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Introduction
Thanksgiving dinner. A beloved family event overflowing with warm feelings and goodwill. A majestic celebration rife with ceremony and tradition. It's nice...really nice. But hey, for lots of us it's just as much fun the day after (or perhaps later that night) when the pomp and circumstance goes out the window and you're free to rip open the fridge and tear into those tempting Thanksgiving leftovers like a hungry badger! If, that is, you've preserved your remaining bounty the right way. There are many things you can do to ensure several days worth of Thanksgiving leftovers. From delicious turkey sandwiches to more elaborate creations, like casseroles, read on to learn how to prepare Thanksgiving leftovers that will extend the holiday cheer long after the Thanksgiving table has been cleared.This page will show you how to prepare Thanksgiving leftovers in a number of creative ways, and will also discuss how quickly the food should be stored and how long it'll keep. Remember to clear some space in your refrigerator and even your freezer - many Thanksgiving leftovers can be frozen and enjoyed months after your Thanksgiving meal has been served.
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Safely Store Your Leftovers
- Mmm...yummy yummy salmonella! The word may not sound so horrible (is it salmon glazed with a vanilla cream sauce, per chance?), but it's actually a pesky strain of harmful bacteria that happily infiltrates Thanksgiving leftovers every year.
- To avoid a bout of food poisoning this holiday season, there are three numbers to keep in mind. On WebMD, a clinical dietitian from Temple University Hospital cites the "2-2-4 formula."
- 2 Hours: This is how long your food can sit out before you refrigerate or freeze it. And that's two hours after cooking, not after you've gone back for seconds, thirds and fourths.
- 2 Inches: Cooling food quickly and evenly is the name of the game, so store your leftovers in containers that are shallow (shoot for two inches).
- 4 Days: If you know you won't plow through all those leftover goodies by the end of the weekend, freeze 'em (they'll usually keep in the freezer for three to four months).
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Fun with Leftover Turkey
- OK, so you've taken the proper precautions to store your food safely. Now, let's see what we can do with it! We'll start with a few ideas for that leftover turkey you preserved so immaculately after the initial feast.
- The turkey sandwich: Gotta start with the obvious leftover treat. The fixings included here can vary to your tastes, of course, but if you've never tried the classic Thanksgiving leftover turkey sandwich — that is, warm up the turkey, warm up some stuffing, and put it all between two slices of sturdy French bread you've slathered with cranberry sauce — you're missing out!
- Turkey soup: A close second on the list of ways to use up leftover turkey. One popular tactic calls for making turkey stock from what's left of the bird first, then making the soup by adding veggies, shredded turkey, maybe some rice and/or noodles, and whatever other herbs and seasonings you think might work. Turkey chili is also a great choice.
- Shepherd's pie: The turkey version of Shepherd's pie has become an after-holiday casserole favorite in many households. Here are some ideas from a couple of folks you may have heard of: Emeril Lagasse and Martha Stewart.
- For more recipes that use leftover turkey, check out Mahalo's Guide to Thanksgiving Leftovers and our How to Cook Leftover Turkey page.
Fun with Leftover Cranberry Sauce
- It may seem like the only role for a cranberry sauce comes once a year as a Thanksgiving turkey garnish, but not so!
- Mix it up with other ingredients to make a tangy cranberry-citrus sauce, a slightly tart cranberry mustard or mayonnaise, or a unique cranberry chutney or salsa.
- If you're over 21, you might try a few adult beverages mixed with cranberry sauce, like a cranberry vodka or a cranberry margarita — just don't try to outdo your Thanksgiving Day food hangover with a real one! (And if you do, check out Mahalo's Guide on How to Cure a Hangover.)
- Something a bit more conventional: the always-tasty cranberry muffins make for a nice, light, low-fat selection on the morning after Thanksgiving.
Fun with Leftover Potatoes
- If there are any mashed potatoes you didn't manage to engulf with gravy and devour during your main Turkey Day feast, there are a few fun ways to use them up...and don't let those sweet potatoes go to waste, either.
Fun with Leftover Stuffing
- Other than using it in our "classic" Thanksgiving leftovers turkey sandwich, leftover stuffing's a little harder to find recipes for. But, there are a couple go-to gourmet routes to explore.
- For all the different variations of soup available to us after Thanksgiving, it might come in handy to have some kind of fancy bread item to sop it all up with. It's pretty easy to make croutons from stuffing squares, or you can go for something more substantial in stuffing dumplings.
- Taking the dumpling idea a step further, you can actually cook up some leftover stuffing a second time with additional olive oil, vegetables, parsley, bay leaf and other ingredients and plop a big ball of the stuff into the above-discussed turkey soup to make, yes, "turkey and stuffing soup." It's a bit like matzo ball soup...
- Then there are stuffing frittatas, Italian-style open-faced omelets given a special fragrant bread-y base by the sage-seasoned stuffing.
