I’ve got both right now, so I tried to check foe meatloaf recipes. Didn’t find any.
I was also thinking about chili.
I’d welcome suggestions.
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Lasagna!
Bolognese
Burgers
Turkey is great for taking on flavors. You could get creative with meatball combos, a ying and yang saboro bowl or dueling keftas (ground beef is mixed with sumac. Turkey mixed with harrisa)
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Sloppy Joes. Tamale pie. Enchiladas.
Since turkey is so lean I’d be concerned that any meatball / meatloaf type recipe would be a crumbly mess if I substituted turkey for part of the beef.
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Do a Joe’s Special!
It’s a San Francisco classic!
Best served with some Palo Alto Firefighters pepper sauce or Trader Joe’s pepper sauce.
Over rice, with toast, or straight up.
Or do Thai favorite Krapow!
Standard in our house is a combo of ground turkey (usually thight meat) and beef in meatballs. (To 1.5 pounds or so of mixed meats add a half cup of bread crumbs, half cup of parmesan, quarter cup fresh basil, tablespoon of ground fennel seeds, salt and pepper to taste and around a cup or so of chicken broth.) Once cooked (we fry in olive oil), any surplus can be frozen for future use.
That sounds terrific. Do you think chicken thighs would work? We usually have those on hand.
Hi everyone,
Great suggestions. Right now, I think I’d like to try Chili or Meatloaf.
I while back I made Turkey meatloaf for the first time. Never even ate it before then. Didn’t really know what to expect, but it was surprisingly good, with a firm texture. Definitely not crumbly, but I can’t remember if I used 93% or 85%.
The video mentions the differences in prep approach for the two meats, particularly for the leanness of turkey, i.e., melted butter.
I was hoping that with that adjustment, it might be able to mix the meats.
I’d also really like to try Chili. Maybe as far as mixes are concerned, It makes more sense?? Whattaya think?
Enchilidas. Yeah. Never thought about that. Lasagne, ok!! Lot’s of good possibilities.
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We used Carroll Shelby’s chili mix with ground turkey before and it worked pretty well. Generally we’ll cook from scratch but someone gifted us that mix and it’s handy to keep around as an emergency food option. The store locator function on that link is not up to date, though: you can probably find it in most conventional grocery stores in LA but definitely not some of the Smart and Finals they list.
Re: more tender texture for meat in chili, Kenji mentioned a technique in this video from a few years back while making keema matar. I suppose what he’s making in the video is also an option- I haven’t made it myself because I think the recipe only exists in the video description.
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That;'s a great idea! The link sent me to Walmart. Designed for 2 lbs. No muss, no fuss. I don’t necessarily need anything fancy, Just a genuine, good ole chili flavor, and the mix has the option to splice it up, heat wise. Works for me.
Interesting Kenji technique, adding the water, but I’d actually like to have it chunky-ish, a somewhat thick, hearty texture.
Any complications or adjustments with using the meat combo?
I’d still like to explore the meatloaf option as well if anyone’s got ideas about that.
Nah, it should be fine
Yes indeed --we have used ground chicken thigh meat as well.
The Japanese markets like Nijya Market typically have great ground chicken. We often use it to make Tskune (Japanese meatballs), meatloaf and burgers- great product!
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Does it have something in it or is it how they grind it? I have a KA grinder attachment.
To my understanding, as far as Im aware at Nijiya, it is freshly ground upon packaging and sourced from local farms typically 75/25 meat/fat ratio blend.
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Thanks for the ground chicken tip I’ll be using that for some Thai spicy basil stir fry
I’ve got a recipe variation question. The recipe calls for an 8 oz can of tomato sauce plus 2 cups water. You may substitute one cup water for one 14 oz can of diced tomatoes.
I’d like to use what I’ve got on hand. I hope this doesn’t sound dumb. I’ve got a 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes. No tomato sauce. I do have some tomato paste, if that might be helpful, considering that lack of tomato sauce flavoring? What do you think about just adding that, and omitting the water altogether?
Also, It says to make it thicker, add Masa flour and 1/2 cup water, as a slurry I guess. Wouldn’t you know it, I don’t have any Masa flour on hand. Can I sub regular flour instead? About 1 TBL? How would that fit in with the crushed tomatoes.
It doesn’t sound dumb - we rarely have tomato sauce when we make this also
I’ve got a 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes. No tomato sauce. I do have some tomato paste, if that might be helpful, considering that lack of tomato sauce flavoring? What do you think about just adding that, and omitting the water altogether?
You could use all tomatoes but that might make it a little thick. Then again, if it is quite thick maybe you could skip any thickening agents like masa or flour. It might be a touch acidic, though, so you might need to balance with sugar to taste. Tomato paste would add a more savory tomato flavor but if you’re adding that much canned tomato I don’t think that would be necessary.
Also, It says to make it thicker, add Masa flour and 1/2 cup water, as a slurry I guess. Wouldn’t you know it, I don’t have any Masa flour on hand. Can I sub regular flour instead? About 1 TBL? How would that fit in with the crushed tomatoes.
Again, if you use all canned tomatoes that probably will probably produce quite a thick result to begin with so I’d say start with adding the tomatoes then see if it needs thickening at all. You can definitely use flour to thicken but it will continue to retrograde overnight so be wary of over thickening. I’m not positive how much flour to add so I’d recommend making the slurry and adding until your desired thickness- like stir fry sauce it should thicken very quickly at a high simmer or boil.
As a side note, the type of canned tomatoes you use will (sort of) also influence the texture. The diced tomatoes suggested on the package typically include calcium chloride which is a firming agent that prevents the tomatoes from mushing out in the can. However, the flip side is that it means diced tomatoes will never fully break down and always remain a little grainy. In my anecdotal experience the result is rarely a cohesive saucey texture and instead will break a little into a pastier sauce and a whey-like juice.
Tl;DR Using crushed or whole peeled tomatoes may result in a slightly thicker but more cohesive texture as well. As mentioned above, I suggest making it with what you have on hand then seeing if it’s your desired thickness. If too thin, you can thicken with some slurry and if too thick you can thin with water.
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