The bird is D-O-N-E. Last night we officially polished off the last of the turkey, and we used all of it. We bought a 12 pounder for Thanksgiving this year, and I decided to try a couple of new things. 1) I brined the turkey this year and cooked it differently than I normally do and 2) I made turkey stock from scratch. I’m not sure why I chose to be so ambitious having a 10 week old newborn. She did prove to add extra time to my cooking ability so dinner did get pushed back to 8 ish instead of 6 ish like I had originally planned, and I had to pass off delegate two side dishes to Ariana and Brett.
Brining the Turkey – I used this great blog, Savory Sweet Life, to help me get started. I used the recipe, but also added a couple of other things to it, like fresh lemon juice (and the lemons). The turkey had an AMAZING flavor! I was a little worried because I had read that you shouldn’t brine a previously frozen turkey, because it would make it too salty, but it was fine. I also used Alton Brown’s turkey recipe for the cooking part (normally I do the brown bag turkey cooking technique). And since I always seem to make last minute changes, I had to head out to Albertsons around noon on Thanksgiving to buy a roasting pan, and the aromatic ingredients for the turkey. I cooked it without a digital probe because I didn’t have one, so I cooked the turkey for 2 hours. Brett said he thought the turkey was moister when I used the brown bag recipe, but we both agreed that it had a different flavor this year (in the good way 🙂 ).
Making the Stock – This wasn’t too hard. After we stripped all the meat off of the bones I threw them into a pot filled with water, a quartered sweet onion, few stalks of celery and carrots chopped up, some peppercorns, garlic, and a few sprigs of Rosemary and Thyme (leftover from the turkey aromatics) and boiled it for a few hours. Then I strained it and put it in the fridge. I did have to keep reminding myself that I needed to put a container under the strainer to catch the liquid (because in my poor confused head, I’m used to not keeping the liquid that is being strained, lol).
Turkey Leftovers-
Sandwiches: I LOVE turkey sandwiches made with cranberry sauce, dijon mustard and Miracle Whip as the topping.
Turkey Brie Bites: I used this recipe that I found and made them when we had friends visiting during the weekend. They were super yummy, and I bet they could be (since I didn’t make them this way, I can’t guarantee it), yummy with turkey added to them.
Turkey Chili: I have been using Rachel Ray’s Turkey Corn Chili recipe for years. I don’t follow it exactly (I normally don’t have any peppers of any kind lying around), but it is another tasty dinner for turkey leftovers.
Turkey and Dumplings: I will make this Chicken and Dumplings for the fam on a regular basis, so I thought last night, “Why not make it with turkey”. This is a great way to get rid of the leftover carrots and celery and I also got to use my homemade turkey stock :-D. The dumpling recipe left out the fact that you also need to add an egg to the mixture, so don’t forget that, and I like to add a can of Cream of Chicken soup to the broth.