Turkey Club Casserole

By Ariel

I was complaining talking about how I was bored with all my usual recipes/fall-backs with my husband the other day and he blew me over by suggesting I make Emeril Lagasse's Turkey Club Casserole. This is really out of left field for one main reason: I had no idea he ever even glanced at the Food Network, let alone could rattle off a personality and a recipe right off the bat. He insisted it was on briefly after I was finished watching TV when he got home from work one night, but I now have suspicions I have a closet foodie on my hands.

Anyway, I was certainly curious after he described the sandwich casserole and found the recipe via Rachael Ray's website.

{Photo by me}

This dish was awesome and unexpected! It's one of those meals that fits in for any time of the day. I would lean more towards serving this for a group brunch, but you could also go to town the day after Thanksgiving or Christmas and impress family and guests with this great spin on leftovers. You can find the recipe here, but there are a few things I discovered while making this that the directions didn't really elaborate on.

Make sure you heed their warning about using extra thin bread. I couldn't find extra thin, so I cut a loaf of Italian bread as thin as I could and it worked out really well and was much cheaper.  A loaf of Italian bread is about $2 at my local grocery store, but the Pepperidge Farm's bread they suggested is about $4 a loaf. It's a little extra work but I'm cheap frugal. Another thing is that the recipe calls for a pound of bacon. I cooked a pound of bacon and it tells you to only put on one slice of bacon per sandwich. I disregarded that with the POUND of bacon they called for and put two full pieces (cut in half to fit the small sandwich) on. The other thing I noticed is the cooking time they gave was way low for me, this casserole was in the oven for at least an hour while I waited for the egg to firm.

Beyond those little things, this was a great meal. With the holidays right around the corner (it's November, so I can start talking about them, right?) consider using leftover turkey and ham from dinner, along with even a spread of mashed potatoes and leftover cranberry sauce in the sandwich filling for a unique twist on what to do with all the food you have the day after the festivities.

What do you do with your holiday leftovers?

Comments

[Jen L.]

We all usually have the traditional "Thanksgiving Sandwich," but last year we made cranberry-turkey monte cristos that were pretty dang tasty. I also sometimes make Turkey Tetrazzini or Turkey soup.

[Carla]

I make something similar but with red pepper and onion (and cornflakes on top). You can probably search for it using its seventies name: 'wifesaver'. We love it!