and puree.

In the same skillet, heat the chicken stock over high heat.  Stir in the turkey to reheat, then stir in the tomatillo sauce.

In a medium casserole, layer in half of the turkey mixture and dot with the crema.  Top with half of each of the cheeses and half of the tortillas.  Spread the rest of the turkey on top and layer with the remaining tortillas and then cheese.  Broil until cheese is melted.

Modifications:
-I used chicken breast.  Cut it into strips and browned it.
-I used sour cream instead of crema.

Here's what you'll need:

I cut up the turkey breast.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place the poblano peppers on the burner to blacken.  (The pepper will start to pop and sizzle). 

Once the peppers blacken, put them in a bowl and cover them until they cool off.  About 10 minutes or so.

Chop up the tomatillos, cilantro, and garlic.

Chop up an onion.

Cook the tomatillos, onion, and garlic until softened.

Add the cilantro.

While the tomatillos are cooking, de-seed and chop up the peppers.

Put the peppers, tomatillos, onion, garlic, and cilantro into a food processor to puree.

Brown the turkey in a pan.  Once the turkey is cooked add the tomatillo puree.

Add some chicken broth.

Put half of the mixture into a baking dish.  Add the sour cream and the cheese.

Lay tortillas on top.  Keep layering.

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

Here's what you'll end up with:

Here is our revised version.

Our Thoughts:
This dish had so much flavor and we loved it. 

This was my first experience cooking with tomatillos and if you haven't had them before they taste a little like a green apple and they are delicious.

After having made this dish the way the recipe called for it, we quickly realized that it was too runny so we ended up taking tortillas and rolling the mixture in the tortilla.  This made it much easier to eat.

I want to revisit this recipe with the following changes:
 1. I would probably use ground turkey or may even a rotissierie chicken.  The cut up turkey breast cubes were too large.
 2. I would make this dish up until it was time to put into a baking dish.  I think at this point I would then put it into a crockpot and just let it simmer.
 3. I would let everyone serve themselves.  Great for a football party.

You could also make this hotter by adding a jalapeno in with the peppers.

Hope you enjoy!
April

Raspberry Turkey Tenderloins

Raspberry Turkey Tenderloins
1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam
1/3 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1 tsp grated orange peel
1/2 tsp minced fresh thyme or 1/8 dried thyme
4 turkey breast tenderloins
18 tsp salt

Directions:  In a small saucepan, combine the jame, vinegar, mustard, orange peel and thyme.  Cook andstir for 2-3 minutes or until heated through.  Set aside 1/4 cup for serving.

Sprinkle turkey with salt.  Moisten a paper towel with cooking oil; using long-handled tongs, lightly coat the grill rack.  Grill turkey, covered, over medium heat or broil 4 inches from the heat for 13-18 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 170 degrees, turnig occasionaly.  Baste with remaining sauce during last 5 miutes of cooking. 

Let stand for 5 minutes before slicing.  Serve with reserved sauce.

Here's what you'll need:

Put jam, apple cider vinegar, mustard, and orange peel in a saucepan on low.

Add the thyme.

Salt the turkey breasts and put them on the grill for 16-18 minutes or until 190 degrees in the center.  Use some of the sauce to baste the turkey.

Pull off the grill and let rest.  

Pour the remainder of the sauce of the turkey breast.

Here' what you'll end up with:

Our Thoughts:
This turkey dish was really good.  The sauce was sweet with a hint of spicy tanginess from the Dijon mustard.  The turkey was moist and the sauce gave it the perfect extra kick of flavor.

The only thing I was thinking you could do a little differently is to lessen the amount of mustard, add a little more jam, and maybe chop up a jalapeno to make it a raspberry-jalapeno sauce.

Either way, this dish was worth the effort.

Hope you enjoy!
April

Turkey, Spinach, and Tomato Frittata

This is such an easy breakfast/brunch to make.  Great for weekend company!

Turkey, Spinach, and Tomato Frittata
Eggs (depends on how many people you are having)
Fresh spinach
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
Creamy cheese (I used Muenster)
3-4 slices of deli turkey

Directions:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Whisk the eggs together.  Chop up a handful of fresh spinach and put it in with the eggs.  Heat some olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Chop up 3-4 slices of turkey and add it to the eggs.  Drain the tomatoes and add about 1/2 of the can.  Work your way around the egg mixture and as it starts to harden pull it up and let more egg juice flow beneath.  When the mixture is semi-hardened, add the cheese on top.  Bake in oven for about 20 minutes until eggs set and cheese melts.

For this meal, I used 5 eggs and 2 egg whites

Here's what you'll need:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk the eggs

Chop up some spinach and throw it in with the whisked eggs

Chop up 3-4 slices of turkey

Put the eggs and spinach mixture into an oiled pan.  Add the sliced turkey

Drain a can of diced tomatoes and add about half to the eggs.

As the eggs start to cook, take a spatula around the outside edge of the pan to let more juice drain down. 

When the eggs have set, place your cheese over the whole thing.  (This is a 12 inch pan)

Pop in to the oven for about 15-20 minutes

Here's what you'll end up with:

Our Thoughts:

I LOVE frittatas or so my kids would eat it . . . breakfast pizza.  I told them that the eggs made the crust.  It worked!

You can take this recipe and change it up anyway you want.  I have used turkey sausage, turkey bacon, feta cheese, onions, green peppers, jalapenos, etc. etc.  The list goes on and on.  I make these all of the time!  You really cannot mess this dish up.  Anything you like, throw it in.

Hope you enjoy!

April

Turkey with Cranberry Glaze

Turkey with Cranberry Glaze
Adapted from Alton Brown, Bobby Flay and Paula Deen
16-18lb turkey
8-10 cups chicken broth
2 onions quartered
1 small bag of baby carrots
4 celery stalks, cut into 1 inch
1 container poultry herbs
1 1/4 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature

Directions:  Preheat oven to 500 degrees.  Quarter the onions and cut the celery stalks into 1 inch pieces.  Finely chop the herbs.  Mix the herbs in with the butter.  Pour the chicken stock into a saucepan and warm.

Take package off of turkey.  Reach inside the cavity and take out the neck and the bag.  Rinse turkey.  Pat dry.

Salt and pepper the cavity.  Put 1/2 of the vegetables inside of the turkey.  With your hands, massage the butter mixture all over the turkey.  Try to get under the skin (without cutting holes in the skin).  Put some of the butter mixture inside the cavity.

Put the rest of the vegetables in the bottom of a roasting pan.  Pour half of the chicken stock into the bottom of the roast pan.  Place the turkey breast side down directly into the roasting pan (not on a roasting rack).

Let turkey cook for 30 minutes at 500 degrees.  Baste every 15-20 minutes.  At 30 minutes, turn the oven down to 350 degrees.  Cook for another hour.  Turn the turkey over so that the breast is facing upward.  This will require help!!

Continue to cook 15-16 minutes for every pound of the turkey.  Continue basting every 15-20 minutes.

The turkey will start to brown.  Don't freak out!  This is just trapping the juices in.  Continue to baste. 

I turned the turkey down to 275 after about 4 hours.

Once the turkey is done, pull it out of the oven and let it rest for 15-20 minutes.

Here's what I started with:

Here's how I did it:

#1 Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.  Chop up the vegetables.

#2 Put the chicken broth in a saucepan to warm up.

#3 Finely chop all of the herbs.

#4 Add the herbs to the butter.

#5 Take the turkey out of the packaging.  Pull out the bag that is full of turkey "innards".  Throw away.

#6 Go to the other end of the turkey cavity and pull out the neck.  Throw it away.

#7 Tuck the wings up under.

#8 Place half of the onions, carrots and celery into the turkey cavity.  Salt and pepper the cavity and outside of the turkey.  Grab a big handful of butter and rub it all over the turkey.  Try to stick your hands up under the skin.  Put some butter inside the cavity.  Use all of the mixture.

#9 Place the remaining vegetables and about 3/4 of the chicken stock in the bottom of a roasting pan.  Place the turkey breast side down into the roasting pan.

#10 Place into the oven at 500 degrees for 30 minutes. 

#11 After 30 minutes, turn the oven down to 350 degrees.  Continue basting every 15-20 minutes.

#12 After an hour and a half, turn the turkey over so it is breast side up. 

#13  As the turkey cooks, use your instinct.  If you think it is getting too dark or you are starting to worry, turn the oven down to 300 or 325. 

#14 This is what it looked like after cooking from 9:30-2:30.

Cranberry Glaze

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 Tbsps Apple cider vinegar

1 cup cranberry juice

1 bag of cranberries

1/2 cup apple cider

4T of butter

Directions:  Mix all ingredients and warm.  Pour over turkey.

Here's what I started with:

Here's how I did it:

#1 Put the butter in a saucepan and let it melt. 

#2 Add all of the ingredients and let it slowly warm.

The Finished Product:

Finished Product with Cranberry Glaze:

Review:

This is the the 2nd year that I have made this recipe for the turkey and it really turned out great. 

By cooking the turkey on 500 for the first 30 minutes, the skin starts to crisp up.  The herbed butter rub seeps into the skin and helps to brown it, too.

I cook the turkey breast side down for the first hour and a half.  This allow for the breast to really soak up all of those juices, then flip it over.

I just can't say enough about the cranberry glaze.  It is SO good.  Next year, though, I am not going to put the glaze on until after the turkey is sliced up.  Some of the pieces did not get the turkey glaze by me pouring it over before it was sliced but, either way, this turkey was fantastic. 

Hope you enjoy!
April

*****(5 Stars)--This dish was fantastic!