I did something rather silly last week. On Halloween, I took a full turkey breast out of the freezer to thaw. It takes a few days to thaw in the fridge, and it wasn’t until later in the week that it occured to me that Thanksgiving was fast approaching. Yes, I know Thanksgiving is in November, but it just didn’t seem like it should be Thanksgiving yet.

It was too late to put the turkey back in the freezer, so on Friday night, B and I had a nice turkey dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy, courtesy of my favorite easy recipe. Now, two people can’t really put that much of a dent in a turkey breast, so I had lots of leftovers.

I generally don’t like leftover mashed potatoes but thought I could make a variation of a cottage pie with turkey, and simply use my basic pot pie recipe for the filling, substituting about a cup of shredded turkey for the chicken breast. With this version, rather than go out to buy a bag of frozen vegetables (I generally use a mix of broccoli/cauliflower/carrots for my pot pies – not traditional, but I feel better when I don’t include heavy, starchy vegetables), I used what I had in my fridge.

It all came together rather quickly, which was nice. I immediately started thinking that it could be a useful recipe post-Thanksgiving, when you simply can’t face another turkey sandwich.

Turkey Cottage Pie

Print Recipe

1 cup cooked turkey breast, shredded
salt & pepper
1 cup chicken/turkey stock
1 chicken bouillon cube
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon half and half
1/2 cup chopped green beans or asparagus
1/2 cup diced carrots
generous sprinkle poultry seasoning or herbs de provence
leftover mashed potatoes
paprika and freshly ground black pepper for garnish

In a small saucepan, heat the chicken/turkey stock over medium-high heat. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and sweat the onions over medium-low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, until translucent. Add the carrots and sauté until soft. Add beans/asparagus and cook until bright green.

Add the flour and cook over low heat, stirring frequently, for 2 minutes until the flour scent is gone, but the color hasn’t yet turned dark. Slowly add the hot stock to the flour mixture, whisking constantly. Simmer over low heat for 1 more minute, whisking, until thick. Add salt and pepper to taste, stir in half and half. Add the turkey and a sprinkle of poultry seasoning, if using. Taste for seasoning, adjust as needed.

If using leftover, cold mashed potatoes, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Divide the filling equally among 2 oven- and broiler-proof bowls and top with mashed potatoes*. Sprinkle potatoes with paprika and freshly ground black pepper. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes if potatoes are leftover and cold. (If potatoes are warm, proceed to next step.)

Broil cottage pies 6-8 inches from the broiler until the potatoes start to brown. Remove from oven and enjoy (but remember the dishes are HOT!)

Print my mashed potato recipe

As I mentioned yesterday, the first leftover transformation probably isn’t the most exciting, because many of us are used to making sandwiches from Thanksgiving leftovers. Then again, I look forward to sandwiches made from Thanksgiving leftovers all year, so perhaps you do, too.

This sandwich isn’t exactly like holiday leftovers, but it bridges the gap between ordinary sandwich and holiday sandwich. The best part is that neither meal takes much effort. The longest task of making the sandwiches involves bringing the cheese to room temperature.

I didn’t have any available at the time, but I think some thinly sliced tart apples (such as Granny Smith) added to this sandwich would add some nice crispness, both in taste and texture.

Meal #2 from Braised Turkey Thighs (serves 4)

Leftover braised turkey thighs and apples
Wheat sandwich buns
Dijon mustard
Brie (room temperature)
Dried cranberries

Slightly warm through the turkey and apples in the microwave, about a minute each. The apples will now be more of an applesauce-texture.

Spread a thin layer of Dijon mustard on the base of the bun. Top with brie, turkey, a drizzle of applesauce, and some dried cranberries.

Freeze leftover applesauce for a future meal.

As my college roommates can attest, I’ve never been a fan of leftovers. With good intentions, I’d wrap up the food, and into the fridge it would go. The next day, I’d pass over the leftovers in favor of something new, and THOSE leftovers would join the others. After a few weeks, we ended up with a few science experiments, to say the least.

It’s been a long time since my college days, but I still have the same track record with eating my leftovers. Over the years, I kept thinking about how I should really put more effort into transforming leftovers into a new (and exciting!) meal.

So here you have it: a new series of posts, dedicated to taking one meal and transforming it into one or more spin-offs. I can’t promise that all transformations will be exciting, or that they won’t elicit a “Duh! I do that all the time!” response, but I hope to get more creative as time goes on. If you have any favorite transformations, I’d love to hear about them in the comments section.

My first transformation is relatively simple, and one most of us are familiar with. But I have a second transformation from the original meal already in mind, and I will blog about that in the near future.

The best part about this meal? It takes very little effort to make, yet is a perfect way to warm up the house on a cold day. (Because the actual hands-on cooking time is so low, I’ve categorized it as a “quick meal.”)

Recipe Note: Though I didn’t include it in the recipe, adding about a tablespoon of spiced run, along with the stock and cider, really gives the sauce a nice flavor. I didn’t add that step this time, because I was out of spiced rum, and um, I couldn’t reach the regular!

Meal One: Apple-Braised Turkey Thighs, adapted from Everyday Food (October 2009)

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 turkey thighs (about 2 pounds total)
salt & ground pepper
4 large shallots, sliced
4 apples (suggested: Cortland or Granny Smith)
2 cups apple cider
2 cups chicken or turkey stock*
5 sprigs thyme
1 teaspoon cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 350*F.

In a medium Dutch oven or deep sauté pan, heat oil over medium-high heat until the oil shimmers. Season the turkey with salt and pepper, add to the oil, skin-side down. Cook until skin is golden, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a plate and add shallots to pan. Cook until browned, about 6 minutes. Add apples and allow to slightly soften, about 5 minutes.

Return turkey to the pot, skin-side up; add cider, stock, and sprigs of thyme. Bring to a boil, cover, then transfer pot to the oven for 1 ½ hours. Remove the lid and cook for another 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and transfer turkey to a clean plate. Remove thyme, skim fat from cooking liquid and stir in vinegar. Slice or pull meat off the bones (save bones for turkey stock) and serve with apples and pan sauce.

*This recipe is gluten free if you use broth/stock that does not contain gluten.

For Meal #2, shred the leftover turkey and reserve the savory apple sauce. Tuesday’s post will feature the transformed leftovers…

The next installment of Project Chicken involved using up the leg and thigh meat. These are by no means traditional enchiladas, but they’re fast & easy, and you can assemble everything the night before and just bake them for dinner. Served on top of a bed of lettuce, and you have a nice meal. Add a margarita, and you can even invite people over for dinner.

Chicken Enchiladas

Leftover leg and thigh meat from Easy Roasted Chicken, shredded
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
8 ounces salsa, divided
1 poblano pepper
1 small onion
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon chili powder
salt
2-4 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
2-4 ounces monterey jack cheese, shredded
4-6 flour or corn tortillas

Heat a small skillet with olive oil over medium heat. Dice the onion and poblano, add to skillet. Season with chili powder and a dash of salt. Saute until soft, about 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat.

In a medium bowl, mix the cream cheese and 4 ounces of the salsa. Add the cooked onions and poblano peppers, stir to combine. Stir in the shredded chicken.

Spray a 7×11 glass baking dish with cooking spray. If baking now, preheat oven to 400*F.

Place a generous spoonful of the chicken in the center of each tortilla. Roll the tortilla up and place seam side down in the baking dish. Repeat with remaining tortillas until all of the chicken is gone. (If baking immediately, proceed with the recipe. Otherwise, cover the baking dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate up to 24 hours.) Top the tortillas with remaining salsa and shredded cheese.

Bake for 20 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.

If baking the next day, remove plastic wrap from the baking dish and top the tortillas with the remaining salsa and shredded cheese. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 400*F for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake until the cheese is bubbly, about 10 minutes.

I can be a bit scattered at times. I also have some commitment issues. As much as I love this blog, I keep getting ideas for other “formats” for a cooking or baking blog. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve either started, or considered starting, other blogging projects, all revolving around food. And then I usually just ask myself, why not just consolidate? Why do you need 99 blogs?

This particular grouping of posts came from one of those other projects. But, the thought of keeping that project going and going just took too much of my time. Plus, with daylight hours dwindling, I simply don’t have the ability to snap photos of my dinner every night anymore. As it is, some of the photos from this series of posts will have used the flash, a big no-no when it comes to food photography (unless you have a super-expensive flash or lights, which I don’t have the budget for right now. If you really want to see my dinner everynight, I accept gifts. )

So are you wondering what on earth I’m talking about yet?

Well, here goes. Most of the time, I just cook for myself. So when I roast a whole chicken, that results in a lot of leftovers that I have to figure out what to do with. Some of the leftover chicken gets earmarked for salads for lunches, but there’s still a lot of meat left. Especially when you accidentally buy a five pound chicken from the butcher, and you usually go for a three pound chicken.

So with this series of posts, I’m going to show you what I did with the leftovers. I used every piece of that chicken, including the carcass. I like to get my money’s worth.

Night #1 – The Easiest Roasted Chicken Ever

5 pound chicken
salt
herbs de provence

2 large sweet potatoes
1 pound carrots
1 medium red onion
1 medium white onion
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon herbs de provence

Two days ahead: salt the inside and outside of the chicken and place in a pyrex dish. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

The day of: take the chicken out of the refrigerator one hour before starting prep work, to bring the bird closer to room temperature (this ensures even cooking).

Preheat the oven to 425*F.

Peel and slice the sweet potatoes into 1/2 inch pieces. Cut the very large slices in half. Peel and cut the carrots into 2 inch pieces. Peel the onions, cut in half, and then cut each half into fourths. Place all vegetables in a roasting pan and drizzle with the olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and herbs de provence, and give them all a toss with your hands to distribute the oil and seasonings.

Position the rack about the vegetables. Place the chicken breast-side up on the rack. Roast for 20 minutes, then flip the chicken over, with the breast-side down.

Roast for 30 minutes and flip the chicken back to being breast-side up. Roast until the chicken is cooked through (thermometer registers 175*F when inserted in the thigh) – this took about seven more minutes. Remove chicken from rack to a platter, breast-side down (this allows juices to “run down” into the breast, resulting in moist meat), for 10-15 minutes.

Stir the vegetables and return to the oven for 10 minutes to crisp them up.

Carve the chicken and serve with the vegetables.

After dinner, I shredded the remaining chicken and divided the breast meat and thigh/leg meat – each got their own container.

Stay tuned to see what happens to the leftovers!

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Whatever you do, do NOT skip the step of salting the chicken ahead of time. This lends flavor to the bird, as well as keeps it moist.

Save the carcass for chicken stock! If you can’t make it that night, throw the carcass in a plastic bag and freeze it. Continue adding chicken bones to the bag until you have a day where you can make stock.