This was one of those days where I really had to reach into my bag of tricks and pull out a rabbit. We’ve been working very diligently on eating the contents of the freezer, pantry and fridge. I have to say, our meals have become quite clever sometimes, although not necessarily exciting. There have been many soups, stews, and roasts going on as I use a bit of this and a bit of that. I have to keep myself from going grocery shopping, because if I do, then I bring home things that will prevent me from using what we already have. It’s tough, I tell you!
Anyway, this past weekend, I’d pulled out a whole turkey breast to thaw. I think this was the first time I’d ever bought one of these- it had been on a really good sale at some point, but it was essentially a whole turkey that had been relieved of its legs, thighs, and wings. What I had was a the breasts attached to the cavity, along with a bit of the backs. It really was an odd piece of meat once it was all thawed. There weren’t any giblets or innards, but there was a gravy packet, which I’d intended on discarding. My plan for this turkey was to simply roast it up, eat some for dinner, and have some turkey breast for Andy for sandwiches. I turned the oven on to preheat and walked away for a while to think about what I wanted to rub on the turkey for roasting.
Except that the preheating started to seem to me like it was taking an awfully long time. I think finally at the half hour mark it occurred to me that my oven had not beeped yet, so I went to the kitchen to see what was up, and discovered a stone cold oven. On a Saturday, when a repairman cannot be called.
At that moment, everything I could think of conspired against me. Andy was gone for a bit at that precise moment, and that turned out to be a big deal. My first thought was to throw the turkey on the grill, but I knew we hadn’t filled the gas grill with gas yet this year. I thought briefly about the charcoal grill, but that takes time to prepare, I didn’t know if we had charcoal even, plus Andy, the grillmaster was gone. So I moved on to the idea of Plan C. Plan C involved an electric roaster. Except that we’ve been packing to move, and Andy packed the kitchen annex. I walked to the pile of boxes in my garage and just shook my head. I went through a few, but it was clear that I had no idea where to begin looking to find my roaster.
I walked back to the kitchen and stared at this chunk of turkey on my counter. I very briefly thought of my crock-pot, which I knew where it was, but since dinner was supposed to be in just two hours, I quickly discarded that idea. I truly had no other choice, given my limited supply of tools AND ingredients. So I thought to myself that if Robert Irvine could do it on Dinner: Impossible, I could do it to. I grabbed my big knife and the first thing I did was remove the breasts from the carcass. I realized then how little other meat was on the remainder of the carcass and proceeded to hack that into pieces small enough to fit in a saucepan. Those pieces were covered with water and brought to a simmer to make a very basic turkey broth.
The breasts however, were about to be pan-seared and braised. I took out a carrot, some celery, and prepped half an onion, the whole time wondering what I would use for my braising liquid. It turned out that gravy packet was going to be brought into play after all. I began by lightly browning the turkey breast in some fat.
In retrospect, I should have reached into the fridge and pulled out the bacon fat, but I didn’t. I did, however, leave the skin on the breasts to contribute to keeping them nice and moist. After they were lightly browned, I removed them to a bowl and added my basic mirepoix to the fat to soften. I let them brown just slightly, and then I added 2 cups of water to my pan.
I rubbed up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan, and then I added the gravy packet. Once that came to a boil, I added an extra cup of water to thin it out a little bit. The breasts slid back into the pan, and then I added the lid. I turned the heat down to a simmer and walked away for about 30 minutes.
After that first thirty minutes, I gave the pan a stir, ladled sauce over the breasts a few times, and decided to give it a full hour to simmer. By then I also had a nice, light broth going, so I used a few cups of the broth to cook up some brown Minute Rice. I don’t normally have that on hand, as I prefer regular cooking rice, but in the spirit of using things I had on hand, I had a box, so I used it. I also steamed up some fresh cauliflower, and then tossed that with melted butter and sesame seeds. When a rummage through the pantry revealed a small can of whole berry cranberry sauce as well, I thought, what the heck, and opened that up too. At least Abigail would be happy, she loves cranberry sauce.
The moment of truth arrived. I removed the turkey from the braising liquid and set it on my cutting board. I covered it with foil and let it rest for five minutes while I took care of other things. After the rest time, I sliced the turkey thinly and dinner was served. What resulted was a perfectly respectable and much more tasty turkey dinner than I had expected. I served the pan sauce over the rice and turkey, and the turkey itself was very moist and tender and nicely flavored. It was a whole lot better than I’d expected!
What could have been disaster ended in triumph. I am certain that using that gravy packet that came with the turkey played a huge part in saving dinner. I didn’t linger on the idea of what actually was in that packet, I know there was water, hydrolyzed soy protein, cornstarch, and a whole bunch of other ingredients that require a pronunciation key.
I’ve already decided that I’m going to come back to this idea some day. The turkey was very moist, and I don’t think it’s every really occured to me before to braise turkey breast. I’ve braised legs before, and as it so happens, I also have a few packages of thighs in the freezer, so those may get the braise treatment as well. Turkey is so prone to drying out, that braising seems to be the way to go- it keeps things very moist AND it is a great way to deliver flavor into the insides of the turkey.
The moral of the story is that while everything in my kitchen seemed to conspire against me getting a decent dinner on the table, I moved forward anyway and discovered a new favorite way to cook an ingredient that we already love. When things go very wrong, there’s always a way to make it come out right in the end.