The Great American Slow Cooker Book (70 page)

•
While this dish is definitely better with dark-meat turkey, you can substitute diced boneless turkey breast cutlets for an easier (if chewier) dinner.

•
Yes, we cheated and baked the puff pastry in the oven. But it’ll never brown in the slow cooker; it would turn gummy and inedible. Such cheating seems a small price for pot pie.

INGREDIENTS EXPLAINED
The quality of frozen puff pastry varies dramatically. Some are honest-to-goodness butter-and-flour affairs; others are just an excuse for lots of tasteless hydrogenated fats. Read the labels to find the best product you can comfortably afford.

1
Mince the sage, garlic, lemon zest, salt, and pepper on a clean cutting board. Add half the olive oil; rock the knife through the ingredients, gathering them again into a pile until they become a coarse paste.

2
Make small, thin slits all over the meat of the turkey thighs. Scoop up the herb paste and rub it both
onto
the meat and
into
the slits. Set the thighs into the slow cooker.

3
Pile the potato wedges in the slow cooker; toss with the remaining olive oil as well as the vinegar. Scatter around the thighs.

4
Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 6 hours, or until the meat is fork-tender, particularly at the knuckle-like joints. Scoop the thighs into bowls and serve with the potatoes on the side.

TESTERS’ NOTES

•
Skin turkey thighs by grabbing the loose flap of skin at one end with paper towels and pulling it off the meat. Also remove any obvious globs of fat.

•
There’s not much of a sauce here; it’s mostly rendered fat and olive oil with some of the turkey juices underneath. You can drizzle it over the meat or you can discard it.

•
You
can
use a mini food processor to create the paste for the meat, but chopping the ingredients with a knife gives them a juicy, paste-like consistency that you cannot achieve with the convenience appliance.

Serve It Up!
Make a
Brussels Sprouts Hash
: Shred Brussels sprouts by removing the stem ends and slicing them into thin strips. Cook these in a little unsalted butter with chopped pecans or walnuts, minced green onion, and a little minced mint. Season with salt and pepper—and add some crumbled, crunchy bacon, if you like.

1
Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add a batch of the thighs and brown on both sides, 4 to 7 minutes, turning once, before transferring them to the slow cooker. Brown more as needed. (If you’re working with the largest batch, consider dividing the butter in half or even thirds so there’s plenty of fat for each batch.) When you’re done, scrape any of the remaining butter from the skillet into the cooker as well.

2
Smear the thighs with the marmalade, then sprinkle the chestnuts around them. Whisk the broth, thyme, pepper, and salt in a big bowl and pour
around
the thighs (not on them, to avoid knocking off the marmalade).

3
Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 6 hours, or until the meat is fork-tender and glazed with marmalade.

TESTERS’ NOTES

•
Fairly simple, this braise offers a lot of flavor for a relatively small amount of work. Use the highest-quality orange marmalade you can comfortably afford; you’ll want the sour pop of the good stuff.

•
With
skin-on
turkey thighs, the sauce gets too oily, no matter how much the thighs are browned. Skinless offers a more straightforward taste, a better match to the few ingredients.

Serve It Up!
Here’s a quick and innovative side dish for this fairly sweet main course. Steam peeled and sliced carrots and parsnips until tender, then mash them with reduced-sodium vegetable broth, a little nut oil, a sprinkle of salt, and a pinch of cayenne.

ALL-AMERICAN KNOW-HOW
Stem thyme leaves by holding the sprig in one hand by its thick end and running the fingers of your other hand along the stem but “against the grain”—that is, from the thinnest part to the thickest, knocking off the leaves to the cutting board below.

1
Melt the butter with the oil in a large skillet set over medium heat. Slip a batch of thighs into the skillet and brown on both sides, 4 to 6 minutes, turning once, before moving them to the slow cooker. Continue browning more as necessary.

2
Dump the onion into the skillet, still set over medium heat. Cook, stirring often, until softened and translucent, about 3 minutes. Scrape the contents of the skillet into the slow cooker. Sprinkle everything with the parsley and garlic.

3
Whisk the broth, wine, flour, and mustard in a large bowl until the flour dissolves. Pour over the other ingredients.

4
Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 6 hours, or until the sauce has thickened somewhat and the meat is fork-tender.

TESTERS’ NOTES

•
The slightly sour flavors of this simple braise are balanced by the parsley. After long cooking, the wine provides most of the sweetness.

•
Make sure you whisk the flour with the liquids until every grain dissolves. If your forearm technique isn’t up to snuff, whisk in half the flour, then add the remaining and continue whisking.

Serve It Up!
Make a quick rustic
applesauce
as a side dish: For four servings, stir into a large saucepan 2 cups peeled, cored, and chopped sweet apples (like Gala or Pippin); 2 cups peeled, cored, and chopped tart apples (like Granny Smith or Empire); 3 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar; 1½ teaspoons finely grated lemon zest; ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon; ½ teaspoon vanilla extract; and ¼ teaspoon salt. Simmer over low heat about 20 minutes, stirring often, until tender but chunky. Stir in 1½ tablespoons crème fraîche or sour cream before serving.

1
Melt the butter in the olive oil in a large skillet set over medium heat. Slip several of the turkey thighs into the skillet and brown on both sides, turning once, about 6 minutes. Transfer them to the slow cooker and continue browning more as needed.

2
Stir the apples, onion, carrot, garlic, thyme, allspice, salt, and pepper in a large bowl, then pour into the slow cooker. Whisk the broth and brandy in that same bowl; pour into the slow cooker as well. Tuck the bay leaves among the vegetables.

3
Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 6 hours, or until the meat is very tender right at the joints of the turkey thighs. Remove the bay leaves. Serve in bowls with the vegetables and juices ladled around the thighs.

TESTERS’ NOTES

•
If you don’t want to pull the skin off with a paper towel, there’s a second method to skin the thighs. Beginning at one end of the thigh, snip a bit of the skin free with clean kitchen shears, and then peel off the skin, snipping it loose in places as necessary.

•
There’s no need to soften the apples or onion before they go into the cooker, since they’ll leach their juices to make the sauce.

•
Don’t want to use brandy? Try unsweetened apple cider and a drop or two of brandy flavoring.