Turkey Stew

What to do with our turkey leftovers as we are getting pretty sick of turkey these days? Our answer: turkey stew.

First, we made a turkey broth by placing any turkey meats still attached to bone in a slow cooker and pretty much cooked it all day. Once the stock was ready, I strained out all the bones and meats so it was just soup in the pot. It was delicious and definitely tasted like turkey. I don't know why, but I guess I assumed all stock soups taste the same. 

Then, I separated all the turkey meat from the bones and threw the meat pieces back into the pot. I also added more turkey pieces (now all we have left are the two drumsticks), chopped onions and chopped carrots. (I would've added chopped celery but we didn't have any on hand and le hubby doesn't like'em).

Just cook in slow cooker until everything is soft and delicious. Serve with rice or pasta if not on a keto diet. Topped with spinach. It was mm-mmm good, especially on a cold night!

Simple Beer Stew

For our next stew, we wanted to try to make it with beer instead of wine and see if it'll still end up deliciously scrumptious as our other stews made with red wine. Here's what we used:

Beef neckbones

1 onion, chopped

6oz tomato paste (in a can)

11 tsp beef bouillon

4 cans of beer

5 cups water

3 bay leaves

We used about 1-1/2 lbs beef neckbones for this stew.

Seared them on all sides, though you may want to season them as ours came out a little bland though it was fall-off-the-bones tender.

Did the whole onion thing again as the previous oxtail stew, but with a splash of beer instead of wine.

Both the seared meats and onion and tomato paste went into the slow cooker to which we added four cans of PBR (minus the splash in the previous step), the water, beef bouillon and bay leaves. Cook on high for 4 hours, then refrigerate.

A day later with the fat removed and soup reheated all day:

Served with a poached egg and broccoli for a complete heart healthy dinner.

One for papa bear, mama bear and moi... 

Actually, the biggest one was for pops, the middle one for moi and the littlest one for the hubster. (He had other meaty side dishes)

Chicken Stew

Sooooooo, I wanted to make chicken pot pie, but I noticed our flour was infected by bugs =( so I ended up just making the good stuff that goes into the chicken pot pie.... hence, chicken stew.

I used one of Ina Garten's recipe as a guideline since I didn't have everything on hand...



Here's what I used:

4 cups cooked shredded chicken
7 cups water
6 tsp chicken bouillon
4 tbs unsalted butter
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup rice flour
1 cup milk
1 cup peas
1 cup chopped squash
1 cup chopped celery

1/4 cup panko (breadcrumbs)
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp pepper

First, I made the chicken. The drumsticks (it was that or thighs and the drumsticks were already thawed...) were brined for a couple hours or more and then placed in a cast iron and baked at 400°F for 45 minutes. Then set aside to cool. Then all the veggies were chopped. The chicken should have cooled down enough by now to pull the meat from the bones. 7 drumsticks gave me 4 cups of meat.

Then, make the chicken stock with water and chicken bouillon and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, heat up a pan and melt the 4 tbs of butter. Cook the carrots and onions until the onions are translucent. Then stir in the rice flour 1/4 cup at a time. It'll look pretty crumbly. To help with this, I ladled some of the chicken stock into the pan and stirred until most or all of the rice flour lumps dissipated. Then, it was poured back into the chicken stock, carrots and all. The shredded chicken was then added. Then the milk (I didn't have heavy whipping cream on hand as it was all turned into whipped cream), salt, pepper, panko and other veggies went in as well.

It ended up tasting pretty delicious but I wished it was more thick. I should've add a LOT more panko to thicken up the stew. Nonetheless, the stew was quite tasty and hearty. Yum!

The hubster even said it tasted like the stuff that goes into a chicken pot pie. :D Yay!

Curry Beef Shank Stew

The deliciousness was made to combine beef stew and curry since when I make either of them, it's pretty much the same ingredients: carrots, celery, potatoes, onions, and chunks of beef. I just added all of the following into a slow cooker and let cook all day:

1 pkg bone in beef shank - seared and salted with 1 tsp kosher salt first

6 cups of water

2 cups of white wine

5 potatoes, chopped

2 big carrots, chopped

1 medium onions, sliced

2 bay leaves

5 cloves of garlic

1 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp tarragon

1/2 pkg of a curry block (spicy)

This lasted for days and was super tasty! So yummmmmmmmmy!!!

Leftovers

Leftover pickled daikon and carrots with freshly cooked frozen pork belly, lightly salted.

A totally delicious way to whet an appetite.

The last of the stew! This time with pasta. Mmm-mmmmmm good!

Beef Shank Stew w/ Red Beans

Beef shank

carrots + potatoes + leftovers seasoned red beans and red bean soup + celery + salt + bay leaves + cumin + chili powder + black pepper + chicken bouillon + other spices 

Dump all ingredients except for celery into slow cooker + water to cover and then some and let cook all day. An hour before serving, add the celery.

Serve with rice and voila, you've got a scrumptious meal that'll last a while. It'll be great not cooking for a bit :D

Lamb Shank Stew

                              Lamb Shanks (on your left) in a Lamb Shank stew (on right)

We put these tiny chopped up noodles in, which ended up sorta looking like expanded rice. This dish tastes better than it looks. It was served with sliced sourdough bread dipped in olive oil. yumyum! This is pretty much a spinoff of the Beef Bourguignon recipe.