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With Thanksgiving right around the corner, we know you’ll be looking for new and delicious recipes to make with all of that leftover turkey – and that inspired today’s Zesty Pulled Turkey.
This Zesty Pulled Turkey recipe was also inspired a bit by our Mexican pulled chicken – which happens to be one of the most popular recipes here on A Family Feast.
Our Zesty Pulled Turkey starts with a cooked, leftover turkey carcass (with some meat still on it). You’ll place that in a large saucepan with jalapeños, cilantro, onions, celery, salt and peppercorns plus water to cover. Then the turkey carcass simmers for about two hours until the meat is fork tender and the flavorful liquid creates a light sauce. Remove the meat from the bones and shred the turkey with a fork, then quickly brown it in a skillet before serving on slider rolls.
We slathered our slider rolls with a cilantro mayonnaise and topped that with slices of Colby Jack cheese. Then a generous amount of the Zesty Pulled Turkey is spooned on top, along with our fresh Cranberry Orange Relish.
Enjoy!
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Zesty Pulled Turkey
Ingredients
- Leftover roasted turkey carcass with at least 2 pounds of meat left on the bones
- 4 jalapeños, stemmed
- 1 large onion, quartered
- 1 large celery stalk, quartered
- Stems from one bunch of cilantro
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 6 whole pepper corns
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/3 cup fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
- 6–8 crusty dinner rolls, split
- 1/2 pound jack cheese, sliced
- 1/2 cup Cranberry Orange Relish, see recipe here
Instructions
- Pull the turkey carcass apart as much as possible so that it fits better in a medium pot. Place turkey carcass in medium pot.
- Remove seeds from two of the jalapenos and leave the seeds in the other two. If you like the heat, leave all the seeds in. Place those in the pot with the turkey carcass along with the onion, celery, cilantro stems, salt and peppercorns.
- Cover with water to about two inches above ingredients.
- Bring to a boil then simmer for two hours or until there is about two cups of liquid left. Do not discard liquid.
- Separate the liquid from the solids, pick the meat from the bones once it is cool enough to handle and discard the remaining solids. You should have about 4 cups of cooked turkey.
- If the turkey isn’t already shredded, shred with two forks.
- Heat a large sauté pan and melt the butter over medium high and place the shredded turkey into the hot butter.
- Brown the turkey for about 4-5 minutes. Remove from the pan and place back into the liquid to keep it hot and moist.
- Mix the mayonnaise with the cilantro and spread evenly over each top and bottom roll.
- Drain the hot shredded turkey and pile between each roll and top each with the sliced jack cheese.
- Divide the cranberry relish between each and top with the other half of the roll.
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Jeanne says
How many cups would be in a pound of turkey?
Martha says
Hi Jeanne – I’d say about two cups of turkey will be a pound. This recipe is flexible so a little more or less should be OK. Enjoy!