Entrées
My Turkey Blanquette-A French Tradition Made Easy
I initially wanted to make a veal blanquette, which is a well-known traditional French dish. My mother makes the best veal blanquette, and eating her blanquette is a family tradition. I wanted to reproduce my mother’s dish in the US. However, it was more complicated than I thought. First, it was difficult to find veal. The veal I found was not particularly good, and it was very expensive. Second, following the many steps of my mother’s recipe took a lot of time and effort (not very realistic in daily life!). So I decided to do 2 things: 1) substitute the veal with turkey, and 2) simplify my mother’s recipe so that it is easy for everyone to make. So here is the result: my very own turkey blanquette! Easy and delicious!
Please note you will need a dutch oven to make this recipe.
Here is my blanquette recipe:
| Prep Time | 20 minutes |
| Cook Time | 60 minutes |
| Servings |
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Ingredients
Turkey and vegetables cooked in dutch oven
- 1.5 lbs turkey breasts or cutlets (800g)
- 9 ounces mushrooms (250g)
- 4.5 cups low sodium chicken broth (1l)
- 10 pearl onions
- 2 Carrots
- 2 tablespoons minced onions (bought already minced)
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic (bought already minced)
- 2–3 branches fresh thyme
- 2–3 branches fresh parsley
- 2–3 leaves fresh bay leaf
- salt (as needed)
- pepper (as needed)
For the sauce
- 2.5 ounces butter (75g)
- 4 tablespoons All purpose flour
- 0.5 lbs light sour cream
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 small lemon
Ingredients
Turkey and vegetables cooked in dutch oven
For the sauce
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Instructions
Cooking the meat and vegetables
- Peel and cut the carrots in slices, slice the mushrooms, and cut the turkey in small pieces. In a dutch oven, brown the turkey together with the minced onions.
- Once the meat is brown, add about 4.5 cups (1 liter) of chicken broth (the broth should cover all of the turkey slices). Add the carrots, the mushrooms, the pearl onions, the garlic, the thyme, parsley and bay leaves. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, and then lower the heat. Cover and let it simmer in the dutch oven for 1 hour on low heat.
Making the sauce
- Start making the sauce about 5 minutes before the turkey and vegetables are done cooking. Melt the butter (75g) in a pot on low heat. Once it is melted, add 4 tablespoons of flour and stir with a wooden spoon for 5 minutes (do not stop stirring). You should have what resembles a thick cream (if it is not thick, add some flour).
- Add 2 cups of the broth the turkey cooked in to liquefy the thick cream you just made. (To do this, you have to remove some of the broth from the dutch oven). Add the juice of one small lemon. Continue stirring on low heat with the wooden spoon. Add the beaten egg yolks and the sour cream. Continue stirring until you get a whitish sauce that is neither too thick nor too liquid (this should not take long).
Serving the dish
- Remove the turkey, carrots and mushrooms from the dutch oven and place them on a serving dish. Remove the branches of the aromatic herbs at the same time. (Make sure the broth stays in the dutch oven, it is not served with the dish.) Pour the white sauce you just made on the turkey and vegetables. You can add a leaf of parsley for decoration. Enjoy warm with white rice on the side.
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Bon Appétit!
French Mom