If you are anything like us, you will likely have roast turkey and trimmings left over after the holiday. I always have turkey at Thanksgiving and I always buy one that is larger than I should.
I love the smell of a roasting turkey and I love cranberry sauce out of the can, cut in nice round disks, to go alongside the turkey. I have made all kinds of exotic cranberry sauces, chutneys and relishes, but at the end of the day, I like Ocean Spray Cranberry Sauce from a can!
I also like left over mash potatoes, gravy and an assortment of side dishes. This is a fantastic dinner for the next day, not to mention turkey and stuffing sandwiches for lunch, but after the first day, you kind of want to take a break from turkey.
In my case, it’s just a shame to throw out leftovers, so I slice all the meat off the bones and store it in the fridge in a plastic bag and then a day or two later, start to repurpose these tasty morsels. I don’t keep the carcass for soup, I know many people do, but somehow, I just don’t like the taste of turkey soup.
Generally speaking, anything that you would make with chicken, you can make with turkey. So, these recipes following are not just at Thanksgiving or at Christmas, you can make them year round.
I made all of these this year and I thought that they were just fabulous.
The first is a Pulled Cran-Turkey Slider. This is where left over cranberry sauce comes in, and in my opinion, a must for this recipe to be successful. There is a little tart, a little smokey and a little sweet in the sauce, plus the crunch from the carrots and pickles for a totally delicious bite. You may have to buy a can of cranberry if you make it with chicken in the summer, but what the heck, it’s available year around.
The next is Turkey Tacos. Again, this may easily be made with chicken, but I kind of liked the idea of corn tortillas and after all, I had turkey. I also liked all the ingredients including sour cream and cream cheese, cilantro, taco sauce, etc. I like southwestern style food. I added some salsa as a topping, delicious!
The last dish, Lettuce Cups, used up the rest of the left over turkey and it was just as good this time as it has been with ground chicken or ground pork. I just finely minced the turkey and made the recipe as usual.
I hope that you had a great Thanksgiving and if you have some leftover turkey, try one of my recipes.
