How to Make the Best Turkey Tetrazzini of All-Time

Turkey Tetrazzini

Picture this: You have turkey leftovers in your refrigerator, that you had prepared for your family during Thanksgiving or Christmas. As a tradition, you roasted it in an oven. You want it to taste and smell different than last time.

If you’re still wondering what to do with the leftover, look no further than turkey tetrazzini. So, how do you prepare it? Which ingredients will you need, and how will the outcome be? Here are various recipes and ingredients for making the best turkey tetrazzini of all time.

What is turkey tetrazzini, and how did people discover its recipe?

According to The Forked Spoon, Turkey Tetrazzini is a combination of pasta casserole and leftover turkey. It requires you to use the leftover turkey and spaghetti noodles in a creamy mushroom and cheese sauce, resulting in a creamy and delicious meal.

Preparing it is effortless, knowing your improved turkey leftover meal won’t take long or use most of your pantry. Tetrazzini is believed to have originated in San Francisco after a famous opera singer in the 1900s called, Luisa Tetrazzini. In 1908-1910, a restauranteur called Ernest Arbogast. He worked at Palace Hotel in San Francisco, California.

The Italian native first made the American debut at the Tivoli as Gilda in Rigoletto in 1905. Some sources reveal that this recipe was first discovered at the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York City. Some people believed that Louis Paquet prepared a dish of cooked turkey soaked in a creamy sauce with pasta or noodles, sliced mushrooms, grated cheese, and bread crumbs on top at the restaurant Forty-Second Street.

Simple turkey tetrazzini recipes

The original turkey tetrazzini recipe may have grown on people, but that has since changed with people coming up with different recipes. So, try these recipes to see which one suits you.

The original turkey tetrazzini recipe

For this method, you might need a prep time of 20 minutes and cook for 35 minutes, totaling 55 minutes. According to All Recipes, this meal can produce six servings.

Ingredients

  • Two tablespoons of butter
  • A cup of sour cream
  • A teaspoon of salt
  • Six ounces can slice mushrooms
  • Eight ounces of egg noodles
  • A can of condensed cream of celery soup
  • 1/8 teaspoon of pepper
  • ½ grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

Step 1

Fill a large pot with water and salt and bring to a boil. Add the noodles and cook until they soften up. This can be for eight to ten minutes.

Step 2

Preheat your oven to 190-degrees-Centigrade or 35 degrees Fahrenheit.

Step 3

You might want to melt butter in a large frying pan. Drain the mushrooms and add to the frying pan. Stir for about 60 seconds and until it cooks evenly. Bring the turkey to the skillet and turkey. Keep stirring it in the condensed soup with sour cream, salt, and pepper.

Step 4

Drain the noodles. Put them in a nine by thirteen-inch baking dish. Add the turkey evenly from the top and sprinkle Parmesan.

Step 5

Put the cooked food in a preheated oven. You will know it is ready if you see the sauce bubbling. This should take around 20 to 25 minutes.

Turkey tetrazzini with vegetable subs

Ingredients

  • Green beans
  • Broccoli
  • Leeks
  • Red or green peppers
  • Artichoke hearts

Preparation

This recipe might suit you if you don’t have peas. Assuming you’ve cooked a full turkey and predict it’ll take days or a few weeks before exhausting all the frozen leftovers, this recipe is convenient.

Step 1

Line up the dish with foil before adding the ingredients. You want to ensure the foil doesn’t overlap the sides and above the dish’s side lips.

Step 2

Bake the tetrazzini in the middle rack of your oven for half an hour or forty minutes. You will know it’s ready if you see bubbles and the top is golden. Garnish the individual servings with chopped parsley.

Step 3

Put the cooked casserole to cool down

Step 4

Use a layer of foil to cover the cooled casserole and place it in the freezer. You can use the casserole dish to hasten the cooling process.

Step 5

After ensuring the casserole is frozen, remove it from the casserole dish and wrap it tightly in the second layer of foil.

Step 6

Freeze it up for three months.

Step 7

Once you’re ready to prepare your turkey tetrazzini, defrost the casserole overnight. Remove the foil and pop it back into the original casserole dish. Set your oven to 375°F for about 30 minutes or until you see the casserole form bubbles.

Turkey tetrazzini with vegetables (carrots)

Ingredients

  • Onions
  • Garlic mushrooms
  • Salt
  • Olive oil
  • Pepper
  • Carrots
  • Peas
  • Leftover turkey
  • Cream cheese
  • Pasta noodles

Directions

  • Saute the olive oil, mushrooms, garlic, salt, and pepper.
  • Stir chopped or diced carrots, peas, and water. Cover the frying pan and let it cook for eight to twelve minutes
  • Stir the cream cheese and let it cook for three to four minutes
  • Put the cooked turkey into the pan with other vegetables
  • Toss in the cooked pasta noodles
  • Serve it hot with a side salad or garlic bread

Few things to keep in mind with this recipe

Vegetables are essential when making this recipe, so ensure you use many of them. The more vegetables you have, the merrier. If you have cooked the vegetables before, cover and cook them in water. Add more water to thin out the sauce. If you plan to use dairy, go for plant-based cream. This recipe also goes well with cooked chicken or any white meat protein. Also, whole grain pasta that is gluten-free is the best.

Turkey tetrazzini with low-sodium chicken broth

The method takes 15 minutes for prepping and one hour and 10 minutes total cooking time. This should cater to eight servings.

Ingredients

  • ½ cup white wine
  • 2 ½ cups low-sodium chicken broth
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • Kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • One pound spaghetti
  • Two cloves of minced garlic
  • Six tablespoons of divided butter
  • A pound of sliced baby Bella mushrooms
  • Two pounds of leftover roast and chopped turkey
  • 1 cup of frozen peas
  • One tablespoon of dried oregano
  • Two tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil
  • ½ cup of freshly grated Parmesan

Directions

Step 1

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 9″ by 13″ baking dish with cooking spray. According to Delish, add water and salt to a large pot and bring to boil. Next. Add the cooked spaghetti as per the manufacturer’s directions. Drain the noodles.

Step 2

Set your stove to medium heat and melt two tablespoons of butter. Add the garlic and cook it until it turns golden brown. That should take 60 seconds. Slowly pour the mushrooms and the white wine until it blends with it. After five minutes, you’ll know it’s well blended once the mushrooms turn soft.

Step 3

Scoop four tablespoons of butter into the frying pan and whisk it in flour. Cook until the mixture turns golden. That should be around three minutes. Add the broth and cream and keep stirring until all lumps disappear. Simmer until it turns thick for five minutes before adding salt and pepper to improve its flavor.

Step 4

Combine the turkey, cheese, peas, and oregano and stir till lumps disappear. It’s the right time to add the cooked spaghetti and turn to coat. Add salt and pepper before placing the mixture into a prepared dish.

Step 5

Add panko, Parmesan, and olive oil to a medium boil. Make sure you evenly top the baking dish with the mixture.

Step 6

Put it in the oven to bake. Ensure the top turns golden, and add the cheese melts. This should take around 25 minutes. Serve it hot or let it cool for 10 minutes.

Health benefits of turkey tetrazzini

Turkey roast is a popular meal people prefer eating during Christmas and Thanksgiving. It is safe to eat, provided you aren’t allergic to it. Turkey tetrazzini has a wide range of health benefits, including:

Rich in protein

According to Goodfood, while chicken and turkey are rich in protein, the latter is richer. It is also low in fat; hence is leaner meat. So, if you want to reduce fat intake, go for turkey. Keep in mind that turkey cooks quickly and easily dries up due to its low-fat content. You can avoid this by brining it while adding fattier ingredients and jointing to help it retain moisture content. Like chicken, turkey tetrazzini is rich in nine amino acids, essential in the growth and repair of cells. It’s a primary source of tryptophan which helps the body synthesize proteins and causes post-feast sleepiness. Therefore, it’s easy for your body to access the protein in turkey.

Rich in Vitamin D

Turkey is tastier than chicken and rich in the B group of Vitamins, including Vitamin B3, B6, and B12. Your body needs these vitamins to produce energy, boost brain function, and red blood cell formation. However, it’s essential to avoid eating its skin as it contains about 4.5 grams of fat and 125 calories, according to Heart. The best way to cook your turkey is by frying it properly. That entails using the correct cooking temperature during the frying process and preventing it from soaking in the oil after cooking.

Reduces your risk of cancer

Turkey contains selenium, a mineral-rich diet, preventing your risk of bladder, breast, lung, and stomach cancer. Most scientists believe the protective effects of selenium come from the food you eat, unlike supplements.

An excellent source of minerals

Your body needs zinc, phosphorus, and iron to support thyroid function and boost your immunity, bone health, and energy production. All these minerals are present in a well-prepared turkey. The darker cuts of meat like the leg and thighs contain more minerals than iron. So, if you want your body to access all these health benefits, ensure you take the proper amounts of turkey and vegetables.

Low-fat content

Nowadays, people are more vulnerable to health conditions due to high-fat in some foods. It’s the reason some people are more susceptible to heart conditions, stroke, obesity, and many others. Unsurprisingly, turkey meat has the fast-twitch muscle for short bursts of energy for flapping wings and scaring predators away. It helps to know that turkey meat is low in fat, mainly underneath the skin.

Fat helps the meat retain moisture, juiciness, and flavor. According to Webmd, too much of it harms your body, which is why you should keep off red meat. The meat in turkey is mainly unsaturated. That means only a third is saturated, depending on what the bird ate. For example, if the bird ate plant-based feeds, their meat will promote a higher poly-unsaturated (omega-3 fatty acid) contribution).

The cooking process you choose for your turkey also influences the amount of fat it has. If you add strips of fattier meat like bacon to the thinnest parts of the turkey to prevent dryness during the cooking process, its fatty levels will increase. That’s why most nutritionists recommend you to oven-cook your turkey instead of deep-frying it in oil. And even if you line it with oil, don’t go overboard.

It prevents your risk of heart disease

If you have a family history of heart disease, keep off foods high in fat. Turkey is low in fat, high in protein, and has broad micronutrient properties necessary for your heart health. Some observational studies of females reported that higher poultry and fish intake were associated with a lower risk of coronary artery disease. The more you take white meat, the lower your risk for cardiovascular diseases by 19%. So, minimize your red meat intake as much as you can.

Conclusion

Have you gathered all your ingredients ready for your turkey tetrazzini feast? No matter the recipe you prefer, your turkey leftover will wow you. All recipes guarantee a tastier meal, depending on your taste and aroma preferences. However, we recommend you try all four options and decide the one your family prefers.

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