After the big feast, then what? You can always count me in for a turkey dinner rerun with all the trimmings, several turkey & ham sandwich lunches, and a pot of turkey noodle soup. Beyond that, I get pretty “holidayed out” in a couple of days. There so many delicious leftovers I can’t bear to waste, yet – elastic waistbands aside – there’s only so much you can eat in the days following The Big Meal!
How do you handle it? Do you make one of those Thanksgiving-dinners-in-one-pan casseroles and call it a day? Or do you dine on turkey sandwiches for a week? If you haven’t off-loaded feast components to Thanksgiving dinner guests, you may have a mountain of deliciousness filling your frig like I typically do. One alternative is to make new dishes from leftover meal sides, like the “Thanksgiving Rewind” Potato Leek Soup and Corn Chowder recipes I posted in 2018. Instant gratification!
This year I focused on leftover food prep for future meal combinations. If you know me, you know I’m in to food preservation in a big way. But if that’s not your thing, or you’re already finished with “leftover management”, you may find some of my tips and recipes will come in handy for you in the future. Bookmark this post for your next post-holiday pantry party! The other 8 recipes are included at the end.
The key to enjoying superior taste and quality leftovers over the next several months is to package them with care to store in the freezer or pantry shelf. Freezer burn is not your friend! And improperly canned poultry broth is downright dangerous. Freezing is my favorite method for preserving vegetables, meat, casseroles and stock, but I do bring out the pressure canner when I have several quarts of stock to process all at once. What vehicle you choose depends on how much available storage you have in you freezer. The tools I have on hand make a difference in the quality of the end product. Here’s a list of my faves:
- Large stock pot (this year I used my water bath canner)
- Vacuum food sealer (Indispensable!I have a FoodSaver, and I often flash freeze items first so they maintain their shape)
- Freeze zip bags (quart & gallon)
- Food storage containers (variety of sizes)
- Silicone ice cube molds
- Large plastic containers with lids (6 quart quantity or larger)
- Measuring cups (dry & liquid)
- Canning jars (pints & quarts)
- Pressure canner (mine is a 16 quart model, holding 7 quart jars at a time)
Since I tend to be a “pantry cook” with a larder full of meal components, I decided to freeze (or can) building blocks to create easy future meals in appropriate sizes for Ken & I. For example, instead of making a full recipe of Turkey Tetrazzini and freezing a quantity of its leftovers, I vacuum sealed & froze enough cubed turkey to make a half recipe sometime down the road. That left more Thanksgiving turkey to portion for several different recipes so we don’t feel we’re eating so much of the same thing. I popped packets of mashed potatoes and corn casserole – as well as creamed spinach, cubes of turkey gravy and turkey drippings, and cooked wild rice – in the freezer for future use for soups or sides. I also vacuum sealed two Turkey & Dressing Dinners to have on hand for a busy day.
There’s a lot of up front work in this leftovers plan, but I find the resulting potential pantry flexibility to be worth it. The day after Thanksgiving, I started by making as much Turkey Stock as possible from my 18+ pound bird and 7+ pound turkey breast carcasses. I cleared out the frig vegetable crisper, adding chunks of unpeeled carrots, onion quarters, leeks, and celery tops, plus peppercorns, kosher salt, and the end of a bottle of white wine to the stock pot, filling up the pot with tap water. I used my pressure canner (the only safe way to can poultry stock) to can the resulting 8 1/2 quarts of rich turkey stock for months of goodness!
A couple of days post-holiday, after the stock was made, cooled, and skimmed of fat, I canned the broth. While the quarts were processing, I tackled the leftover meats.
Aside from reserved turkey slices for a few more sandwiches and a small amount of julienned meat for a Chef Salad, I cubed the rest of the turkey meat, measuring to see how much I had to work with. I’d made a list of our favorite entrees featuring cooked turkey/chicken, and chose several recipes that we would enjoy. I measured out the required cubed meat to vacuum seal and freeze for several recipes – Creamed Turkey, Gwen’s Pot Pie, Turkey Tetrazzini (1/2 recipe), Turkey Wild Rice Soup, and Lynn’s Hot Chicken Salad (1/2 recipe.) And I may choose to redirect a packet of turkey to use with a quart of stock for another batch of Turkey Noodle Soup. Flexibility is key!
In addition to our birds, we had a big chunk of leftover baked ham from our family holiday meals. Same theory applies. After we gobbled up some ham & bean soup, I vacuum sealed and froze ham cubes for future special meals like savory Ham & Cheese Brioche Strata and Jambalaya. And I set aside a small amount of julienned ham to go with the turkey for our Chef Salad. So, here are the recipes!
Gwen’s Turkey Pot Pie
Ingredients
- Pastry for a 2 crust pie (1 box rolled pie crust)
- 1/2 cup Chopped onion
- 1/2 cup All-purpose flour
- 6 Tbs Butter
- 3 cups Turkey (or chicken) broth
- 1 tsp Salt
- 2-3 cups Cubed cooked turkey (or chicken)
- 10 ounce Package of frozen Peas & Carrots
Instructions
- Cut pastry to fit tops of 6 individual ramekins or one larger casserole. Bake on ungreased baking sheet at 450 degrees for 10-12 minutes.
- Cook onion in butter until tender. Blen in flour, slat & broth all at once. Cook & stir until thick and bubbly.Pour into casserole(s) dish. Place baked pastry on top of hot filling just before serving.
Turkey Tetrazzini
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter (1/2 stick)
- 8 ounces sliced fresh mushrooms
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 4 cups turkey (or chicken) broth/stock (or 14 oz container)
- 1 1/3 cups half-and-half
- 3 Tbs dry sherry (optional)
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
- 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
- 3 cups cubed or shredded cooked turkey (or chicken) breast
- 1/2 pound spaghetti, broken in half and cooked according to package directions
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
- Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms; saute 4 minutes or until browned. Sprinkle with flour and toss to combine. Add broth and half-and-half; cook, stirring often, until mixture comes to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in sherry, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Remove from heat and stir in chicken.
- Combine spaghetti and chicken mixture; toss gently and spoon into a 13 x 9-inch baking dish or shallow 3-quart baking dish; sprinkle with cheese. Bake 20 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.
Turkey Wild Rice Soup
Ingredients
- 6 Tbs butter
- 1 Tbs minced onion
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 3 cups turkey or chicken stock/broth
- 2 cups cooked wild rice
- 3/4 cup chopped cooked turkey
- 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup half-and-half
- 2 Tbs dry sherry (optional)
- snipped parsley or chives for garnish
Instructions
- Melt butter in saucepan; saute onion and mushrooms until tender. Blend in flour; gradually stir in broth. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil; boil and stir 1 minute. Stir in rice, turkey and salt; simmer about 5 minutes. Blend in half-and-half and sherry; heat to serving temperature. Garnish with parsley or chives.
Lynn’s Hot Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 4 boneless chicken breasts halves, cooked and diced
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 1 8 oz can slliced water chestnuts
- 1 pkg long grain & wild rice (Uncle Ben's Ready Rice)
- 8 ounces sliced mushrooms
- 3/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1 can cream of chicken soup
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 tsp grated onion
- 1/2 c sliced almonds
- 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 1/2 cups crushed potato chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9 x 13 baking dish.
- In a large bowl, mix all ingredients (except potato chips) together and spread into baking dish. Top with crushed chips.
- Bake for 30 minutes until lightly browned. Cool slightly before serving.
Ham & Cheese Brioche Strata
Ingredients
- 1 Tb butter for greasing the pan
- 8 cups brioche bread (loaf or smaller brioches – I used brioche hamburger buns!)
- 6 eggs
- 4 cups half-and-half (or whole milk)
- 2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
- pinch nutmeg
- pinch cayenne
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced scallions
- 6` ounces ham, cubed or julienned (about 1 1/2 cups)
- 8 ounces grated Gouda or Gruyere cheese (about 4 cups)
Instructions
- Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 13 baking dish. fill dish with brioche cubes and set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat eggs well. Whisk in half-and-half, salt, pepper, nutmeg, cayenne and scallions. Pour mixture over cubes in baking dish.
- Sprinkle ham and cheese on top of mixture, and press down to make sure everything is submerged. Set baking dish on a rimmed baking sheet.
- Transfer baking dish and baking sheet to the middle shelf of the oven, and bake for 45 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the middle of the dish comes out dry. Let rest for 10 minutes or so before serving.
- NOTE: Leftovers at room temperature can be reheated for 10 minutes at 375 degrees.
Jambalaya
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 Tbs olive oil
- 1 pound cubed cooked chicken (or turkey) breast
- 1/2 pound cubed cooked ham
- 1/2 pound smoked sausage cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 1 cup chopped yellow onion
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 green pepper, seeded & cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 cup long grain white rice
- 28 ounces canned whole tomatoes, chopped juice from can included
- 1 cup chicken (or turkey) stock/broth
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 tsp Tabasco sauce
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 tsp salt
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1 1/4 pounds large shrimp, peeled and deveined
- chopped fresh parsley for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a Dutch oven over medium heat, warm olive oil. Add chicken/turkey, ham and sausage and cook until they begin to brown, 5 to 10 minutes. Remove to a plate. Add onion, garlic, and green pepper and saute until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in rice, tomatoes, stock, Worcestershire, Tabasco, and seasonings. Return meats to pan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, covered, 10 minutes. This dish can be made ahead up to this point and refrigerated.** (See NOTE)
- Cover the casserole and bake 35 minutes. Tuck in shrimp and bake about 10 minutes, covered, until rice is tender, liquid is absorbed, and shrimp turns pink, stirring once. Remove bay leaf and discard. Sprinkle with parsley and serve immeditately in the pan or on a platter.
- NOTE: If the casserole is made ahead, bring to room temmperature before baking and allow and extra 15 minutes in the oven.
Whew – that was a lot! It was a bit of a marathon, but I tend to enjoy food preserving sessions like these throughout the year. Now that summer’s bounty is over, and the fruits are “jammed” & veggies are bagged in the freezer, I really enjoyed my Thanksgiving leftovers blitz! I hope you enjoy some – or all – of these recipes. Happy Holidays
The Wild Rice and Turkey soup recipe is clever and delicious! TY, Aunt Sally!