Turkey

pollyanna24

My dad wants to know if I want a free turkey. We don't really eat turkey, even at Xmas, my mum cooks lamb or something cos noone really likes it, but...

Can I trick bf into thinking it's chicken? Not going to cook it for Xmas as we are having steak, but just wondered if there were any recipes where I could cook the turkey, take it to pieces and make some lovely meals out of shredded turkey.

I make a shredded chicken, rice, peas concoction, just wondered if it would work with the turkey and if I could freeze it once made? I basically put onion in a pot, add chicken, add rice peas and cook it as normal (but use stock instead of plain water).

Would he be able to tell it's turkey?

newlywed

I do turkey curry using chopped turkey breasts and OH never works out if it's chicken, pork or turkey

I think the darker meat tastes quite strong in comparison to chicken so would need stronger flavours to disguise it

pollyanna24

Cheers for that. Might give that go. I don't think I'll be able to just disentangle the breasts from the turkey though:o

Whenever I do the chicken thing, it really is a case of just pulling it all apart, not jointing it or anything :rotfl:

newlywed

I sometimes roast a whole chicken, strip all the meat off and freeze it in "portions". You can then freeze that to use in recipes later. Have yet to try that with turkey though

pollyanna24

That sounds like a good idea. I'm a pro at that. I used to slow cook a chicken, pull it apart and freeze it in tiny pots for my cats to have for her dinner (spoilt? yeah, probably:rotfl: )

razra

we have a boxing day tradition of turkey pie

using leftover roasted turkey, shred it into chunks (about bite size or slightly bigger) gammon steaks ( the value ones that are round flat shaped are perfect) diced, and finally chopped leeks. Put it all in a deep pie dish( I use a large pyrex bowl) cover with a cheese sauce then top the lot with pastry. Cook until pastry golden and liquid/meat bubbling hot I think I do it for about 30-40 mins at 180C ( I just tend to cook it till it looks ready LOL)

Forgot to say brush the pastry with a beaten egg before cooking it

newlywed

Failing that, if you still have cats, they won't care if it's chicken or turkey

pollyanna24

Teehee, yeah I still have the cat, but we took her to the vet cos we though we had something wrong with her belly. The vet turned round and said, "Well, what are you feeding her? She's overweight, that's all!" We felt like right numpties :rotfl: So that's why she don't get chicken anymore.

That pie sounds absolutely scrumptious. Never made pies before, pastry scares me. If my dad gives me the turkey though, I will definitely cook it and decide what to do with it after.

Once I freeze the chopped up cook turkey (cos that's my plan), do I just defrost it and then use in pies as said above?

vanoonoo

you could use the ready made pastry as a first attempt at a pie maybe? I havent made pastry for ages so I cheated and used the ready made stuff the other day to make a meat pie with left over casserole and it turned out great.

I wasnt completely lazy though - I rolled the pastry myself (I didnt know you could buy it ready rolled too!)

Next week I am making my own pastry though! Lots of recipes on here!

newlywed

Yeah just defrost the cooked turkey bits and then use in the pie.

I do this alot with roast chicken leftovers - make into chicken a leek pie - and I cheat and use ready rolled frozen puff pastry as the top!!! It's yum

newlywed

Oh but if you're using cooked, frozen meat in your pie, you can't then freeze the pie again