The payoff of my turkey hunt April 13 came on Saturday, when I prepared my favorite recipe: wild turkey/wild rice casserole.
This would be the largest group I would feed with this dish — 16 people, including my wife Julie and daughter Claire. The other 13 guests were college students or recent college grads.
Some of them had never tasted wild turkey before, while three of them actually had gone turkey hunting before and taken birds. To make sure I had enough for everyone to eat, I added some venison cheeseburger on a stick to the feast.
I needn’t have worried about food quantity. Not only was there enough casserole to feed everyone, but there was plenty left over. That meant I was able to take some in my lunch today.
I never tire of eating the casserole. It tastes great every time and is very hard to screw up, which is one thing I like about it. For those who are interested, here is the recipe. Note that you can use store-bought turkey or chicken as a substitute for wild turkey.
Wild turkey/wild rice casserole
Ingredients
6 slices bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 pound wild turkey breast, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
1 medium carrot, sliced (1/2 cup)
1 medium stalk celery, sliced (1/2 cup)
2 cans (14 ounces each) ready-to-serve chicken broth
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) cream of chicken soup
1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram leaves
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 1/4 cup uncooked wild rice, rinsed and drained
1. Cook bacon in skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until crisp. Stir in turkey. Cook 3 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until turkey is brown. Stir in onion, carrots and celery. Cook 2 minutes, stirring occasionally; drain (Note: I don’t drain because I like to have the bacon grease go into the casserole to give it more flavor).
2. Beat 1 can of the broth and the soup in crockpot, using wire whisk, until smooth. Stir in remaining can of broth, the marjoram and pepper. Stir in turkey mixture and wild rice.
3. Cover and cook on high heat setting 30 minutes.
4. Reduce heat to low setting. Cook 6 to 7 hours or until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed (Note: In my crockpot, it only takes 2 or 3 hours to get it fully cooked, so you’ll have to experiment).
5. After everything is cooked, add cream for extra flavor, about 1/2 or 1 cup, and cook for another 1/2 hour or so.
Enjoy!