My husband made turkey in Mexican Barbacoa style wrapped in maguey leaves yesterday. He used the entire turkey so we ended up with a lot of left over turkey. I didn’t know what to do with all the turkey so I decided to make a salad. It’s also a great take a long lunch for work.

I don’t know if you have ever tried true Mexican Barbacoa. It is fabulous. The pot is lined with maguey leaves and the meat is completely wrapped in the leaves cooked for hours and hours. Pretty much steams inside the maguey leaves. Once the meat is done it is melt in your moth soft and the flavor is nothing I have ever tried before. If you have a chance to try it I highly  recommend it.

My husband cooked the entire turkey for 4 hours and let me tell you, it literally fell off the bones. When you grabbed a bond the meat just melted off. This was the most soft and juicy turkey I have ever had. I don’t eat dark meat so most cases I end up with dry breast meat. Not the case with this specific cooking method.

So there I was thinking what should I make. I ended up tossing some ingredients together and it turned out to be a great salad. Even my picky teenage son loved it. It’s just a few common items from your fridge.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup dry rice (boiled with 1 cup of water) and then rinsed

1 1/4 cup diced turkey meat (dark or white-whatever you prefer. I used white meat)

1/2 cup diced carrots (cooked)

1/3 cup frozen peas

1/4 cup chopped scallions (green onion)

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup sour cream

1 tbsp ranch

salt and pepper to taste

This is a simple salad. Takes a little bit to put together just because I boiled the rice. If you have left over white rice feel free to use that.

First boil the rice and then rinse the boiled rice under cold water to cool it down and wash off any starch. At the same time cook an entire large carrot. I peeled mine before cooking. Once cooked dice it and let it cool completely.

Now comes the quick part. Add the cooked rinsed rice, cooked diced carrots, frozen peas, diced turkey and scallions into a large bowl. Add in the mayonnaise, sour cream and ranch. Finally sprinkle black pepper and salt to your liking and mix it all together. I highly recommend allowing this to sit for at least an hour in the fridge so the flavor can develop.

ENJOY!

I like taking simple lunches to work. I don’t like to mess with thing or have to heat up anything. I pack this salad with some wheat crackers and sliced apples and it is a prefect filling lunch.

Let me know if you try it out and what you think of it!

Love Kat