Turkey Divan Recipe

A great way to use up turkey, this dish can also be made with chicken breast and chicken gravy.

This dish is an overhaul of one found in my mother’s recipe box. Her neighbor, a woman named Mary, gave it to her years ago when my parents lived in Dallas. We often ate this dish in the days following Thanksgiving or Christmas, my mother making the best use of leftover holiday turkey. Since my dad was never a poultry fan–or a fish fan, for that matter, unless it was rolled in cornmeal and deep fried, Mom could really stretch this out the divan between the two of us.

The original recipe (which appears in a photograph in this post) calls for a lot of mayo. I think my redo keeps much of the original flavor while providing much more fiber and far less fat.

We always ate the divan over a bed of rice. Although the new recipe includes rice in the mix, you could easily serve each portion on top of another ½ cup of rice to extend the recipe further.

Serves 8

Ingredients

8 oz. frozen broccoli florets
4 cups cooked brown rice*
1 cup prepared turkey gravy (The Simply Organic brand is delicious.)
¾ tsp. curry powder
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 cups roasted turkey, chopped
¼ cup shredded Italian cheese (parmesan or grana panado)

Method

Note that for this recipe, you with need two 11 x 15 pans. The great thing is that you can freeze one for later and stretch the turkey even further.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Heat broccoli florets according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

Mix gravy, curry powder and lemon juice. Set aside.

Coat pan with cooking spray or olive oil. Add two cups brown rice. Top with 4 oz. broccoli and 1 cup turkey. Drizzle with ½ cup gravy mixture and 1/8 cup cheese. Repeat process with second pan. If you’d like to freeze one of the pans, allow dish to cool and now then wrap and prepare it for the freezer.

Cook for 30 minutes or until cheese begins to brown. Cool slightly and serve.

* When making brown rice, I like to do a large batch and cook it in a half water/half chicken broth mixture with one or two bay leaves. My favorite brown rice variety? Lundberg’s Organic California Brown Basmati.

Photos