Home-style Turkey, the Michigander Way

Ingredients

• 1 (12 pound) whole turkey
• 6 tablespoons butter, divided
• 4 cups warm water
• 3 tablespoons chicken bouillon
• 2 tablespoons dried parsley
• 2 tablespoons dried minced onion
• 2 tablespoons seasoning salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Rinse and wash turkey. Discard the giblets, or add to pan if they are anyone's favorites.
2. Place turkey in a Dutch oven or roasting pan. Separate the skin over the breast to make little pockets. Put 3 tablespoons of the butter on both sides between the skin and breast meat. This makes for very juicy breast meat.
3. In a medium bowl, combine the water with the bouillon. Sprinkle in the parsley and minced onion. Pour over the top of the turkey. Sprinkle seasoning salt over the turkey.
4. Cover with foil, and bake in the preheated oven 3 1/2 to 4 hours, until the internal temperature of the turkey reaches 180 degrees F (80 degrees C). For the last 45 minutes or so, remove the foil so the turkey will brown nicely.

Prep: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 5 hours

Ready in: 5 hours 10 minutes

Leftover Turkey Pot Pie

This is another of our favorite Thanksgiving Turkey leftover recipes!   I suggest doubling the Pot Pie Filling and either freezing the other half, or making 2 of them!

1 pie crust (1/2 of Perfect Pie Crust recipe)
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup finely diced onion
1/2 cup finely diced carrot
1/2 cup finely diced celery
2 cups leftover turkey, light and dark, diced or shredded (or both!)
1/4 cup flour
2 cups low-sodium chicken or turkey broth
splash of white wine (optional)
1 cup heavy cream
Frozen peas (optional)
Fresh thyme, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Melt butter in a skillet or dutch oven. Add onion, carrots, and celery, and cook until translucent (a couple of minutes.)
Add turkey and stir. Sprinkle flour over mixture and stir. Cook over medium heat for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly.
Pour in chicken or turkey broth, stirring constantly. Splash in wine (you can leave this out if you’d like.) Pour in cream. (May add frozen peas at this point if you’d like.)
Bring to a slow boil and allow mixture to cook and thicken for a few minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste (do not underseason), and fresh or dried thyme to taste. Do one final taste at the end and add what it needs.
Pour mixture into a casserole dish or deep pie pan.
Roll out crust so that it’s about 1 inch larger than the pan you’re using.
Place the crust on top of the pot pie mixture, and press crust into the sides of the dish. Cut vents in the top of the crust.
Bake for 30 minutes or until very golden and bubbly.
Allow to cool for a little bit before serving.

Thepioneerwoman.com

Next Day Turkey Primavera

We loved this so much, I started cooking our own turkey (or two)!   You will probably want to double the recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 cup uncooked penne pasta
• 8 fresh asparagus spears, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2/3 cup julienned carrot
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 4 large fresh mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 cup chopped yellow summer squash
• 1/2 cup chopped zucchini
• 1-1/2 cups shredded cooked turkey
• 1 medium tomato, chopped
• 1 envelope Italian salad dressing mix
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

• Cook pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, saute asparagus and carrot in butter for 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms, yellow squash and zucchini; saute until crisp-tender.
• Stir in the turkey, tomato, dressing mix and cream. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes.
• Drain pasta; add to vegetable mixture and toss to combine. Sprinkle with cheese and toss again. Yield: 4 servings.

From: Taste of Home