Thanksgiving Leftover
66 recipes found
Turkey Barley Soup
This mellow, velvety soup filled with barley and vegetables is a perfect place for your leftover Thanksgiving turkey. Adapted from Cristiana N. de Carvalho of Massachusetts, it’s savory, herby and very warming on a cold winter evening. If you want to make your own stock from the turkey bones, the soup will be even richer. But store-bought stock works just as well and makes this straightforward recipe quick to put together. Brown rice makes an excellent barley substitute, though you may have to add a few minutes to the cooking time.
Cranberry Sauce Salsa
Don't toss that little bit of cranberry sauce leftover from Thanksgiving dinner. This recipe, which we developed for a special kids' edition of The New York Times, calls for making it into a savory-sweet salsa that everyone will love. Just add some chopped fresh tomatoes, onion, garlic, cilantro and jalapeño to prepared whole cranberry sauce (not the jellied stuff). Stir in some lime zest and juice, and a sprinkling of chile powder, cumin and cayenne. Serve with enchilada pie or tortilla chips, and consider stocking canned cranberry sauce in your cabinet all year long.
Thanksgiving Leftovers Enchilada Pie
This recipe was developed for a special kids’ edition of The New York Times, but we’ve found that people of all ages love it. It sounds a little strange, but we promise you, it’s surprisingly delicious. It’s easy to make, and anything you don't already have on hand can be picked up from the corner store. We used leftover turkey, braised greens and mashed sweet potatoes, but feel free to experiment with savory dishes like sautéed brussels sprouts, cornbread stuffing or mashed potatoes. Top your slice with cranberry sauce salsa, a dollop of sour cream and a scattering of roasted pumpkin seeds. (We used a mix of Velveeta, Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses because the Velveeta helps prevent clumping, but, if processed cheese bothers you, leave it out and add a half-cup more Cheddar or Monterey Jack.)
Chicken Matzo Ball Stew
Matzo balls spiced with ginger and nutmeg transform this hearty, earthy stew into a nourishing one-pot dinner, reminiscent of chicken and dumplings but much lighter and simpler to make. The process of chilling the broth and skimming the fat is the only part requiring much attention, but it also means that this meal can be made almost entirely ahead of time. You can use the skimmed fat to add more flavor to the matzo balls, but if you don’t have the time, just use olive oil instead, or buy some schmaltz. If you have leftover Thanksgiving turkey, you can also use it here in place of the chicken, and skip Step 1. Just add enough stock so that the stew is the consistency you like.
Mashed Potato and Cabbage Pancakes
Vegetable pancakes with a sweet and comforting flavor. These have a sweet, comforting flavor. They are quick to mix up, using either leftover mashed potatoes from your Thanksgiving dinner, or potatoes that you have cut up and steamed for 20 minutes.
Turkey Tetrazzini
This classic turkey or chicken spaghetti casserole is rich with cheese and has a crunchy bread crumb topping. It was named after Luisa Tetrazzini, a famous Italian opera star at the turn of the 20th century. She enjoyed her fame with a flamboyant and generous public life, singing not only in opera houses but also for free on city streets: In 1910 she gave an outdoor Christmas Eve concert for a huge crowd in San Francisco. It’s unclear exactly how this particular dish came to be named after her — it was certainly meant as a compliment — but some accounts say it was her own recipe. The optional curry powder isn’t traditional, but it’s delicious, and a little added flair seems in the spirit of Ms. Tetrazzini.
Turkey (or Chicken) Soup With Lemon and Rice
This comforting soup is inspired by a Middle Eastern chicken soup. It’s great with or without leftover turkey — don’t hesitate to pull turkey stock from the freezer and make it with just vegetables and rice.
Roasted Turkey Stock
When you’re making a turkey, making stock with the bones is the logical next step. This recipe, from the Los Angeles chef Suzanne Goin, has the usual aromatics — carrots, celery, onions — plus a concentrated shot of white wine and a dried chile, which add a welcome breath of freshness. (Sometimes poultry stock can taste flat.) Roasting the bones and the vegetables in the same pan streamlines the process and adds depth of flavor. You can use this stock in virtually any recipe that calls for chicken stock (except for chicken soup).
Turkey Cubano
Two heated baking pans topped by a cast-iron skillet stand in for a sandwich press in this easy Cubano recipe. It also substitutes sliced turkey for the usual roast pork, but retains the melted cheese, sliced ham and slivers of pickle that makes the traditional sandwich so incredibly compelling. Deli ham is the go-to choice here, but prosciutto gives a deeper, saltier flavor; use whichever you like.
Turkey à la King
This is nursery food absolutely, soft and creamy, salty-sweet. It sits happily atop toast or biscuits, rice or waffles or noodles; in some households, it is wrapped within crepes: leftover turkey in gravy, essentially, with mushrooms and peas for heft. And as such it is comforting to eat, in much the same way that burrowing into a nest on the couch to watch football or a three-hankie movie is comforting. But it is also threadbare elegant with its whisper of sherry, vaguely French. You could of course make it with chicken instead of turkey, add diced ham or minced clams, shucked oysters or a handful of slivered pimiento. It's a very forgiving recipe. Make of it what you will.
Turkey Tikka Masala
This twist on the Punjabi-style curry gives a new life to leftover turkey. The turkey is marinated overnight in yogurt, turmeric, garam masala and garlic paste, imparting deep flavors and moisture. Tomatoes and cream add warmth, while serrano peppers give the tikka masala its kick. Serve it alongside steamed basmati rice for a deeply satisfying meal.
Gumbo’s Daddy With Chicken, Shrimp and Turkey
This recipe, adapted from Gail Jennings of North Carolina, is what her family thinks of as the daddy of all gumbos, a thick mix of leftover roast turkey rounded out with plump shrimp, chicken wings and collard greens. Ms. Jennings spikes the soup with a mix of curry powder and King’s Pepper, a spice blend that she developed based on a West African recipe. But any chile powder, including cayenne, can be substituted. Add it to taste; Ms. Jennings and her family like it fiery hot, then served over rice to mitigate the burn.
Stuffing-Stuffed Mushrooms
In this recipe, classic stuffed mushrooms become an excellent vegetarian Thanksgiving appetizer or side dish by replacing Italian bread crumbs with cornbread, and using traditional stuffing flavors like rosemary, celery seeds and poultry seasoning. Two tips for making these extra flavorful: Trim the mushroom caps a bit to provide more surface area for caramelization, and pre-roast them to reduce moisture and prevent them from getting soggy. You can turn these into a main dish by using about eight large portobello mushrooms instead of two-bite cremini mushrooms, and increasing the cooking time accordingly. If you’re lucky enough to have leftover Thanksgiving stuffing, you can use it in place of the cornbread mixture (you’ll need about 4 cups); just add two beaten eggs and grated Gruyère cheese to bind the mixture before piling it onto the mushrooms and roasting.
Turkey Salad With Fried Shallots and Herbs
This recipe is adapted from Naomi Duguid's chicken salad in "Burma: Rivers of Flavor." It incorporates shallots two ways, raw and fried, as well as the deeply savory oil used to fry them. Bright with lime juice, the raw heat of a green chile and plenty of fresh herbs, it's excellent plain, or with some chopped cucumber and lettuce beneath it, for crunch. As Ms. Duguid points out in the book, it's a dressing that can be applied to refresh all manner of leftovers, from the roasted turkey you're left with the day after Thanksgiving, to the roasted vegetables.
Pecan Pie Bites With Gravy
It’s difficult to assess exactly how much the legalization of marijuana in Colorado may have changed the Thanksgiving menu. But it has indubitably increased the snacking that goes on afterward, said Alexander Figura, the chef of Lower48 Kitchen in Denver. That post-meal, late-night snacking has taken on a different kind of intensity now that the munchies are involved. “Stoned people gravitate to more extreme flavors,” he said. “They want something very savory or very sweet, or both at the same time.” His recipe for sticky pecan pie bites dunked into leftover turkey gravy — an after-hours snack among chefs he knows — hits those notes perfectly. The bite-size, bourbon-spiked pecan bars work on their own, too: no gravy or cannabis required. You can bake them up to 5 days in advance.
Turkey Pitas With Cucumbers, Chickpeas and Tahini
These vibrant, crunchy, creamy turkey sandwiches have all the flavors of falafel, but without the frying. They’ve got a lemony tahini dressing, soft chickpeas, and a cumin-scented tomato and cucumber salad, all packed into pitas with leftover turkey (use dark or white meat). The pickled red onions give these a wonderful brightness, and they’re well worth the 10 extra minutes they take to make.
Roast Turkey Pav
This dish was inspired in equal measures by a cluttered refrigerator on the day after the Thanksgiving, and the pav bhaji of western India — a gloriously spiced mash of vegetables served with buttery, toasted buns. It works beautifully with roast turkey meat, cut into small pieces, though it's ideal for scraps of meat pulled off the turkey carcass after making stock, giving them a second life and infusing them with flavor. Serve the dish with garnishes of cilantro and red onion on the side, allowing people to determine their own ratios, or take control and garnish the whole pan yourself. Either way, don't skip buttering and toasting those rolls.
Turkey Pie With Potatoes, Squash, Chard and Cheddar
This layered savory pie is basically a complete dinner encased in pastry, and quite an elegant way to have Thanksgiving leftovers (though it can be made any time of year). Serve it with gravy and cranberry sauce, or keep it light with a refreshing green salad.
Barley ‘Risotto’ With Turkey and Mushrooms
Risotto With Turkey, Mushrooms and Peas
Turkey makes an unexpected but welcome addition to this traditional risotto.
Turkey Tamales
Tamales are a holiday staple for Mexican-American families from the Rio Grande Valley up to North Texas, and not just at Christmas. “We have a big market for Thanksgiving tamales,” said Cyndi Hall of Tamale Place of Texas, in Leander, near Austin. Although Ms. Hall said she’s seen more families buy tamales than ever before, many still keep the tradition of coming together to make them. You can cook up a turkey breast or extra legs for tamales to have with the Thanksgiving meal, or make the tamales with leftover turkey for the long weekend. They aren’t difficult, but they do take time, so the more hands you have for your assembly line, the quicker it goes. Corn husks and masa mix for tamales can be found in markets that sell Mexican ingredients; make sure you get the masa for tamales (Maseca is the most widely available brand), not the finer, drier tortilla masa harina.
Turkey Waldorf Salad
This is not your classic Waldorf salad, which is traditionally a mélange of apples, celery, raisins, walnuts and grapes in a thick mayonnaise-based dressing. Here, the dressing, thinned out and lightened with yogurt, is spiced with curry and cumin, and the salad mix includes a generous amount of chopped radicchio or endive, which bring a bitter dimension into the mix. This salad is also an excellent home for leftover Thanksgiving turkey.
Turkey and Mizuna Salad
This dish has bright, mildly spicy Asian flavors and lots of crunch. Mizuna is a Japanese mustard green that’s high in folic acid, vitamin A, carotenoids and vitamin C. If you can’t find it, substitute arugula.
Chicken and Sausage Gumbo
This recipe came to The Times in 1983 from the influential New Orleans chef Paul Prudhomme. It is a hearty, rich Creole stew generously seasoned with black and white pepper, cayenne, paprika and filé powder, a spice made from the leaves of the sassafras tree. Filé powder is readily available in most grocery stores and online, and while it's not 100 percent necessary, it lends a distinctive, earthy quality to the dish. Mr. Prudhomme intended this to be made with chicken, but we've had excellent results using leftover turkey from Thanksgiving, too.