Making Turkey à la King for the Queen and her entourage? Click and slide the number next to “servings” on the recipe card below to adjust the ingredients to match how many you’re feeding—the recipe does the math for you, so you can get on with cooking.
How to make Turkey à la King:
These instructions walk you through the basics without giving you specific ingredient amounts, which are all listed below in the recipe card.
- In a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat, heat olive oil until shimmering. Stir in onion, carrots, and celery and sauté for several minutes until softened.
- Then stir in the flour and cook for about a minute. Pour in the wine and cook until the mixture thickens. Use a wooden spoon to scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. This will add tons of flavor to the dish.
- Next, pour in the chicken broth and the cream. Cook for 5 minutes, until the sauce is very thick.
- Then stir in the turkey, peas, and lemon juice. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring frequently, until turkey is heated through, about 5 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the heat and garnish with chopped parsley. Serve immediately.
Crockpot Turkey à la King:
Things just got even easier.
- In a 3-quart slow cooker, combine cream, wine, chicken broth, flour, salt and pepper until smooth.
- Stir in turkey, celery, carrots and onion.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 7-8 hours.
- Stir in peas and lemon juice.
- Cook 30 minutes longer or until heated through.
- Garnish with parsley.
How to make a heavy cream substitute:
When a recipe you're excited to make calls for heavy cream, but your refrigerator is bare, here's what to do. All you need is milk and butter.
To make enough for 1 cup of heavy cream:
- Melt 5 tablespoons butter and let it cool a bit.
- Then add it to 3/4 cup milk and mix the two ingredients together.
If you use low-fat milk, the mixture will be thinner. Add a tablespoon of flour to thicken it up, if you like. Then use it in the recipe you need.
Also, Trader Joe's sells small cartons of heavy cream that you don't need to refrigerate. Stash a couple in the pantry for whipped cream emergencies!
What can you serve Turkey à la King with?
There are so many delicious ways to serve this turkey recipe:
- Biscuits. Make your own biscuits, or buy a can of those exploding biscuits from the store.
- Bread. Toasted or grilled bread, a toasted English muffin, or even a slice of Garlic Bread would taste great.
- Mashed potatoes. Always a good idea!
- Noodles. Simple buttered noodles are fast and satisfying.
- Rice. Plain white rice, a nutty rice pilaf, or healthy brown rice.
- Zoodles. Go low carb with Turkey à la King on a heap of spiralized zucchini, summer squash, or sweet potato.
Turkey à la King Recipe
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 1 carrot peeled and finely chopped
- 1 stalk celery finely chopped
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
- 2 cups leftover turkey cut into 1-inch pieces
- 3/4 cup heavy cream See notes.
- 1/2 cup frozen peas
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice from 1 lemon
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley minced
- Biscuits or toasted bread, for serving
- In a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat oil until shimmering. Add onion, carrot, and celery and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
- Stir in flour and cook 1 minute. Add wine and cook until thickened, scraping up any browned bits, about 1 minute. Stir in the broth and cream. Cook until the sauce is very thick, about 5 minutes.
- Stir in turkey, peas, and lemon juice. Reduce heat to simmer and cook, stirring frequently, until turkey is heated through, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and garnish with parsley. Serve on toasted bread or biscuits.
