How to Make a Stellar Strata-Turkey & Dressing
One-dish Meal Layers Your Thanksgiving Leftovers to New Heights
Nov 28, 2008
Turkey is an exceptional buy, especially around Thanksgiving. If you roasted a turkey for the holiday, part of the holiday tradition is having more than enough for all your guests. Inevitably that means leftovers. Many families share the wealth by sending leftovers home with your guests.
Caution: many of the same precautions that apply to handling raw poultry also apply to dealing with the leftovers. Please also see Safety Tips for Dealing with Leftover Turkey. The key is to freeze those leftovers by the next day at least, for any that you won't use in two to three days for turkey sandwiches or recipes like the one below.
Here is a great dish to revisit the comfort food tastes of Thanksgiving. Don't worry if you don't have leftover dressing. This recipe works equally well with packaged dressing mix. You could also easily adapt the recipe for leftover cooked chicken.
You will need: a 9X13 baking dish, greased
Ingredients:
- 3 cups leftover turkey dressing or stuffing (or store-bought dressing mix)
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 1/2 cup leftover turkey gravy
- 1/2 cup water (or 1 cup if you don't have gravy)
- 4-5 cups cooked turkey (or chicken) meat, cubed
- 1/2 cup celery, chopped
- 1/4 cup onion, chopped
- 1/4 cup chives or scallion tops, chopped
- 3/4 tsp each salt and freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 2 medium eggs
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk
- 1 can Golden mushroom soup
- 3/4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated
Method:
- In a large bowl, mix dressing with butter, gravy (if using) and water.
- Pat half of the dressing mixture into a greased baking dish.
- In another large bowl, mix turkey, celery, onions, chives, mayonnaise and seasoning together and spread over the first dressing layer in the dish.
- Sprinkle the other half of the dressing mixture over the top.
- Beat eggs and milk together and pour over the top. Refrigerate, covered with foil, overnight.
- One hour before serving, take the dish out of the refrigerator and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Remove the foil and spread the mushroom soup over the dish. Bake for 50 minutes.
- Sprinkle with grated Parmigiano Reggiano and return to the oven for 10 minutes more, just until the cheese starts to color.
A Few Rants about Choosing Ingredients:
Pepper: Pity the poor folk of the middle ages. It used to be only royalty and the very rich who could afford those spices that ships sailed half way around the globe to bring back. Are you getting the full flavor of what those explorers risked their lives to bring you?
Like coffee beans and most whole spices, peppercorns begin to loose their pungency the second they are ground. Grinding multiplies the spice's surface area exposed to oxidation one hundred fold or more. Store-bought ground pepper does little more than add black flecks to your food. The taste of freshly ground black pepper is eye-popping by contrast.
Mayo: Unless you make your own (good on ya!) mayonnaise, the author strongly recommends Best Foods or Hellman's, made by the same company. Other brands or house brands may save a penny, but the difference in flavor is well worth the difference in price, especially for things like turkey sandwiches where the mayo is every bit the co-star. Watch for the sales and stock up.
Parmesan: Parmigiano Reggiano is the undisputed king of hard cheeses. For the author growing up, perhaps like many of you, Parmesan was synonymous with the green cardboard can. Not surprisingly, the predominant flavor was cardboard. Get a hunk of Parmigiano Reggiano, taste the difference, and you will never go back.
Adapted from: Cammille Sullivan's recipe featured on Polly's Thanksgiving Carry Over, Food Network.
Check HERE for more ways to Love Leftovers
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