2 tablespoons olive oil
4 chicken quarters
1 medium onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large portobello mushroom, sliced
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 cups broccoli florets, cooked
1 large red pepper, roasted and sliced
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 sprigs thyme
salt and pepper

1. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add the olive oil. Brown the chicken, crisping the skin, then transfer to a plate.
2. Reduce heat to medium and add the onion, sautéing until tender, then stir in the garlic and mushroom.
3. Add the wine, scrapping up any bits of chicken that may be stuck to the pan, and simmer until it has reduced by half.
4. Stir in the broccoli and roasted red pepper and return the chicken to the pan. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook, covered, until the chicken is cooked through and tender, about 30 minutes. Add chicken broth as necessary to prevent drying.
5. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve over cooked rice or Risotto sprinkled with fresh thyme.

Makes 4 servings

Everyone always has pounds and pounds of leftovers at the end of a Thanksgiving dinner. I don't really know why this happens. I mean, obviously it's because there was too much turkey cooked. Perhaps it's a fear of not having enough food? Maybe it's one of those traditions handed down to show off your bountiful harvest or something. In our case it's because there's no such thing as a one pound turkey. Since it was just the two of us eating, there was bound to be too much even if we made a fryer chicken.

It's customary to pack turkey salad sandwiches for your kids for lunch and be nibbling on the cold turkey in the fridge. It's definitely not uncommon to hear "You'll be eating turkey for a week!" after the Thanksgiving meal. So, for the next week, I'm going to make a bunch of dinners using the leftover Turkey from Thanksgiving.

For the most part, I will be using the dark meat leftover from the bird. There are two reasons for this. Since I rubbed the breast with a sage butter, the white meat is primarily flavored with sage which can only go with so many different styles of cuisine. The other is because I cooked everything leftover but the white meat (breast) to make turkey stock and then just stripped the bones for these recipes. In case you don't know, to make turkey stock, simply fill a large pot with water, add your turkey carcass with a few aromatic vegetables (carrots, onions, celery) and maybe a bay leaf, then cook it all until the meat falls off the bones. Then remove the solids and strain if necessary and season to taste with salt and pepper. Voila.

Since I had so much leftover meat that I was boiling directly in the water for the stock, it was really intensively flavored. Really, too much so. I made some Risotto with it as a side dish, but it was kind of gross. Just way too much of a sage and fatty flavor. Oh well. What do you do?

To accompany the unfavorable risotto I stuck with the Italian theme and made a Rustic Italian Chicken. This is a simple white wine garlic sauce with portobello mushrooms, roasted red peppers and leftover broccoli from last night's meal and a little bit of fresh thyme over top. Served over plain rice or any other risotto it would have been great, but without the starchy rice in each bite it kind of loses something. It's still a simple recipe that I'd make again though. I know, I didn't really use any of the turkey meat itself, but the stock is gone now and there's plenty of time for that.