What to do with leftover Turkey
I made my first Thanksgiving turkey this year and thanks to a great recipe and thermometer it was great... but I bought a turkey that was way to big, and now I have tons of leftovers!
What are all the more experienced Turkey Day preparers doing with their leftover??
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16 Comments:
Turkey is only good for about 3 days (in the fridge) after it's been cooked, so I would throw it out if I were you. I made curried turkey salad with mine, but it was gone by that night.
caramel at 1:18PM on 12/01/08
I disagree. You can still use it. Just make sure it is thoroughly cooked. There is a great thread on this site for turkey soup, which is a great way to use the carcass and lots of the meat.
http://www.seriouseats.com/talk/2008/11/tgiving-turkey-soupwhats-yours-like.html
You could also use it to make turkey pot pie or turkey in mole sauce.
izzy's mama at 1:22PM on 12/01/08
Yeah, you're turkey is getting old...make pot pie with it and eat today at the latest...
sailordave at 1:23PM on 12/01/08
"your" :-/
sailordave at 1:24PM on 12/01/08
My husband has to know these things for his job and has to to take food safety tests twice a year.
The general rule for meat - it will safely keep for about 3 days, provided that the meat was thoroughly cooked; it was not left in the "danger zone" temperatures of between 140°F (60°C) and 40°F (4°C) for more than two hours; and the refrigerator is kept below 40°F (4°C).
If any of this is not done, the storage time will be reduced, and the risk of food-borne illness will greatly increase.
caramel at 1:36PM on 12/01/08
What my mom made: turkey stock, turkey rice porridge (jook), turkey curry with leftover carrots and potatoes, turkey tofu skin rolls with mung bean threads, bamboo shoots, wood ear fungus, and carrots braised in turkey broth thickened with a bit of cornstarch.
We froze a lot of the curry and the tofu skin rolls for later meals.
manda at 1:52PM on 12/01/08
We keep ours for about 5ish days in the refrigerator. As for leftover turkey ideas, I put together a compilation of 20 Leftover Turkey Recipes that will hopefully help! In it you will find recipes for turkey sandwiches, soups, salads and more. Hope it helps!
Hillary
Chew on That
Chew on That at 2:25PM on 12/01/08
We had a ton of turkey left, too. I used the foodsaver to seal half a turkey breast and both thighs & drummies. On Friday I cooked the carcass and wings with some veg trimmings to make a pot of stock. Simmered, strained, saved any meat, and froze the stock. Today, I'm making turkey pot pie. I'm also considering white chili, turkey enchiladas, or tortilla soup if the mood strikes.
@manda--your tofu skin rolls sound really, really good. Care to elaborate a bit on the process?
wookie at 2:45PM on 12/01/08
Maybe take a look at the site and peruse the list of links Erin posted right here on Serious Eats: A Guide to Leftover Thanksgiving Recipes?
That said, turkey pot pie is delicious, economical, easy to make, freezes very well, and is nice to have on hand in the freezer for last-minute company or food gifts (housewarming, new baby, funeral, etc.).
LoCo at 3:13PM on 12/01/08
I made two pot pies for the freezer and for dinner we had turkey and dumplings...same base as the pot pies only brothier (is that a word?) and some simple herbed drop dumplings...went surprisingly well with a bottle of 2003 Osoyoos Larose.
I also recall how much I loved Turkey Tetrazzini when I was in college...all that starch! Loved it with a mixed green salad with a bright vinaigrette.
wookie at 9:44PM on 12/01/08
I made turkey croquettes. turkey stuffing string beans an onion and a carrot all in the pool, in this case food processor together along with leftovermashed spuds. chill scoop bread shallow fry scoop of cranberry ontop. yowzah
small kitchen big view............
Amer5858 at 11:49PM on 12/01/08
Freeze some of it then make all sorts or things with it. Stirfrys, wraps, sandwiches, soups, stews , grind it for burgers, turkey loaf , turkey balls.
pjracz10 at 3:13AM on 12/02/08
mmmm....TURKEY POT PIE......mmmmmm..... how much pot should I use?
Pavlov at 8:51AM on 12/02/08
@pavlov lol
pjracz10 at 12:41PM on 12/02/08
@wookie - I knew I should have documented the process!
Basically, she takes leftover bits and pieces of turkey meat (dark, white - it's all good) and stir-fries it with mung bean threads, sliced fresh or rehydrated shiitake mushrooms, julienned carrots and bamboo shoots, and slivered wood ear mushroom with a bit of soy sauce, oyster sauce, and fresh black pepper.
She cuts bean curd sheets/tofu skins into squares and rolls some of the stuffing egg roll style. (The little leftover pieces of skin go into the pressure cooker for an extra smooth jook.) Instead of deep-frying the rolls as dim sum restaurants do, she lightly pan fries the edges to seal and brown. These rolls are braised in some turkey stock or chicken stock mixed with a bit of cornstarch, oyster sauce, and soy sauce. Delicious served over rice and far less greasy than dim sum restaurants. The rolls are a bit loose than meat ones found in restos but on par with veggie ones.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tofu_skin
manda at 12:42PM on 12/02/08
And THIS is why I always shie away from having turkey as the primary meat for a Thanksgiving DAy meal: you keep eating it and eating it and eating it until it turns on you, or you turn on the turkey and covertly feed it to the dog and cat. (YES, in the early years of my marriage, I confess! My wife would get a close-to-20-pound turkey, and we'd have leftovers for what seemed eternity. (And of course, most was just white meat, which is my not-favorite, so after a while I was loathe to want to partake of the latest leftover dish.)
But... WHY? HOW did I become such a turkey when it comes to turkeys? Well...
Growing up, turkey leftovers were never a problem because my aunt, mother and grandmother would be cooking for an average family sit-down of 35 to 40 people (over the course of the day). Standard Italian feeding rules remained in effect: you got a soup course, a couple of macaroni courses, and a vegetable course before the Big Bird was brought in (well, in our case, it was Big Birds), accompanied by a huge ham or lamb roast. Whatever was left over from the mat courses, every aunt/uncle family that came, got a bunch of tin-foil-wrapped meats to take home. (No, we didn't send off packages of macaroni. It was rare for us to part w/ any leftover macaroni - generally manicotti or lasagna - and that's assuming there WAS much leftover macaroni, which never really happened.)
So where was I? Oh, yeah: my rule of thumb is to always go under @ the turkey weight (or buy a small one and add an extra breast). That way you're more likely to have leftovers that you can appreciate - I really enjoy cold turkey sandwiches (well, as long as they're filled w/ dark meat, anyway) on bread slathered w/ cranberry sauce. (MMMmmmmm!!!)
And the bonus is, you won't have to worry @ leftovers hanging around so long that you have to waste them.
Robbo at 10:32PM on 12/05/08