Friday, February 28, 2014

Leftover Turkey Tetrazzini from The Belle

Missy, here. Last week I shared a recipe for making turkey in the slow cooker. Today I'm sharing the recipe I used to make turkey tetrazzini with the leftovers.

One of the reasons I bought an iPad last year was because I wanted it to use while cooking since I look up recipes online so often. I soon discovered the Food Network app. It's a little slow starting, and it has its flaws. But overall, I really enjoy using it. I've kept a recipe box online for ages, and those recipes pull up on my iPad. The app even has a little slider you can move to keep track of which step you're at in your recipe.

The recipe for my leftovers was found using the app. Click here to see the recipe from The Pioneer Woman show. I didn't use the mushrooms because my daughter would have rejected it. I'm sure they would have really added a lot and look forward to making again WITH mushrooms. I also just used the cheese I had on hand. And used regular bread crumbs instead of panko.

WARNING.

 Let me just say this was more time consuming than I thought it would be. Still, it's worth the effort!

Turkey Tetrazzini
Adapted from Ree Drummond

1/2 stick butter
1 Tbsp. minced garlic (about 4 cloves)
1 pound mushrooms, quartered (again, I didn't use these)
1 cup dry white wine (NOTE: I decreased this to about 1/2 cup since I had no mushrooms to absorb)
1/2 tsp. salt
ground black pepper
1/4 cup flour
4 cups (1 box) chicken broth
8 oz. package cream cheese softened
3 cups leftover turkey--mine was shredded
1 bag frozen green peas
1 cup grated cheese (I used Light 4-cheese Italian)
1 cup  finely chopped kalamata olives (Ree used black, but kalamata are my fav)
1/2 cup grated fresh parmesan cheese
4 slices bacon, fried and chopped
1 box thin spaghetti noodles, broken and cooked al dente
1 cup plain bread crumbs



Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Whew. Now, after that huge list, take a deep breath. Maybe take a nap.

Okay, we're back. Now, some prep work. I'm going to share a tip I learned ages ago on a cooking show. I think it was from Melissa D'Arabian (Food Network Star winner). She said you can keep bacon in the freezer. When you need a slice, you just cut across one end (across all the slices), so there's no need to try to pull off one slice. Cut about 1 inch for one slice. Then toss it in the skillet to fry. I made 4 cuts for 4 slices of bacon.



Crumbled in the pan for cooking until crisp. Then drained on paper towels.



Cook the noodles according to package directions until al dente.




Chop/shred the turkey. And chop the olives.




Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat and add the garlic.




Add in the wine, salt and pepper (and mushrooms if using), and cook them, stirring 


occasionally, until the liquid reduces by half. This took several minutes.


Sprinkle the flour over the garlic and wine and stir to combine (like making a roux).




Pour in the broth, stir and continue to cook until the sauce is thickened, several minutes.

Add the cream cheese and stir until it mixes in. It takes a bit to get smooth.


Add the turkey, peas, cheeses, olives, and bacon.





Stir until combined, then add salt and pepper to taste.

Add the spaghetti noodles. If the mixture is too thick, splash in some broth (I didn't need any 


more).

Pour into a large casserole dish (sprayed with cooking spray) and spread evenly.








Sprinkle on the breadcrumbs and bake it until the  golden brown and bubbly, about 20-25 

minutes.

This was DELISH! Creamy and cheesy. And would have been even better with the 

mushrooms. I may be making this again sometime when my daughter is away. Worth the 

effort on the prep work. And a great way to use leftover turkey.





www.missytippens.com

12 comments:

  1. I have a friend who makes this and I always thought it was way too hard, but you make it look easy! (And that bacon tip is worth its weight in... bacon. Brilliant.)
    I think I'll make this on Saturday!

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  2. I just made one quick change in the amount of wine added! I decreased it to like 1/2 cup since I didn't use mushrooms to absorb all that liquid.

    Virginia, I hope you like it! It makes a huge amount, enough to feed your army. :)

    In fact, I ended up throwing some away, even though we ate it leftover a couple of times.

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  3. wow looks yummy! I'd have put the mushrooms in and let the daughter fend for herself (I'm so mean! and here my mom always made me a separate hamburger patty when she made meatloaf since I hated meatloaf then...)
    maybe I'll cook some chicken and try with that since I don't have leftover turkey and don't really like it enough to fix some so I'll have leftovers!

    sigh..gotta work night shift tonight and all weekend and of course my shepherd is still down and I mean down. ths helping her potty is ridiculous - she can't even stand. so I'm grabbing towels and dealing with my beloved carpet being ruined but hey whatever my dog is more important and I'd rather deal with the carpet than have her on the tile sliding and falling - at least the carpet is soft with good padding. just hope she shows some signs of great improvement - from the way the vet talked and what I've seen online 72 hours is the 'magic' number - they seem to recover sorta on their own or show signs of recovering. seems both my dogs picked the same day of the week to go downhill but there's never really a good time. Saturday my vet is closed which is when I needed him before - but at least ths time I don't think he'[s out of town like with Kayla last year.

    Susanna

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    Replies
    1. Oh, Susanna! So sorry to here about your sweet shepherd! It's heartbreaking to help them deal with these things, isn't it? They understand your're helping, but they don't understand why it's all necessary. :(

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    2. yes esp when it looks so bad to me too - but I looked online a little bit (started scaring me LOL!) and seems the vet's assessment of call Mon or Tues with an update is about right- 72 hrs or 2-3 days before noticing anything and even then might not be complete. she managed tomove herself off her bed then when I scooted it closer she scooted back on it when I wasn't looking -bit by bit. tried to sleep for night shift tonight nd she'd moved herself completely off the bed in the front room to her bed n the back on the tile...so guess she can manage just hope she doesn' get motbile in the night. I love big dogs but I tell you it's bad to have them when they get old and need help and you're just one fat weakling :-( and no I don't think they understand - think they live in the moment and her moment right not is something isn't right. I just keep telling her like she's a person 'a couple more days'..sigh...wish I didn't hve work but oh well
      Susanna

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    3. Susanna, I'm sorry your dog is still down. Hope she perks up ASAP.

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  4. My family loves Turkey Tetrazzini, but your recipe is a lot more complicated than mine.

    That is, it's complicated in a good way. After all, you added BACON!

    And I'm with Virginia - that bacon tip is worth it's weight in thick-sliced applewood smoked bacon :)

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  5. my mom used to make a good chicken spaghetti but it was a lot of canned cream of whatever soup s- chicken and mushroom I think. I'm glad to see something 'from scratch'
    Missy maybe you could leave out the mushrooms on a small part and make al ittle casserole for your daughter? my aunt did this with dressing - she made 2 big pans with onion and 1 pan of tasteless,um, onion-less for her son and daughter in law (and later their 3 kids who seemed to inherit the bland dressing genes)
    Susanna

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  6. did you try the broth by itself? the more I look at the pic the more I think soup!
    susanna

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    Replies
    1. It does look like a good, rich soup, doesn't it?! May try it next time. :)

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  7. Still playing catch-up.

    Missy, how could this recipe possibly be wrong? I mean bacon, cheese, garlic... everything you need for an amazing recipe. 'Cept for the peas. Seems I'm the only on in my house who likes peas. I would be ostracized. Then again, I could just leave them out. Save for maybe one little corner. :)

    I've tried so many of Ree's recipes and loved most of them. Wish I were married to a cattle rancher so I could eat beef all the time. (sorry Kav) Not that my doctor would be happy about it. Still, all that manual labor they do on the ranch seems to keep them nice and trim.

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