Most households finish Thanksgiving with more turkey than anyone wants to eat cold, and three dinners is a sensible amount to aim for. On Friday it goes into something quick, like turkey tacos or a hot turkey sandwich. On Saturday the carcass becomes stock, and the stock becomes a pot of turkey and wild rice soup. Whatever meat is left after that turns into a batch of chili or a pan of enchiladas and goes into the freezer for a busy week in December. The leftover turkey recipes below follow that order, with the details that make each one work and a few smaller ideas for the last cup of meat.
How long leftover turkey lasts in the fridge
Leftover turkey keeps three to four days in the fridge, according to the USDA’s guidance on leftovers and food safety. For a bird carved on Thursday, that means the turkey should be eaten or frozen by Sunday or Monday. The same USDA page says to get leftovers into the fridge within two hours of the meal and to store them in shallow containers so they cool quickly. In practice, the easiest way to do that is to pull the meat off the bones on Thursday night and pack it in a few flat containers, with the carcass bagged up separately for stock.
When any of it gets reheated, the USDA’s safe temperature chart puts poultry at 165°F, and that goes for a bowl of soup or a pan of enchiladas just as much as for a plate of slices.
That fridge window is what sets the order of the three dinners. The quick one comes first, while the sliced breast is still at its best. The soup comes second, since it uses up the bones and the odd bits that don’t slice neatly. The freezer batch gets made over the weekend, well inside the four days, so the turkey you aren’t going to eat this week is frozen while it still tastes good.
Friday: turkey tacos or a hot turkey sandwich
Friday is the night most people want dinner in about twenty minutes, and both of these get there with the oven off.
Turkey tacos. Turkey tacos are the better pick if the table is tired of Thursday’s flavors. Shred a few cups of meat, dark meat if there’s plenty, since it stays moist. Warm it in a skillet with a splash of broth or water, a teaspoon each of chili powder and cumin, and a few spoonfuls of salsa, until it’s hot and a bit saucy. Pile it into warm tortillas with whatever’s in the fridge: shredded cabbage or lettuce, cheese, sour cream, a squeeze of lime. Kids who are done with turkey will often eat it without complaint once it’s in a tortilla.
A hot turkey sandwich. A hot turkey sandwich is the diner classic, served open-faced: slices of turkey warmed gently in leftover gravy, laid over a slice of bread, with more gravy poured on top and mashed potatoes on the side if there are any left. Warming the slices in the gravy, rather than microwaving them dry, is what keeps the breast meat from turning tough. If your house prefers the cold, stacked version with stuffing and cranberry sauce, there’s a holiday leftover sandwich in our recipe archive.
Saturday: turkey stock and turkey and wild rice soup
Saturday works well for soup because the carcass needs dealing with anyway, and a pot can simmer on the stove while everyone gets on with their day.
Start the stock in the morning. Break the carcass into pieces so it fits in your biggest pot, cover it with cold water, and add an onion, a couple of carrots and a couple of celery ribs, roughly chopped. Keep it at a gentle simmer, not a rolling boil, for three to four hours, then strain it. A typical carcass gives you several quarts, which is more than one pot of soup needs. Freeze the extra in two-cup containers for the next soup or a pot of rice.
For the soup itself, soften a diced onion, two carrots and two celery ribs in butter, add a cup of wild rice and about eight cups of the stock, and simmer until the rice is tender and some of the grains have split open, which usually takes 45 minutes to an hour. Stir in two to three cups of chopped turkey at the end, along with a splash of cream or milk if you like it creamy, and let it heat through for a few minutes. The turkey goes in last because it’s already cooked; a long simmer makes it stringy. Wild rice also holds its shape far better than white rice does, so the leftovers are still good on Sunday.
If you’d rather not keep an eye on the stove, the same soup works in a slow cooker, with the turkey and cream stirred in during the last half hour. There are more ideas along those lines in crockpot dinner ideas for days that cook themselves.
A later week: turkey chili or enchiladas from the freezer
The third dinner gets cooked this weekend and eaten a few weeks from now, which is the whole reason it’s worth the effort on a Sunday afternoon.
Turkey chili. Turkey chili is the easiest freezer option, since it’s one pot and it reheats without losing anything. Simmer onion, garlic, canned tomatoes, a couple of cans of beans and chili powder for half an hour or so, then add diced cooked turkey for the last ten minutes. Our turkey chili with rice makes a good base; if a recipe calls for raw ground turkey, skip the browning step and stir in the cooked meat near the end. Cool it, portion it into freezer bags, and lay them flat so they freeze quickly and stack neatly.
Turkey enchiladas. Turkey enchiladas take a little longer to assemble but feel like a completely different meal. Mix shredded turkey with shredded cheese and a small can of diced green chiles, roll it into tortillas, set them seam-side down in a foil pan, cover them with enchilada sauce and more cheese, then wrap the pan tightly and freeze it unbaked. On the night you want it, thaw it in the fridge overnight and bake it at 350°F until it’s bubbling in the middle, usually 25 to 35 minutes.
Whichever one you make, write what it is and the date on the bag or the foil. Every frozen pan looks the same by January. If you like having a few of these put away, there’s a longer post on filling the freezer with cooked dinners.
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Other leftover turkey recipes for the last cup of meat
There’s usually a cup or two of turkey left that doesn’t justify a whole dinner. These smaller leftover turkey recipes use it up without much thought:
- Turkey fried rice. Day-old rice fries best, so this is a good use for leftover takeout rice too. Scramble an egg in a hot pan, add the rice, a handful of frozen peas and the diced turkey, and season with soy sauce.
- Turkey salad. Mix chopped turkey with mayonnaise, diced celery and halved grapes or chopped apple. It goes on toast for lunch or into a container for school or work.
- Turkey quesadillas. Turkey, cheese and a spoonful of salsa between two tortillas, cooked in a dry skillet until the outside is crisp and the cheese melts.
- Turkey pot pie. Warm the turkey in leftover gravy with a bag of frozen peas and carrots, pour it into a pie dish and top it with a store-bought crust.
- Extra stock. If Saturday’s pot made more than you needed, the frozen containers are a head start on a weeknight soup or risotto in a few weeks.
Keeping your family’s own turkey recipes in the plan
Plenty of households have a leftover turkey dish that isn’t in any cookbook: a grandmother’s tetrazzini, a particular turkey soup, a casserole someone always asks for on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. You give A Better Meal your goals, dietary preferences, allergies and the foods you won’t eat, and the app turns that into a dinner plan made of real recipes. You can import the recipes you already rely on, so that tetrazzini lives in the app next to everything else and can go into the plan on whichever night you want it. The app can’t see your fridge and won’t know there’s turkey waiting to be used, so the turkey nights are yours to place, with the rest of the week’s dinners swapped or added around them. A summary of the app’s features covers the plan and the grocery list.
Frequently asked questions
Is dark meat or white meat better for leftovers?
Dark meat is usually better for leftovers, because it has more fat and stays moist when it’s reheated. It suits tacos, chili, enchiladas and fried rice. White meat is best in dishes that keep it wet, like a hot turkey sandwich in gravy, soup, or turkey salad.
How do you reheat leftover turkey without drying it out?
The way to reheat leftover turkey without drying it out is to warm it with some liquid and only for as long as it takes to get hot. Broth, gravy or sauce in a covered pan works well, or a splash of broth and a cover in the microwave. Check that it reaches 165°F.
Can you use leftover turkey in recipes that call for cooked chicken?
Leftover turkey works in almost any recipe that calls for cooked or rotisserie chicken, including chicken salad, chicken enchiladas, chicken noodle soup and casseroles. Use the same amount, and add the turkey near the end of cooking, since it’s already cooked through.
Can you freeze turkey and stuffing together?
Turkey and stuffing are better frozen separately. Stuffing tends to turn soggy if it’s packed against moist meat, and keeping them apart means you can thaw only what a particular dinner needs. Label each container with what it is and the date.
