Peppered Turkey Breast Sandwich and Chips for Lunch

Because I've been eating so much pork lately, either Andy's Spicy Green Chile Pork or ham sandwiches, I thought I'd get crazy and get turkey for sandwiches. And potato chips to eat with my turkey sandwiches instead of oven-baked fries.

While I'd purchased some pepper rings to eat on my peppered-turkey sandwich, I could not, for the life of me, get the damned jar open.

Turkey Pocket and Pot Pie Part 2

A turkey pie in a 1.75 quart pot.

Today I assembled the turkey pockets and impromptu turkey pot pie.

• 1 egg for egg wash
• water
• flour
• Cream Cheese Pastry disks
• Turkey filling

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Butter or line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

If the dough is chilled overnight, take it out 15 minutes before rolling out.

Rub flour all over a rolling pin. Working with one disk at a time, place the disk on a clean, well-floured surface. Roll gently from the center of the dough to the top and bottom edges. Rotate the disk, and roll to the top and bottom edges again. Reflour the work surface and rolling pin, turn the dough over and continue to roll the dough from the center out to the edges. Turn over and roll again, rotating the disk to ensure even rolling until the dough is about 12 inches in diameter, thin but not transparent.

Using an overturned bowl (about 5 7 inches across), cut out 3-4 circles from each piece of dough. After cutting out all your circles, gather all dough scraps, reroll, and cut out a final time.

Place 1/4 cup filling on one side of a dough circle.

Wet the edges of the dough with water. Fold the dough over to form a half-circle. Pinch the edges of the dough together. Crimp the edges with a fork. The pocket pies can be frozen at this point.

Place the pocket pies on the prepared baking sheet and chill for a few minutes. Prick each pie on top twice with a fork.

When ready to bake, beat the egg with 1 tablespoon water. Brush the egg wash over each pocket pie.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving. The pies can be cooled and frozen to reheat in the microwave.

If you opted to do these in little batches like I did, as in "roll dough, cut circles, add filling, pinch edges, cool, prick, wash, and finally bake," you'll get to the last disk of dough as you, amazingly enough, consider suicide.

That's when you whip out the 1.75 quart Pyrex bowl. Without wasting time to grease it at all, lay in that last disk of rolled out dough and fill it with whatever remains of the turkey filling.

Fold in the edges neatly to form a top crust, neglect any sort of egg wash, and bake approximately 30 minutes, or until the top crust is nicely browned.

After eating 1.5-2 of the pocket pies, call it a night and be glad you hadn't tripled the recipe.

Turkey Pocket Pies Part 1

Turkey Pocket Pies!

When browsing Tastespotting one day a few weeks ago, I came across this recipe (click the link below). While these pocket pies were cute, obviously time consuming and difficult, I knew my leftover turkey mojo could take on the task. So confident was I that I just had to double the recipe! Thus the work was divided over 2 days. Once in a while, I bite off more than I can chew.

I didn't do much altering, just turkey for chicken, basil for dill, and, oh, I doubled everything.

Savory Chicken Pot Pies

2 heaping c of shredded turkey
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1 c chopped onion
2/3 c chopped celery
2/3 c chopped carrot
1 c frozen peas
1 tsp coarse salt
4 tbsp all-purpose flour
3 c chicken broth
1/2 c grated Parmesan cheese
2 tsp dried basil

To make the filling, in a medium hot skillet, melt the butter and add the onion, celery, peas and carrots.


Sauté over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the salt, basil and flour and cook for 1 minute more.


Add chicken broth and stir until thickened, about 2 minutes.


Stir in turkey and the Parmesan cheese. Cover and cool in the fridge overnight.


Cream Cheese Pastry

1 c unsalted butter, softened
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 c heavy whipping cream
3 c plus 4 tbsp all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling out dough
1 tsp coarse salt
1 large egg, for egg wash (don't need this 'til part 2)

In a food processor or using an electric mixer or by hand, process the butter, cream cheese and heavy whipping cream.



Add the flour and salt; process just until combined and the dough holds together in a ball.


Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and divide into 4 pieces.


Flatten into disks and wrap each in plastic wrap.


Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before rolling out. If the dough is chilled overnight, take it out 15 minutes before rolling out.

At this point, it was 10 p.m. I was done for the night. There's no way I could go on. While everything was in the refrigerator already, it was a good stopping point.


Rodney and I ate some turkey, mashed potatoes and Stove-Top stuffing for dinner.

Bird to the Last Drop, Alton Brown's Turkey Frame Soup

Delicious soup made from a roast turkey frame.

I saved my leftover turkey carcass to make turkey soup Alton Brown style. Since it would be unlikely that we'd use the wings for anything else, I figured they'd be perfect for this too.

I did make a couple of changes:  instead of using typical vegetable stock, I used Better Than Bouillon concentrate, 1 lb of mixed vegetables instead of 10 oz, and used the wing bones too.

Bird to the Last Drop Soup

2 qts water

3 tbsp Better Than Bouillon Vegetable stock

1 turkey carcass
1 16-oz bag frozen mixed vegetables
1/2 c rice
2 turkey wings, meat removed and diced, about 2.5 c, and bones reserved
1 tsp Old Bay seasoning
2 tsp dried thyme
Salt and pepper, to taste

The carcass, better known as a turkey frame.

Combine the water, stock concentrate and turkey carcass in a large soup or stock pot over low heat and bring to a simmer.

Be sure to mix the concentrate stock into the water. It might burn otherwise.

Cover and simmer for an hour.

Meanwhile, remove meat from the turkey wings and chop it up if you haven't already. Drop those bones in there and continue simmering the remainder of the hour.

Note:  while I initially left the neck skin on, I picked it out when I added the wing bones.

After the hour is up, loosen big pieces of meat from the bones.

Add the remaining ingredients to the stock including the wing meat and mix it all together. Cover and simmer for an additional 20 minutes.

Remove the bones before serving. Return whatever meat you remove from the bones to the stockpot.


And you'll see something like this soup.



This recipe is so simple and painless that I really wondered if it would be any good.  Rodney looked at it while the carcass was in the pot and he was doubtful too.  Both of us were astounded when we tasted the soup.  It was indeed delicious.  This is another of Alton's recipes that kicks ass!

Cost: 

• frozen mixed vegetables: $1.69/lb

Total: $2.  Yeah, that's a bit of a SWAG, but I think it's about right.  Ok, let's call it $2.50.  That's $0.42 per serving. 

In the future, I'll definitely use more rice.  Maybe even as much as 1.5 cups.  That was the only thing Rodney and I thought was on the short side.  Since we only see turkey once a year, I'll make it a point to try this with chicken.  That would be tasty too, eh?

Carve a Roast Turkey

One half of a roast turkey, "plated".

It's not often I get to carve a turkey. Actually, I've done it three times so far, including this opportunity. While three times the size of a chicken, cutting it up to cook or carving it to eat is essentially the same.

Cut through the skin betweening the breast and leg. I always go for the one on the left, cavity toward me, since I'm right-handed. Thus, my paper weight hand simply holds, allowing my right hand to do some precision cutting.

Push down on the thigh-drum joint toward the carving platter, allowing the body-thigh joint to become evident. Cut parallel to the tapered part of the breast, feel where the body-thigh joint is and cut through it between the bones.

This one here was a little tricky since the ball was really far in there. I continued pushing the leg while I manipulated the knife to find the soft part in the joint.

Holding the drum perpendicular to your own body, cut parallel to the drum through the joint between the thigh and drum. It seems wrong to do it that way, thus my tendency is to turn the knife and attempt to cut through the joint at a 45° angle. While it seems that would be the correct angle, it's not. Trust me, cut parallel to the leg, find the soft spot in the joint and cut through it.

Slice through part of the breast at nearly 90° from the tapered part of the breast. While pushing the wing down and sort of pulling it out away from the body, continue cutting until you reach the joint. Feel with the knife for the softest part and finish the cut, separating the entire wing.

I find the wings to be the hardest to separate since the giant boob is in the way. Don't be afraid of "messing up" your bird. Once the breast is separated, you won't be able to tell it was messed up anyway.

Cut sraight down the center of the breast. You'll likely wind up cutting along one side of the keel bone. If you end up on the side you've been carving, good! If not, make another slice along the keel, but scootch the knife a little toward the side you're carving before you start. You want to separate the breast tissue from the bone. The keel bone is essentially perpendicular to the carving board, assuming the bird is still flat on it's back.

As you cut along the keel bone, gently tease the entire half breast away from the bone. Cut the flesh from the bone using the tip of the knife. You'll get to a point where you'll reach bone. Turn the knife and cut toward the carving platter at an angle, removing the breast from the rib cage.

Don't sweat it if you leave a bunch of boob on the carcass. You can make awesome soup with the carcass and remaining flesh later.

Slice the breast.

That's it, that's how you carve the major portions of a bird. Do the other side the same way.

I didn't bother carving the thighs or legs further. Since this bird is my "leftover" bird, I thought it'd be easier to determine what I was going to do with each piece as I used them.

Google Alton Brown turkey videos and you'll come across an excellent description by Alton himself on how to carve a bird. Like this one.

Whatever you do, don't throw the carcass away!  Make awesome soup instead!

Roast Turkey, Alton Brown style

Finished turkey, ready to carve on the make-shift carving platter.

I wanted to cook this turkey specifically for the leftovers.

So I did that.

First, to cook the bird. Last time I talked turkey, it was about the brine. This time, I'm going to focus on the roasting portion of Alton's recipe. As sort of an experiment, I opted not to brine this bird. It has been brined (or injected) to yield 8% of a brine solution already. Does a bird with 8% solution added need additional brining? I'll be able to compare this bird with the one I brined and took to my brothers house.

Essentially, I'll simply pick up where I left off last time, and continue with Alton Browns

Good Eats Roast Turkey, the roasting part.

For the aromatics:

1 red 2 small red apples, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 c water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage
canola vegetable oil

Preheat the oven to 500° F. Remove the bird from packaging and rinse inside and out with cold water.

Place the bird on roasting rack inside a roasting pan and pat dry with paper towels.

Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes.


Add steeped aromatics to the turkey's cavity along with the rosemary and sage.

Tuck the wings underneath the bird and coat the skin liberally with oil.

My bird had no wingtips!

Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 500° F for 30 minutes.


Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast, cover the breast with foil and reduce the oven temperature to 350° F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 161° F.

A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting.


Let the turkey rest, loosely covered with foil or a gigantic mixing bowl for 15 minutes before carving.

Done deal in about 3 1/2 hours start to finish, including oven preheating, roasting, and standing around time. Simple enough.

You can't tell yet, but this bird was juicy. If you get a bird that has 8% solution added, I don't think you need to brine. Using your own (or Alton's brine) has the advantage of including the ingredients you want, but brining is all about getting the bird to suck up water and be moist. Jennie-O achieved that.

Aromatics in the cavity were a plus, both times -- here and at my brother's house. It's neat because the meat closer to the cavity had more aromatic-y flavors and that's awesome.

As for canola vs vegetable oil, use canola! The bird I roasted at my brothers house was lubed in canola and I couldn't taste it. I used vegetable oil on this bird and it was evident to me. Maybe not Rodney, but to me, it was distinctly different. While the turkey overall tasted good, the fact that I could taste the vegetable oil was a negative. Since it's all over the skin, the skin didn't taste too hot. Don't do that to yourself. Crispy skin should be prime goods that folks come to blows over. Rodney peeled the skin of his boob slices. 'Nough said.

Cost: about $6 for the entire turkey.

Dinner tonight was sort of a Thanksgiving rehash: roast turkey, mashed potatoes and Stove-Top stuffing. Comforting and simple.