Wild Turkey and Dressing Casserole

We love to serve wild turkey for our Thanksgiving dinner. We’ve smoked, roasted, and grilled turkey, but one of my favorite approaches is to slow-cook turkey breast, shred it, then put it in a casserole packed full of Thanksgiving flavors.

All the flavors of Thanksgiving.

The process is simple. The cleaned turkey breast goes in a slow cooker with chicken broth, butter, and a couple of bay leaves. Once the breast meat shreds apart easily, you combine it with the remaining ingredients in a buttered casserole dish, where it bakes to a golden brown.

Add the turkey breast, butter, and bay leaf to the slow cooker.

Any prepared herb stuffing base is fine for this recipe. We used Pepperidge Farm, and it turned out great. Use the stock from the cooked turkey for the liquid part.

Reserve the stock from the slow cooker for the liquid portion of the recipe.

To prepare the casserole, add the turkey breast to a slow cooker along with 32 ounces of chicken broth, 3 tablespoons butter, and two bay leaves. Cook on low for 10-12 hours or on high for 4-6 or until the meat pulls apart easily. Shred the slow-cooked turkey breast.

Shred the turkey breast.

Set aside. Sauté the onions, bell pepper, and celery in 2 tablespoons of oil and remaining tablespoon butter until soft, about 4-6 minutes.

Sauté the onion, bell pepper, and celery with fresh sage.

Add the diced fresh sage. Cook for an additional minute or two, then remove from heat.

In a large bowl, blend the stuffing mix with the sautéed vegetables, mushroom soup, cranberries, and 2 ½ cups of the reserved cooking broth from the slow cooker.

Condensed cream of mushroom soup gets added to the stuffing mixture.

Next, stir in the shredded turkey.

Add the shredded turkey and mix well.

Turn the mixture out into a buttered 9x13-inch baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through.

Slice into squares to serve.

Slice into squares for serving. If there are any leftovers, crisp them up in a pan the next morning and top with a fried egg.