Wild Turkey and fresh morels...now there is a winning combination. I shot this beautiful jake during the 5th week of the 2022 Wisconsin Turkey Season. The next week, I started picking morels. I did an article for Wisconsin Outdoor News on each of those activities. This recipe is meant to go along with those articles. The cream sauce recipe was inspired by a Jenny Nguyen-Wheatly offering, published at www.gameandfishmag.com. I, of course, made some modifications.
Ingredients for Turkey schnitzel
1 turkey breast
egg wash made with 2 eggs and a bit of milk, whisked together
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
1/8 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1tbsp butter4
1 tbsp canola oil
Ingredients for Morel Cream sauce
2 TBSP butter
5 ounces of fresh morels chopped
6 morels halves
1 cup chicken stock
1 shallot minced
2 TBSP all purpose flour
2 tsp chives chopped
1/4 cream
grated zest of 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper
I began this recipe the same way I deal with most wild birds. I sliced the turkey breast in half. Then I sliced each half into cutlets. After that, I used a meat mallet to tenderize them until they were falling apart. This is important. Wild turkey do not live in cages. They live in the world and they use their muscles. The tenderizing keeps them from being rubbery.
When you have completed the tenderizing, it is time to bread them. Add the poultry seasoning, the salt and pepper to the flour. Dredge the cutlets in the flour, then the egg wash, then the panko. You can do this ahead and leave in the fridge till you are ready to go.
Now, it is time to make the morel cream sauce. Chop the shallots, the chives, and part of the mushrooms. Zest the lemon. Sauté the chopped mushrooms and the mushroom halves. I let them sweat out their moisture on medium meat, then add butter and continue to sauté until a nice brown color and a bit of crispness develops. Remove the morel halves. You are going to use them for garnish. Add the shallots and stir until they become translucent.
Add the flour and stir. Add the chicken stock and stir until a sauce is created. Mix in the rest of the ingredients. Set aside.
Now it is time to sauté the schnitzel. Melt butter and add canola oil to a sauté pan. Heat on medium until a drop of water pops when added. Add the cutlets and cook until brown and crip on each side. This will not take long. Remove the cutlets to a platter. Drizzle some of the cream sauce over the cutlets. Place a morel half on top of each one and serve. Provide extra cream sauce for guests to augment their cutlets. Enjoy!
