stories:
The Ten
What to Do with Thanksgiving Leftovers
Rewarming the turkey and gravy won’t suffice
Once Thanksgiving has come and gone, we hit the turkey-and-stuffing wall long before the leftovers are eaten. But you can give new life to your surplus by reincarnating the turkey and sides in these decidedly un-Thanksgiving recipes. We even have a couple of cocktails that use the dregs of the cranberry sauce, which always seems to be the last Tupperware in the fridge. And for even more recipes, check out these 10 ideas from chefs.
1. Basic Turkey Stock. If the big day left you in a food coma, then you’re probably not enticed to do much beyond clicking the remote. This stock recipe requires minimal effort and makes eight quarts, perfect for freezing and using later.
2. Turkey Pot Pie. Pot pie is a common way to use up turkey, but subpar versions are often chalky, gummy, and bland. Ours starts things off right with Creamed Turkey that’s good enough to eat on its own; then you pack it with vegetables, and top it with store-bought crust to avoid dough-making headaches.
3. Curried Turkey Salad. Another throwback recipe that we improved upon, this salad has tartness from yogurt, sweetness from raisins, and crunch from shards of toasted coconut. It takes a minimum of effort and will renew your interest in bird leftovers.
4. Crispy Turkey Enchiladas. These real-deal enchiladas are spicy and flavorful. Though they are more commonly made with pork or chicken, we swapped in turkey and doused it all in a Red Chile Sauce that’s great to snack on with chips.
5. Turkey Posole a la Guerita. Posole is one of those slow-cooked dishes that result in a beautiful meld of flavors. Figuring that you won’t want to be slaving away with your leftovers after having just orchestrated the big meal, we came up with a shortcut version we coined a la Guerita, a.k.a. white-girl style.
6. Turkey Mulligatawny Soup. This rich, heady soup is laced with spices and coconut milk.
7. Turkey Pad See Ew. The Thai noodle dish pad see ew is usually made with anything from beef to pork to chicken. We filled ours with turkey and won thumbs-up from pad see ew–obsessed Multimedia Producer Meredith Arthur.
8. Stuffing-Stuffed Mushrooms. These give stuffing a second life and make for quick hors d’oeuvres when unexpected company comes knocking.
9. Pecan and Sweet Potato Bread. Throw together this quick bread that does duty as a snack, a breakfast treat, or even dessert when toasted and served à la mode.
10. Peninsular War and Cranberry Culprit. All self-respecting cranberry sauces are sweet, tart, and fruity, and that also works as a fabulous foundation for cocktails. Try the flavor combo shaken with Cognac and Licor 43 or mixed with bourbon and amaretto.
These are some great suggestions.
Another great recipe that uses Thanksgiving Leftovers is "Eggs in Purgatory." It comes from FoodTV personality Giada De Laurentiis.
The recipe can be found here http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recip...
but here's the gist of it:
Take leftover mashed potatoes, create small patties using your hands and coat lightly with flour on both sides. Fry up the patty in a skillet next to an egg. Heat up some marinara sauce. Top potato pancake with leftover Thanksgiving ham or turkey, the fried egg (yolk still in tact), marinara sauce and shaved Parmesan cheese.
I look forward to this breakfast all year long.
jonathankavner: we have a similar recipe sans mashed potatoes - http://www.chow.com/recipes/10169 that we enjoy greatly. try it out and let us know what you think!
what's wrong with leftover sandwiches? turkey, dressing, cranberries, taters (sweet or not) smashed on bread, grilled, w/gravy and salad. One pan, no real cooking, the only way to go as far as I'm concerned.
We had lots of cranberry sauce leftover yesterday, so I treated my fam to variations on the Cranberry Culprit. Since we had no Amaretto and Ginger Beer, I made them with whiskey, Grand Marnier, and sparkling apple cider. They were such a hit that we now have no cran sauce for leftovers!
Anyone know what to do with 2 quarts of homemade stuffing / dressing with no meat in it? That's what we didn't eat enough of with 5 of us really chowing down AND a second sitting besides.
Thanks!
How about using the leftover stuffing in mushroom caps or as a filling for cutlets or a breast roast?
judyluvs, you're on the right track! kate dev'd this recipe for mushroom caps - http://www.chow.com/recipes/11160 - and we're big fans!
Got a bunch of non-mushroomers here and have actually gotten tired of stuffed anything.
Decided to freeze the whole shebang in doubled Ziplocs.
Thanks, tho.
Thanks for some easy-to-follow ideas for the inevitable leftovers.
Chile! Overpower that turkey taste.
Since HI and GA have ressurected this old post, can I "kill" it, please?
Freezing the stuffing in Ziplocs is/was the way to go. It froze wonderfully and was available when needed in amounts consumable by two people at one meal.
As good as it was (and it was spectacular! and I of course couldn't find the same recipe this year (why the heck didn't I post it here for posterity?! ARGGH!), I am glad you all posted.
Now leave it be.
Thanks!
Saturday-after Turkey Frame Soup
After we've consumed every possible scrap of leftover stuffing, creamed onions, butternut squash, mashed potatoes, etc., I throw what's left of the pitiful picked-over turkey carcass into a stockpot, cover with water and simmer it for 30 minutes or so. The carcass yields more turkey meat than you'll believe (even with my family of three hearty-eating menfolks working on it.) Remove the bones and skin from the pot (or you can strain the whole shebang into a clean pot and only add the best bits of meat from the strainer.) Add 1 package real long-cooking all-wild rice, 1 pound sliced mushrooms, salt and pepper to taste, and simmer until the rice is done, according to rick package directions. Add 1 cup cream to soup and heat through without boiling. At this point, IF (big IF) there's any leftover gravy lurking in the fridge, I add that, too.