Green Chili Corn Casserole with Turkey

It's been a busy period after Thanksgiving, thus absent from the blogosphere.  We had a post-Thanksgiving trip to Austin to see my lovely family for a wonderful Mexican dinner at Baby Acapulco's on Stonelake.  Awesome food, drinks, and service from Alice.  We were a group of 20 and she took care of us with seamless fluidity.  I suspect the Mexican Martinis I drank had something to do with the sense of well-being (besides being with the family of course).  I rarely, RARELY drink these days...so they hit me with a blast of happy (until the next day...ugh).  Anyway, we also had granddaughter Audrey's birthday party, and several doctor appointments before returning to the coast to finals for the young man (the previous teen) followed by lots of catch up work and then Ian having all four of his wisdom teeth removed on Monday.  Like I said, a busy period of time.

Add to that, a severe cold snap of two weeks (unheard of at the coast in November and early December), some cookie baking and decorating...well, let's just say my hands have been full.  Keep an eye out for the Santa cookies I've been working on.  They are a 3-day endeavor of decorating, not including the two days required for prepping the dough and baking/cooling the cookies.  There will be a blog post on that in a day or two.  I have one more day of decorating to go.

That brings you up to date and to the point of my afternoon's thought "what can I make with those turkey leftovers in the freezer"?  I packaged up the leftovers in two Food Saver packets to ensure freshness so I grabbed out one of the packets and put it to soak in a sink of cold water to thaw.  I ran out to the store since Ian is feeling better today and not all drugged up with anesthesia and pain meds and, therefore, could be left unattended (I'm sure he was grateful).

I ended up deciding on a take-off of one of my sister's recipes - her Shoepeg Corn Casserole.  I had everything except the cheeses and corn already on hand.  Grabbed those ingredients at the store!  Here's the recipe and how I did it.

Green Chili Corn Casserole with Turkey
by Debbi Hook

Ingredients:

Two cups cooked turkey (Thanksgiving leftovers are perfect) - cubed
1 16 ounce bag of frozen yellow and shoepeg (white) corn
7 ounce can mild diced green chiles
8 ounces cream cheese - cubed
1/2 diced yellow onion (medium sized onion)
1 stick (1/2 cup) salted butter (that's what I had available)
2 cups grated Mexican Blend cheese (or Monterrey Jack)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:

Add the butter and yellow onion to a medium-sized sauce pan and cook on medium low until onions are beginning to be translucent.  Add the green chiles and cream cheese to pan and stir until melted together.

Spray a small Pyrex casserole dish (11x7x2) with vegetable oil spray and add the frozen corn and cubed turkey and toss together. 

Add in the saucepan contents and carefully stir to coat. 

Smooth the contents, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and top with the grated cheese.

Place in preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes (cheese melted and bubbly on the sides).  Remove from oven and allow to rest for 5-10 minutes.  Spoon out helpings.

This turned out very tasty!  I ate it with some tortilla chips.  The only thing I would possibly change, would be using just shoepeg corn.  Unfortunately, our local H.E.B. grocery store, down here in the boonies, didn't have canned shoepeg corn...so I had to use the mix I found in the freezer section.  I also think I might have preferred the spicier canned green chili.  The cream cheese would have muffled the spiciness.

Mr. Flip Flop is working on his second helping of casserole - so I guess it was pretty good just the way it was.  Give it a try - quick - before the Thanksgiving turkey gets frost bite!!!

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!