Sans-Soup Turkey Casserole

It's been quite a few years since I've made casserole of any kind, and back then it always had a can of cream-of-something soup in it. Nowadays I don't like using processed foods in anything I cook, if I can help it at all. So here is my sans-soup turkey casserole, made with leftovers from the brined bird I did on boxing day.

Turkey

I chunked up leftover turkey until I got about 5 cups. This went into my 9 cup pyrex measuring cup, got covered with water, and put into the microwave on high for 22:22. It ended up coming to the boil at about 15 minutes, and boiled for almost 7 and a half. I drained the broth into a 1.5 litre pot and set the turkey aside. There is an awful lot of yumminess in a brined bird, and I wanted to bring some of it out into liquid form, to make my sauce for the casserole.

Noodles

While that was going on I measured out 5 cups of elbow macaroni. I figured 5 cups of turkey needs 5 cups of noodles - made sense at the time. In hindsight it ended up being a lower turkey-to-noodle ratio than desired, but it's all good. I measured out 12 cups of water in to a large 5 litre pot, added a couple teaspoons of salt and brought it to the boil. Added the 5 cups of noodles and boiled 10 minutes.

Sauce

I got about 3 cups of liquid from the above boiled turkey, and added 5 or 6 tablespoons of corn starch, 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper, 3 tablespoons dried thyme, and gave it a good buzz with a hand blender. I chopped a large onion and about 4 stalks of celery, and put them in there and buzzed them up beyond all recognition. I do this mainly because the boys tend not to like things with chunks. In your case you may want to just chop them small, instead. I slowly brought this up to the boil, and boiled gently for 3 or 4 minutes to thicken.

When the noodles were done, they were drained and left in the big pot. I added the turkey and the sauce and gave it a really good mix, and shoved it into the pre-heated 350F oven where it is now baking uncovered for 40 minutes. It tasted pretty darned good going into the oven, and I'll report back shortly on how it tastes coming out!