I love recipes like this. They seem more complicated than they really are and the result is a truly made from scratch creation. Made from scratch is very satisfying, because you take raw, un-messed with ingredients and turn them into a meal – real food. Yum. I will say that in my book, any cooking is better than no cooking, so I would not be the one to tell you that you should go to KFC rather than use canned broth or frozen biscuits. Do what you can and enjoy the result. But if you have a lazy Sunday afternoon with a bit of free time, you may want to give this a try.
It’s an appropriate recipe for this time of year I think. It’s an option perhaps, if you don’t want to tackle a whole turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. I have always been a fan of the dark meat on turkey. My dream turkey would have huge thighs – like a speed skaters. I love that they sell them separately now and pretty cheap too. I think this package of two thighs weighed about 3 and half lbs and it was under $5 and will easily feed 4 to 6 people. Here are your ingredients for getting started. The thighs, 2 large chopped carrots, 2 large celery ribs with the leaves and 1 medium onion- all just a rough chop. Oil for browning, salt and pepper and 4 cups of water.
Wash the turkey and pat dry with paper towels, sprinkle with kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper. Dry stuff browns, wet stuff just kinda boils, so make sure you dry them well and add the salt right before you put them in the pot. Put a couple tablespoons olive or vegetable oil in the bottom of a heavy stew pot and set over high heat until very hot. Carefully add the thighs, making sure they don’t touch each other [sorry – the ones in the photo are touching – I scolded them for that] and leaving the heat on high, allow them to brown on one side.
When the first side is brown, salt and pepper the side facing up and carefully turned them over, again making sure they don’t touch. I find good quality tongs work well for this.
If you have a large enough pan so that the veggies will not just be on top of the meat, you can leave the thighs in there, but if not, then take them out and put them in something like a pie plate to catch the juices and set aside for a couple minutes. Put all of the veggies in at once and stir around for 30 seconds or so. You can lower the heat a bit and sauté the veg for 3-4 minutes, stirring once a minute or so. Add the 4 cups of water to the pot, being careful about any steam that may rise up and then put the turkey back in, along with any accumulated juice. Bring up to a simmer, cover and lower heat to medium low and allow to cook for about an hour, or until thighs are done through. 
Once again, remove thighs to a pie pan to cool and turn off the burner. At this point, a lot of recipes will tell you to fish out all the veggies and discard them. You can do that certainly, but it just seems wasteful to me, so I use my hand blender to zap it all up into a smooth broth.
See? This is like the car chase of this recipe – the hand blender in motion.
Here you go – all nice and smooth. The carrots give it a nice color.
Return the pan to the heat and add
1/2 cup white wine
1 Tablespoon poultry seasoning
1 finely minced garlic clove
thyme – 1/2 teaspoon dried or about a tablespoon of the leaves if fresh
Also add about a cup of onion sliced thusly:
Let that simmer until the onions are a nice soft texture – 20 minutes or so. In the meantime, remove all skin, bones and other nasty bits from the thighs and chop the meat in roughly one inch cubes.
Add to the simmering pot and cover, cooking maybe 10 minutes more.
Make a slurry from 1/4 cup water and 3 tablespoons cornstarch. Add this very gradually, stirring constantly and bring back to a simmer after each addition until it is as thick as you like. You can serve this over store bought biscuits if you are pressed for time, or make Buttermilk Biscuits yourself. Place split biscuit halves on a plate, top with turkey mixture and then with the other biscuit half. Now stand back and wait for the sighs of contentment.
I think I gain 5lbs every time I read your recipes. They are all just so yummy looking. I’ve had to replace 3 keyboards because of drool damage.
Ha. ha.
Happy Wednesday!
Boy, that looks good. And I just learned how to make whole wheat biscuits, so I could do it. Hmmmm.
Mmmmm. That’s going on the dinner line-up for next week. :)
Dear Lord. I am coming over.
You had me until you had to add the second batch of onions….I HATE onions. The first set I could live with because you blended them. I personally think turkey broth is king of the broths and I buy extra cans during the winter so we can have turkey gravy anytime in case we have used up the turkey broth my better half makes from the turkey carcass.
Now THAT is comfort food!
That looks incredibly delicious – and fairly easy.
Gonna try it!
My mouth is watering. I hope you are happy.
I am making this very soon.
Oh my goodness, my stomach is just growling right now! That looks so delicious Donalyn! I have a big old turkey breast that I bought just recently and I think I’ll use that and make this tonight. Yum, yum, yum!!!
Janis
How delicious is this…wonderful! Love, love, love it!
Dlyn you never fail to make me want to jump in that picture and join you for dinner. This looks so good. I will have to try it soon…..love the biscuits as well. Yum.
Dlyn,
You are like the Julia Child of blogging…I have to tell you that I made the pickled hot peppers from this summer and I love how they came out. Wish I had more time to try all your recipes but I am too busy just trying to keep up with your blog in my spare time between teaching and taking care of the 7 Labs. My sister, Christie, is friends and business partner with Louise. Your blog has been an inspiration for me and when I retire I will know exactly what to do…but for now..I will have to be satisfied with my Pondviewlabs blog and my newest addition 1teacherwriting.
Ashleigh – sorry, we don't replace upon keyboards. Maybe you should keep yours in one of those new, huge ziplock bags?
Ruth – they are easy to convert to WW – just use half whole wheat flour in them! I do it all the time.
grace- please come back and tell me how you liked it!
mental P – too late girl, it's all gone!
Ness honey – just leave the onions out – I am not going to come a check, I promise!
tsannie – very comforting and pretty darned easy too.
ellyn – if you come to visit, I will make ya some.
Janis – let me know how it came out for you, ok?
np/Cathy – thanks & let me know if you make it – sometimes you do my recipes better than I do ;)
thanks egghead – I hope you give it a try.
Cheryl – thanks so much for your kind words. I love coming over to see the pics of your dogs and the area where you live. I will have to check out your other blog too – sounds interesting.
Donalyn, it was awesome! In fact, I’m having what’s left of it for my breakfast right now! I’m sorry to see it go! :D
Janis
how did i miss this recipe? must have been while I was out for the count. oh…yum…terrific left over recipe…you have outdone yourself again.
That looks so good! I really like the sound of fresh biscuits covered in this homemade turkey and gravy.
Save a plate for me. I’m on the way…