Leftover Turkey? 3 Easy Meals To Make With Your Thanksgiving Turkey

Thanksgiving is over and the turkey sandwich has run its course, but don’t throw away that leftover turkey just yet.

“This is just inspired by me and my likes and my taste,” said Chef Jonas Favela, executive chef at Stock and Bond in the First National Center. “We had one Thanksgiving where we had a whole lot of turkeys left over,” said Favela.

Rather than through the turkeys away, he did what chefs do, and created new dishes, like turkey potpie. “For this potpie it’s going to be more like a soup, it’s going to be a thinker soup,” said Favela.

He starts by sauteing celery, carrots, and onions. After adding turkey stock. “This is the one I’m going to put some white meat in,” said Favela.

After adding some whipping cream, rue and seasoning it’s ready for the biscuits and into the oven.

Another great idea is turkey tortilla soup. “My Mexican heritage and the tortilla soup, you know I’ve always loved those, flavors I grew up with,” said Favela.

Again, it starts with sauteing carrots, celery, and onions. “A little black bean in there. I like to put whole tortillas in my soup and let the flavor of the corn tortillas kind of go through it,” said Favela.

Let it simmer for about ten minutes and add tortilla strips and that’s it. Another great idea is turkey tetrazzini. “We use the breast meat, and we are going to use some leg meat on this one,” said Favela.

Cook the turkey with mushrooms and seasoning, “And then we are going to hit it with some cream, parmesan,” said Favela.

Add cooked pasta and let it thicken. “Alright here we go, turkey tetrazzini,” said Favela.

“When you’re making Thanksgiving dinner, you always want to make sure you have enough for everybody there, and you want to make sure you have enough, so you have leftovers,” said Favela.

Turkey Potpie

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup each – celery, carrots, onion
2. 4 cups turkey stock
3. 1 cup heavy cream
4. TBSP salt
5. ½ TBSP black pepper
6. Four frozen biscuits
7. 2 TBSP roux (butter/plain)

Instructions:

Use a medium hot sauce pot and add celery, onions, and carrots. Saute until cooked through. Add turkey stock and heavy cream. Season with salt and pepper. Add roux, add turkey, let simmer for 10 minutes. Place on cooking vessel put in biscuits in over. Bake @350 for 10 – 12 minutes.

Turkey Tortilla Soup

Ingredients:

1. ½ cup each of celery, onion, and carrots.
2. 3 Fried corn tortillas
3. 3 cups turkey
4. ½ cup black beans
5. 3 cups tortilla strips
6. ½ cup fresh corn
7. 3 cups turkey stock
8. ½ TSP cumin seed ground
9. ½ TSP garlic

Instructions:

In a hot pot add 3 TBSP oil. Add turkey, celery, onions, carrots, cumin. Saute until cooked but not browned. Add stock and fried tortillas. Let cook until tortillas break down. Add corn, black beans and let simmer for 10 minutes. Serve with tortilla strips.

Turkey Tetrazzini

Ingredients:

1. 3 cups rigatoni pasta (cooked)
2. 2 cups mushrooms (cooked)
3. 3 cups heavy cream
4. 1 cup grated parmesan
5. 3 cups dark and white meat turkey
6. 2 TSP salt
7. ½ TSP black pepper

Instructions:

In a hot sauté pan, add 2 TBSP cooking oil and mushrooms. Let mushrooms cook. Add turkey and heavy cream. Bring to a boil and add parmesan. Turn heat to medium and add cooked rigatoni. Let simmer until the sauce thickens.