As we say good-bye to another wonderful Thanksgiving, we say hello to an abundance of leftovers in our refrigerator. It can be difficult to create something new out of leftovers such as stuffing, gravy and pumpkin pie. However, the turkey is one such part of the Thanksgiving meal that lends itself to reinterpretation.
I was happy to hear that a few readers of my column enjoyed the idea for the grilled turkey sandwich from last year. If you don’t remember, I wanted to create a sandwich with the flavors of Thanksgiving. Using a grill pan, or press style grill, I created a combination of turkey, Swiss cheese and cranberry sauce or jelly.
In keeping with that same theme from last year, I challenged myself to feature a completely different sandwich. I thought about the method in which I suggested the preparation of the turkey this year, and drew upon that for my inspiration. Since the turkey was smoked and slow cooked, I thought of how meats are prepared in that same style as the turkey and made into a sandwich.
My thoughts drifted from one sandwich to another. I never stopped on one particular sandwich for too long. One very good one crossed my mind. I started to reminisce about my first pulled barbecued pork sandwich. I was away at college in San Luis Obispo. One of my weaknesses was the “Virginia BBQ Pork Sandwich” at Mo’s Smokehouse BBQ. This sandwich is the house specialty. It contains shredded pork, one of their signature barbecue sauces and coleslaw all served in a French roll. Yep, I said coleslaw. It is actually very traditional to serve barbecue pork sandwiches this way in many places in the South.
In that moment, I made my decision. I would draw upon the inspiration from this sandwich. The pork for this sandwich is cooked in a similar method to this years Thanksgiving turkey. The pork is slow roasted with low heat and the addition of smoke. Unlike the turkey, the pork is cooked for many hours instead of my two or so hours for the turkey.
Coleslaw would be good on the barbecue turkey sandwich, but it seems a little out of season as we approach winter. To remedy this, we will leave it out on this version. Instead, sauteed onions would do nicely. It is an easy addition since we need to warm our smoked turkey together with the barbecue sauce. You may have rolls left over from the prior days feast and those would work just as well as a French roll. In order to give the rolls a little more body to stand up to the moisture in the sauce, the rolls should be buttered and grilled on the inside. This can be done under a broiler, in a skillet or frying pan, or particularly in the case of this column, in a grill pan.
When you choose a barbecue sauce for this, any of your favorites or some that I suggested from a few months ago in the barbecue sauce taste test will do. Be sure to use caution when eating this sort of hot sandwich. When something like barbecue sauce is cooked into shredded meat, the sauce that is trapped in the meat remains very hot.
When thinking about Thanksgiving leftovers, we tend to think of having something the same way over and over again. Left over smoked turkey is a great base for a different turkey sandwich with some Southern barbecue influence. The barbecue turkey sandwich can be a welcome change to the same leftover dilemma.
Mitch L. Mariani II is a self-taught amateur chef. Questions, comments and suggestions can be directed to him through e-mail at Mi*******************@***oo.com. For tips and recipes, visit www.geocities.com/MixedGrillSouthValley.
