Stuffed Turkey Cutlets

A small turkey breast can create several meals for two people. I have cut thick cutlets out of a small turkey breast, then sliced a pocket and stuffed with a typical bread stuffing. You could easily change this to a mushroom and cheese stuffing or ham and cheese. The leftover meat went to making an Asian steamed bun filling. Just because you only have one or two in the house doesn't mean you can't eat great meals that freeze perfectly for another day. One cut of meat can create several meals and is more economical.

You will need:

• a small turkey breast
• 2-3 slices of day old bread
• 2 slices of bacon or pancetta
• 6 button mushrooms
• 1 small onion-diced fine
• 2 cloves garlic -crushed or chopped fine
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries - chopped
• some fresh herbs - I used sage, rosemary and thyme chopped = 1 tbsp mix
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp ground poultry seasoning
• salt/pepper
• 1/4-1/3 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 cup flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup dried breadcrumbs
• olive oil for sauteing turkey

Step 1: gather all your ingredients.

Step 2: chop bread into cubes and place in a small bowl. If it is stale that is perfect. If your bread is fresh toast the slices before chopping. Chop bacon, mushrooms, onion, garlic, cranberries and fresh herbs.

Step 3: add all chopped ingredients (except bread) into a small saute pan with a few tbsp of olive oil. Add poultry seasoning and salt and pepper. Cook on medium heat for 5-10 minutes until the water has evaporated out of most of the vegetables and the bacon is browning. Add mix to cubed bread and some chicken broth to soften the bead and make the mix moist. Set aside. All the chicken broth should get absorbed after 10-15 minutes.

Step 5: Take the turkey breast and slice off the flat half of the breast. You want to use the thicker half on the left. Slice thick slices so that you can carefully cut a pocket to fill. I make 5 cutlets from the left side of this breast. I cut the pockets with a sharp small paring knife. 

Step 6: place a few tbsp of stuffing in each breast. Do not overfill. I then placed a sheet pf plastic wrap over the tops and gently pounded the thick portion of the cutlets to try and make them more uniform. You don't want to be too aggressive or you will pound all your stuffing out. I also did not seal the pocket with a toothpick although you can if you like. 

Step 7: set up the standard breading station. Place each cutlet in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs making sure to seal pocket opening. 

Step 8: in a large pan add enough olive oil to come up to halfway up the cutlets. When oil is hot saute each breast until browned. Season with salt and pepper as soon as they are done frying.  If you wish to prepare this in advance of serving you can place the cooked cutlets on a baking tray and let cool. You can then place in the fridge for up to a day then just take tray and heat in a 350 degree F oven for 15-20 minutes to re-heat.  I like to finish in the oven to make sure the turkey is cooked through and all are hot before serving.

I served mine with some homemade cranberry sauce, some more stuffing I had leftover and just sauteed in a pan, sliced potatoes and honey glazed carrots.