Let’s talk leftovers today. Cheap Bastid loves leftovers. Sometimes I’ll cook up a roast just for left-overs and to see how many different meals I can make. It’s kind of like turning cooking into a contact sport.
For Easter, I came across a killer deal on a turkey breast. I love doing them on the grill in a disposable roasting pan—it takes less time and gives the same results you get in your oven. Anyway, we got a fantastic dinner out of it along with some great leftovers for sandwiches and, as always, a whole pile of bits and pieces that get used one way or another.
Remember back in the “olden days”—like the late 1950’s—when your Mom would take the left over turkey and make “Turkey a la King”? Yeah, my Mom made it. And I made it 25 years ago when my kids were little too.
This is quick and easy. You can use refrigerated canned biscuits if you want or you can make homemade yeast biscuits like I did (I promise to post the recipe for these real soon)—or you can even just make plain old baking powder and lard biscuits (http://www.cheap-bastid-cooks.com/homemade-biscuits/).
Recipe: Cheap Bastid’s Turkey a la King
Summary: One of the ultimate left-overs from holiday cooking. This is simple, fast and cheap.
Ingredients
- 1 lb left over turkey cut into 1” chunks
- 1-2 cups left over turkey gravy
- 1 cup chicken or turkey broth
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- ½ cup chopped onion
- 1 chopped jalapeno (or use a half cup of chopped bell pepper instead)
- 1 10-12 oz bag frozen mixed vegetables
- Cooking oil
- 12 biscuits
Instructions
- Make your biscuits.
- Get out a medium sized sauté pan, your cutting board and chef’s knife.
- Chop the onion and jalapeno into ¼” pieces and put in a small bowl.
- Make sure that the left over turkey is pretty uniform in size—about 1” chunks.
- Turn the stove onto medium high (about 5 o’clock on the dial on an electric stove).
- Take a small bowl and dissolve the cornstarch in 1-2 tablespoons of room temperature water to make a “slurry” (you’re only going to
use this if your gravy’s not thick enough). - Put a couple of “glugs” of cooking oil into the sauté pan. Now put the onions and jalapeno into the pan and them sauté for about 3 or 4 minutes.
- Add the turkey to the pan with the onions and pepper. Give everything a nice shake of salt and pepper. Let the turkey heat a couple of minutes.
- Add the broth and stir everything together, then add the gravy and stir some more. Turn the heat down a “notch”.
- Now add the frozen vegetables and stir everything together. Taste it and add more salt and pepper and maybe a bit of garlic and cumin to it too.
- If the gravy isn’t thick enough, now is the time to add the cornstarch “slurry”.
- Let this simmer for about 5 minutes. Then turn off the stove and remove the pan.
Preparation time: 10 minute(s)
Cooking time: 15 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 4
My rating 5 stars: ★★★★★ 1 review(s)
Break a couple of biscuits in half, then glop them full of the turkey a la king and enjoy this classic left-over. The fresh frozen vegetables will have a bit of tooth and will be full of color—that’s the nice thing about them, and they’re healthy. Now enjoy this classic leftover dish!
The Cheap Bastid Test: The turkey was left over—but it cost $1 a pound. Let’s call it $1.50 for the turkey. The onion and jalapeno cost maybe $.25. The vegetables were $1 at the dollar store. The broth was about $.25 and the gravy was left over. So the total was $3.00. I also made my biscuits from scratch and the total cost of that is $.50. (That’s why I bake them myself rather than spend $1.50 to $2.00 for the refrigerated can). The grand total was $3.50 or about $1.15 per person for the 3 of us. This would easily feed 2 adults and 2 kids for dinner.
And that’s the Cheap Bastid Way: Eat Good. Eat Cheap. Be Grateful!
