Leftover turkey yumminess!! For real!
I usually have plenty of turkey, dressing, sides, etc leftover after Thanksgiving and I like to create new meals out of them, but this year….I did not have that much leftover. A little bit of turkey, a bit more ham, about a cup of sweet potatoes and even less of the dressing. Yeah, I know…very strange. Oh well, I made do!
Instead of chicken and dumplings, I thought I’d use my leftover turkey to make turkey and dumplings. Since my turkey was flavored with thyme, I incorporated those flavors into my dumplings as well and added shiitake mushrooms as an added bonus! So glad that I did!
I began by sauteing onions, garlic and celery in olive oil and butter. I added salt and pepper and a bay leaf along with chopped thyme to the mixture. Once cooked down, I added the sliced mushrooms and gave them time to absorb the seasoning and butter.
I then added my leftover turkey that I chopped and about 1/4 cup of chicken broth. I let that mixture slowly simmer to marry all of the flavors together. I then removed the mixture from the pot and added a little butter and flour to make a light roux. (I did salt and pepper the flour and butter mixture a tiny bit.) **This is just a small amount of roux…about 2 tbsp or so. You do not want a lot of roux because your dumplings will have a dusting of flour and that will help thicken the broth as well as the small amount of roux. You could easily omit this step..it is totally optional.)
Stir until your roux comes together and add more chicken stock. Stir to combine and bring to a boil. At this point you will add your dumplings to the boiling mixture. Stirring in between batches of dumplings so that they do not stick. Once all dumplings are added, lower the temperature to a simmer and cover for 20 to 30 minutes until the dumplings have cooked.
After the dumplings have reached the desired consistency, add the turkey, vegetable and mushroom mixture back to the pot and stir to combine. I usually let my dumplings simmer with the lid on for about 20 or 30 more minutes at this point. Before serving, you could drizzle a tiny bit of heavy cream for an extra amount of goodness, but it is totally optional. This was a winner in my house and it had a unique Thanksgiving flavor to it that added to its wonder. I will definitely be making this again…maybe after Christmas?!?!?! Yep….I think I will.
A yummy bowl of happiness!
So Good!!!!!
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup of chopped onions
- 1/2 cup of chopped celery
- 2 cloves of garlic minced
- 1 tbsp of butter plus 2 tbsp for roux
- 1 tbsp of olive oil
- salt & pepper to taste
- 1/2 tsp of chopped thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 carton of shiitake mushrooms sliced
- 1 to 2 cups of chopped or shredded turkey
- 2 quarts of chicken stock
- 2 tablespoons of flour
- splash of heavy cream
- dumplings…you can make your own or store bought frozen dumplings will work as well. (I’ll share my personal recipe for the perfect dumplings very soon. They are always great and so easy.)
Follow the directions above and enjoy an awesome meal!!! Be sure and try the thyme, bay leaf and rosemary…..it really tastes like Thanksgiving!