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Leftover Turkey Recipe: Halal Cart Style Turkey and Rice with White Sauce

A recipe just like the Chicken and Rice served on Halal Carts in Midtown Manhattan, but using leftover turkey instead!

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Why it works: Chicken and turkey match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 690 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-decenal, which smells green, must. The science ↓

The recipe

4-6
Prep10 min
Cook30 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

  • FOR THE RICE
  • FOR THE WHITE SAUCE
  • FOR THE TURKEY
  • TO SERVE

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the turmeric and cumin for 30 seconds, then add the rice and stir to coat.

  2. Pour in the chicken broth and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce to low, and simmer 15 to 18 minutes until the liquid is absorbed. Rest covered for 10 minutes, then fluff.

  3. While the rice cooks, whisk together the mayonnaise, Greek yogurt, sugar, white vinegar, lemon juice and parsley in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper, then refrigerate until serving.

  4. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the sliced onion and cook 5 minutes, stirring, until soft and lightly golden.

  5. Add the turkey drippings or chicken broth and the shredded leftover turkey. Stir over medium heat for 5 minutes until the turkey is steaming hot throughout and reaches 165°F (74°C).

  6. Spoon the rice onto plates, top with the hot turkey, and drizzle with the white sauce.

  7. Serve with shredded lettuce, tomato wedges, sliced red onion, and warm flatbread or pita wedges. Add the hot sauce at the table, optional.

By steamykitchen. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Chicken + turkeytop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together690 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  2. Turmeric + cumintop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,698 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Turmeric + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Cumin + pita breadtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together48 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cumin + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,382 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the cumin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, turmeric, basmati rice, chicken, pepper, yogurt, sugar):

  1. Cardamombetter flavor fit
  2. Gingerabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Corianderabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Cuminthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, turmeric, basmati rice, chicken, pepper, yogurt, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).