Smothered Turkey Chimichangas

(click on the pic to get the ORIGINAL recipe from Domessticated – I merely copied and pasted here – until I can try it and change it up!!

Ingredients (quantities vary based on size of turkey; guidelines offered in text instructions)
turkey or turkey breast
salsa
shredded cheese (we like sharp cheddar)
flour tortillas
frying oil
corn starch, for thickening
lettuce
tomatoes
olives
green onions
sour cream

(I usually start the process the day before I want to serve the chimis.  It’s just easier to handle the meat if it’s cooled in the fridge overnight.)  Start with a whole turkey or turkey breast. Place it in your crock pot or roaster oven and pour some salsa over it.  Most often, I use two quarts of my home-canned salsa, but in the past I’ve used two or three 16-oz. jars of store-bought bottled salsa, too.  Whatever you have on hand works.  Cook the turkey in the salsa on low until the internal temperature of the turkey reaches 170 degrees.  Allow it to cool until you can handle it, or refrigerate it overnight.  Remove the turkey from the salsa and drippings.  (Don’t discard the salsa/drippings!  We’re going to use this to make the gravy for the chimis!)  Clean the meat off the bones (I usually save the bones to make homemade turkey noodle soup) and dice or shred the meat into a bowl or gallon bag.  (Check out all that salsa goodness mixed in with the meat!)    

Set up an assembly line including shredded cheese, your diced/shredded meat, flour tortillas (whatever size you like), and a pan with frying oil (I used canola because that’s what I had on hand) preheated to frying temperature over medium to medium-high heat, and a paper towel-lined baking sheet. 

Place 4-5 tortillas in between two moistened paper towels and heat them in the microwave for about 40 seconds to soften them. 

Keeping the tortillas you aren’t filling covered by the moist paper towels, take one tortilla out and fill it with diced/shredded turkey and shredded cheese. 

Roll the chimichanga as outlined below , being careful to tuck both ends in securely. 

Place the rolled chimichanga, seam side down, in the frying oil and fry until golden*.  

*Occasionally, the seam side will develop a giant bubble while frying.  When the bubble attempts to float, it can disrupt your secure wrapping.  If you see a big bubble forming, just puncture it with a knife so that things will stay together nicely.   

Turn and repeat on other side.  Remove to paper towel-lined baking sheet to drain.  Chimis can be kept warm and crisp in a low oven until serving (remove the paper towel first!).

To make the gravy, pour the salsa+drippings into a saucepan and heat to boiling.  Thicken with a cold water & cornstarch slurry until it thickens to the consistency of  gravy**. 

To serve, place one or two chimicangas on a plate, cover with warm gravy, shredded lettuce, sliced olives, diced tomatoes, green onions, and a dollop or ribbon of sour cream. 

The gravy this recipe makes is wonderful, but it doesn’t keep like the chimis do (I’ve never been able to freeze it successfully). We usually eat the leftover gravy with a second chimi dinner later in the week and end up with more leftover chimis than gravy to go with them anyway.
No worries, though…we’ve found that we like them as much (if not better) with plain salsa instead of gravy over the top of them. Eating them with salsa is also more practical if you’re packing lunches with them. These chimis are one of my husband’s favorite take-to-work lunches. I pack a chimi or two in a baggy and put it on top of the lettuce, tomatoes, olives, green onions, salsa and sour cream in a large Tupperware. Then he can just take the baggie out, heat it in the microwave, and put it in with “the (cold) fixin’s” to eat it.