Thanksgiving Leftover Ideas Youll Actually Be Thankful For

The day after Thanksgiving means two things: Black Friday deals and lots of leftovers.

If you dont have leftovers after cooking your Thanksgiving dinner, you did it wrong. Come on, give thanks for the excess. The best way to express your gratitude is to do more than simply microwave the leftovers for the next several meals. You can take those dishes and transform them into something entirely new. Consider it upcycling your food. Or magic. Either way, Thanksgiving leftover recipes are the best part of the holiday. Heres proof.

Related Reading: The Best Containers for Storing Thanksgiving Leftovers

Alarmingly, a recent Instacart survey, in addition to identifying the worst Thanksgiving side dishes, also found that many Millennials did not want Thanksgiving leftovers. If you feel the same, we think youre just a little uninspired. Allow us to help.

To make it easier to find what you want (or at least what you need), weve broken it down into specific categories of leftover below.

When You Have a Little Bit of Everything Left Over

And you dont mind mashing it all up together

Thanksgiving Leftovers Sandwich

The classic method: Pile all your favorite bits and pieces onto breadbonus if its a leftover dinner roll. You dont really need instructions for this, but still, get our Thanksgiving Leftovers Sandwich recipe if your food coma is making it hard for you to think straight (and yet youre strangely compelled to eat again anyway).

Thanksgiving Turkey Nachos

Who doesnt love nachos? Transform your turkey leftovers into a Mexican-inspired mixture of zesty lime turkey topped with cranberry salsa. This dish is easy to customize, and kids absolutely love it. Get ourThanksgiving Nachos recipe.

Thanksgiving Leftovers Pizza

A store-bought crust, smeared with straight-from-the-fridge gravy, spread with leftover turkey, cranberry sauce, and sausage stuffing. Sprinkle with shredded cheddar cheese, then pop in a hot oven for 15 minutes. What emerges is the most unusual, and also surprisingly tasty, leftovers creation. Get our Thanksgiving Leftovers Pizza recipe.

Related Reading: How to Hack Pizza Dough Into New Dishes

Leftover Turkey Recipe Ideas

There always seems to be a lot of turkey left, so there are a lot of leftover turkey recipes, all of them delicious.

Roast Turkey Galette with Bacon and Cream Cheese

A galette is basically the most casual pie ever; you simply fold the dough around the filling, which in this case is roast turkey enriched with bacon, cream cheese, sauteed leeks, herbs, and gouda. Even better: The dough itself is speckled with everything bagel seasoning. Get the Roast Turkey Galette recipe.

Turkey Hash Patties

Leftover turkey and mashed potatoes become the best-ever fried breakfast patties, crisp on the outside, soft in the middle. The turkey is shredded, and diced carrot, onion, and celery give the patties a little extra crunch and flavor. Serve these topped with a fried egg and hot sauce. Get our Turkey Hash Patties recipe.

Leftover Turkey Spring Rolls

This recipe is written to use duck confit, but it works beautifully with shredded dark meat left over from Thanksgiving dinner too. These take a little work, but they taste way better than the Chinese takeout you were planning to order on Black Friday. Get our Leftover Turkey Spring Rolls recipe and adapt it as described.

Leftover Turkey and Sweet Potato Frittata

A simple frittata recipe that uses up leftover turkey and sweet potatoes, plus it includes mozzarella cheese for extra richness, but you can use gruyere if you prefer (maybe you have some left over from this savory bread pudding?). Get our Leftover Turkey and Sweet Potato Frittata recipe.

Crispy Turkey Enchiladas

These real-deal enchiladas are spicy and flavorful. Though they are more commonly made with pork or chicken, we swapped in turkey and doused it all in a Red Chile Sauce thats great to snack on with chips. Get our Crispy Turkey Enchiladas recipe.

Turkey Pad See Ew

The Thai noodle dish pad see ew is usually made with anything from beef to pork to chicken. We filled ours with turkey and won thumbs-up from our pad see ewobsessed former Multimedia Producer Meredith Arthur. Get our Turkey Pad See Ew recipe.

Turkey Tetrazzini

Leftover turkey also takes well to Italian-style noodles. It gets gussied up with bacon, mushrooms, and a creamy sauce in this dish. Get our Turkey Tetrazzini recipe.

Turkey Pot Pie

Pot pie is a common way to use up turkey, but subpar versions are often chalky, gummy, and bland. Ours starts things off right with Creamed Turkey thats good enough to eat on its own; then you pack it with vegetables, and top it with store-bought crust to avoid dough-making headaches. Get our Turkey Pot Pie recipe.

Curried Turkey Salad

Another throwback recipe that we improved upon, this salad has tartness from yogurt, sweetness from raisins, and crunch from shards of toasted coconut. It takes a minimum of effort and will renew your interest in big bird leftovers. get our Curried Turkey Salad recipe.

Turkey Posole a la Guerita

Posole is one of those slow-cooked dishes that result in a beautiful meld of flavors. Figuring that you wont want to be slaving away with your leftovers after having just orchestrated the big meal, we came up with a shortcut version we coined a la Guerita, a.k.a. white-girl style. Get our Turkey Posole a la Guerita recipe.

Turkey Mulligatawny Soup

Mulligatawny is an old Anglo-Indian dish, from the days of British rule. Its a soup with coconut milk and spices that charmed British cooks back home in Europe. Ours is a rich, heady soup, laced with spices and coconut milk, yes, but based on the leftover holiday carcass. Get our Turkey Mulligatawny Soup recipe.

Basic Turkey Stock

Last but not least, lets not underestimate the ease and deliciousness of having homemade stock. If the big day left you in a food coma, then youre probably not enticed to do much beyond clicking the remote. This stock recipe requires minimal effort and makes eight quarts, perfect for freezing and using later. Get ourBasic Turkey Stockrecipe.

Leftover Stuffing Recipe Ideas

Leftover stuffing (or dressing) is more versatile than you might think.

Baked Eggs in Stuffing Cups

Eggs baked in cheesy stuffing are the dream team of breakfasts. These individual muffin-sized delights are a knockout way to repurpose leftover stuffing. Theyre perfect for brunch the morning after Thanksgiving, especially if you have a crowd staying over. Get ourBaked Eggs in Stuffing Cups recipe. (No stuffing left? Try this Baked Eggs in Creamed Spinach recipe instead.)

Stuffing-Stuffed Mushrooms

Entertaining doesnt end when the clock strikes midnight on Thanksgiving. These give stuffing a second life and make for quick hors doeuvres when unexpected company comes knocking. Get our Stuffing-Stuffed Mushrooms recipe.

Leftover Stuffing Waffles

Another one that doesnt really require a recipe; just press some stuffing in a waffle iron for 7-10 minutes until golden and crisp on top, and pile it up with whatever you like, whether thats more leftovers or eggs and bacon.

Leftover Mashed Potato Recipe Ideas

We didnt think there was such a thing as too many mashed potatoes, but if youve gone overboard for Thanksgiving dinner, check out these ideas for the surplus spuds.

Mashed Potato Cakes

These pan-fried mashed potato cakes are crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and have a little cheese to make them even better. They work fabulously with a poached egg, or a dollop of sour cream. Get our Mashed Potato Cakes recipe.

Ground Beef Shepherds Pie

If you have leftover mashed potatoes, youre already halfway to shepherds pie. Get our Ground Beef Shepherds Pie recipe, or try a creamy Fish Pie thats also topped with a golden crust of mashers.

Leftover Sweet Potato Recipe Ideas

Sweet potato casserole may be harder to repurpose, but its not impossible.

Pecan and Sweet Potato Bread

Mashed sweet potatoes make this quick bread moistyou can simply scrape the marshmallows (or pecan streusel) off the top of your casserole before you use the rest for the batter, or substitute leftover pumpkin puree from your pie instead. Get our Pecan and Sweet Potato Bread recipe. (And try the same trick in reverse with our Spiced Pumpkin Pecan Pancake recipe, swapping in mashed sweet potato for the pumpkin puree.)

Sweet Potato and Chinese Sausage Fritters with Sriracha Aioli

This fantastic fritter recipe from the Myers + Chang at Home cookbook is super adaptable and even easier to make when you already have mashed sweet potato on hand. You can swap in bacon if you dont have Chinese sausage, or just use scallion. Just dont skip the Sriracha aioli for dipping. Get the Sweet Potato and Chinese Sausage Fritters with Sriracha Aioli recipe.

Sweet Potato Hash

If you have leftover cubed sweet potatoesor butternut squash, or roasted Brussels sproutsyou can use them for a hash. There really arent any rules here: If you can throw it in a skillet and crack an egg on it, youre ready to eat. Get our Sweet Potato Hash recipe. (But see this Brussels Sprouts Hash recipe too to see what we mean about how flexible this one is.)

Leftover Cranberry Sauce Recipe Ideas

Homemade cranberry sauce is superior to canned, and thats true when it comes to using up leftovers too.

Cranberry Sauce Cocktails

All self-respecting cranberry sauces are sweet, tart, and fruity, and that works as a fabulous foundation for cocktails, whether you make a simple cranberry sauce sangria as per the video above, mix up a Peninsular War Cocktail with Cognac, or a Cranberry Culprit Cocktail with bourbon and amaretto.

Cranberry Shortbread Bars with Almond Streusel

If youre up for more baking after tackling a plethora of pies, try this recipe for cranberry shortbread bars, which will freeze well and make a great post-Thanksgiving snack. Just use your leftover cranberry sauce as a shortcut. Get our Cranberry Shortbread Bars with Almond Streusel recipe.

Frozen Yogurt with Cranberry Swirl

Or adapt this easy froyo recipe, which is even easier when you already have cranberry sauce on handjust skip straight to step two and swirl your cranberry sauce into the yogurt instead of the blackberries. If your sauce is a bit too tart, add a touch more sugar first, and maybe a splash of vanilla. Get our Easy Frozen Yogurt recipe.

Leftover Gravy Recipe Ideas

Leftover gravy isnt just for ladling over hot turkey sandwiches. It can also be a flavorful base for stews and pot pie fillings or a great sauce for meatballs to swim in, but our very favorite use for it pays homage to our Canadian neighbors.

Poutine

Traditional poutine calls for beef gravy, but if youve got leftover turkey gravy, its equally great poured over crisp fries and melty cheese curds. Add shredded turkey to it if you have leftover meat.

New Orleans Boozy Broth Cocktail

Yes, we went there. Yes, this is a warm, savory beer cocktail with gravy in it. Because why should cranberry sauce get to have all the boozy fun?

Leftover Pie Recipe Ideas

Leftoverpie? Is that a real thing? Do you need recommendations on how to turn it into something else when its already perfect? While this may be one of the least useful leftover ideas, perhaps even more mind-boggling than a gravy cocktail, we love it because it may also be the most indulgent. And thats what matters this holiday season, no?

Pumpkin Spice Milkshakes

While no one complains about leftover pumpkin pie, lets mess with it anyway and chuck entire pie slices into the blender (instead of just pumpkin pure, as this recipe calls for). Go nuts and try it with pecan pie too. Get our Pumpkin Spice Milkshakes recipe.

Related Reading: How to Make Drinks from Thanksgiving Leftovers

For more Thanksgiving tips, hacks, and recipes, check out ourUltimate Thanksgiving Guide, and see our Ultimate Friendsgiving Guide too.

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