Our 27 Best Thanksgiving Leftover Recipes
Published Nov. 27, 2019Updated Nov. 25, 2025
Once you’ve had your fill of standard Thanksgiving-on-a-roll type sandwiches, make something that tastes absolutely nothing like the holiday. Below are 27 recipes that transform your leftover turkey, stuffing, potatoes, vegetables, cranberry sauce and more into something delightful and new.
View our collections of recipes for Thanksgiving leftovers and recipes for leftover turkey for more ideas.
Credit…Nico Schinco for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Kaitlin Wayne.
Fried rice is a quick and easy solution to leftovers fatigue. All you need is some leftover rice, turkey, that bag of frozen vegetables from the back of your freezer, soy sauce and eggs. Or, depending on your holiday sides, Kia Damon suggests using whatever you have on hand — green beans, corn and carrots would be perfect.
Recipe: Turkey Fried Rice
Credit…Nico Schinco for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Kaitlin Wayne.
Pozole rojo is an excellent way to feed a lot of people through the long weekend while using up any leftover turkey. Kristina Felix enriches leftover turkey broth (homemade or store-bought) with dried guajillo, pasilla and arbol chiles. Serve the warming soup alongside tostadas and toppings like chopped onion, cilantro, shredded cabbage, lime wedges and radish slices, and let everyone do their thing.
Recipe: Leftover-Turkey Pozole
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For her prized leftovers sandwich, Sohla El-Waylly treats both the white and dark meat with care: The breast is warmed in butter, while the dark meat is shredded and then warmed in gravy. The turkey is layered atop a slab of crisp, fried stuffing, your remaining assorted leftovers and a generous swipe of cranberry mayo.
Recipe: Best Thanksgiving Leftovers Sandwich
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If lightness is what you seek post-holiday, make Samin Nosrat’s play on pho gà, the classic Vietnamese chicken noodle soup. The clear broth, spiced with star anise and ginger and seasoned with fish sauce, is paired with rice noodles and a platter of fresh garnishes like cilantro, Thai basil, bean sprouts, jalapeños and lime wedges.
Recipe: Turkey Pho
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If foods taste good together on your Thanksgiving plate, they’ll taste good baked into a pocket. J. Kenji López-Alt wraps his leftovers in store-bought pizza dough and bakes it all together with shredded Parmesan or a few slices of Swiss cheese to create a hand-held treat that’s somewhere between a calzone and one of those Costco chicken bakes.
Recipe: Thanksgiving Leftovers Hot Pockets
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These scones, adapted by the historian Eleanor Barnett from a 1940s British wartime pamphlet, use leftover mashed potatoes. There’s less of a rise, since potatoes lack gluten, but the extra starch gives them a soft and delightfully tender crumb.
Recipe: Potato Pete’s Potato Scones
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The classic grilled cheese sandwich gets a holiday upgrade with the addition of leftover cranberry sauce. Dan Pelosi recommends pairing the sweet and tart condiment with mild or sharp Cheddar, but any cheese would work. Adding in a layer of Dijon mustard and, of course, a few slices of turkey, is also a great idea.
Recipe: Cranberry Grilled Cheese
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Sarah DiGregorio’s recipe is the perfect vehicle for all your Thanksgiving leftovers: turkey, of course, but also whatever leftover vegetables you have on hand, cooked or fresh. Any remaining fresh soft herbs can go into the biscuit topping (which you can also swap for store-bought dough or frozen puff pastry).
Recipe: Turkey Potpie
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Alexa Weibel’s stuffed mushrooms replace Italian bread crumbs with cornbread, but if you’re lucky enough to have leftover Thanksgiving stuffing, use that instead! You can turn these into a vegetarian main by using large portobello mushrooms instead of two-bite cremini mushrooms.
Recipe: Stuffing-Stuffed Mushrooms
Credit…Rikki Snyder for The New York Times
“I spent three days cooking Thanksgiving dinner for eight guests and their comments, ‘Remember that turkey masala you made last year? Can you make it again?’ It was clearly memorable enough to surmount an heirloom turkey, eight side dishes, four appetizers, two pies, a cake, two homemade ice creams and Champagne. Yep. That good.” Needless to say, Samin Nosrat’s recipe for turkey tikka masala is a reader favorite.
Recipe: Turkey Tikka Masala
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If you find yourself with too many mashed potatoes — it’s a common problem, and mashed potatoes don’t reheat well — make shepherd’s pie. This recipe from Samantha Seneviratne features a combination of ground lamb and ground beef, but she also has a delicious vegetarian version.
Recipe: Shepherd’s Pie
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For Chad and Chase Valencia, brothers and owners of the Filipino restaurant Lasa, in Los Angeles, the best time to make this classic Filipino breakfast is the morning after Thanksgiving. Seared leftover turkey with gravy sits on a bed of garlicky rice, which is then topped with a fried egg.
Recipe: Turkey Silog (Garlic Fried Rice With Eggs)
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Swirl the last spoonful of Thanksgiving cranberry sauce into a creamy, cooling mix of whipped heavy cream and Greek yogurt. Use it in place of plain whipped cream atop slices of pie for a tart contrast.
Recipe: Cranberries and Cream
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Dan Pelosi’s turkey meatballs use cubed bread as their binder, but leftover stuffing works great. If you’re turkey-ed out, feel free to swap ground turkey with chicken or pork. Serve with leftover gravy and cranberry sauce, stuffed inside a sandwich or on top of a salad.
Recipe: Turkey Stuffing Meatballs
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Rick A. Martínez makes a quick birria consomé, flavored with canned fire-roasted tomatoes, dried chiles and spices, for his leftover turkey. Warm some tortillas and, if you have any leftover cranberry sauce, throw in some onion, serrano chiles, garlic and lime, and you’ve got yourself a Thanksgiving salsa.
Recipe: Birria de Pavo (Turkey Birria)
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Sohla El-Waylly mashes leftover stuffing with a splash of turkey stock, eggs, flour and baking powder to make these tender dumplings. She uses the turkey carcass to make a simple bone broth, which she then loads up with kale and cubed sweet potato before dropping in dollops of the stuffing-dumpling mix.
Recipe: Stuffing Dumpling Soup
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Casseroles are always a good idea. This Thanksgiving leftovers enchilada pie from Margaux Laskey is ridiculously easy (it calls for store-bought enchilada sauce). You can tuck leftover turkey, greens, sweet potatoes and even cornbread stuffing in between the tortillas. Paired with this leftover cranberry sauce salsa, it hits the spot.
Recipe: Thanksgiving Leftovers Enchilada Pie
Credit…Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.
Shredded or chopped leftover turkey is mixed into this creamy, cheesy spaghetti casserole from Sarah DiGregorio. The curry powder is optional, but it adds a delicious flair to the dish. Pile it in bowls, sit on the couch and watch your first holiday movie of the season.
Recipe: Turkey Tetrazzini
Credit…David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
For Sohla El-Waylly, the best way to reheat leftover stuffing is by pressing it into a pan, cutting it into cubes and frying until crisp. Serve the cubes as croutons atop a fresh salad with a tangy cranberry-mustard vinaigrette.
Recipe: Stuffing Panzanella With Cranberry Vinaigrette
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Sue Li’s crispy but delicate fritters are a riff on pajeon, savory Korean pancakes that are a great way to use up leftover vegetables. Here, leftover turkey and fresh green beans are featured, along with more common pajeon ingredients like scallions and kimchi.
Recipe: Turkey Kimchi Pancakes
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This barbecue sandwich from Melissa Clark is incredibly easy to throw together, which is exactly what you want after the cooking marathon that is Thanksgiving. It’s perfect for dark turkey meat and any scraps you may have leftover from the carcass.
Recipe: Turkey BBQ Sandwiches With Pickles and Slaw
Credit…Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
These American Southwest-inspired enchiladas from Rick A. Martínez are low effort, high reward. Swap the shredded chicken for leftover turkey, use premade (or canned) enchilada sauce, store-bought tortillas and shredded cheese. That’s dinner on the table in about an hour.
Recipe: Chicken Enchiladas
Credit…Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
Chicken noodle soup, Thanksgiving leftovers edition. Make roasted turkey stock with the turkey bones and then throw together a big pot of this simple, comforting soup from Lidey Heuck that makes use of leftover turkey and any extra onion, celery or carrots you have lying around.
Recipe: Turkey Soup
Credit…David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
Rick A. Martínez trades spit-roasted pork for leftover turkey in this brilliant recipe. The smoky sauce features canned chipotles in adobo to evoke the classic al pastor flavors. Serve as tacos with cranberry pineapple salsa.
Recipe: Pavo al Pastor (Sweet and Smoky Shredded Turkey)
Credit…Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.
This recipe from Melissa Clark, which features leftover turkey, leans toward the heartier, stick-to-your-ribs side of the soup spectrum. Chickpeas and farro give it a stewlike texture, and baharat (or garam masala or curry powder) gives it a fragrant, unforgettable flavor.
Recipe: Turkey, Farro and Chickpea Soup
Credit…David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.
The author Joan Didion’s leftovers hash couldn’t be simpler: Coarsely shredded turkey is tossed with gravy, chopped parsley and cooked celery and onion. The casserole mixture is then put in a shallow baking dish, topped with freshly grated Parmesan and baked until bubbly and golden brown.
Recipe: Turkey Hash
Credit…Andrew Purcell for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.
In Melissa Clark’s Thanksgiving take on a Cubano, dill pickles are mixed with spicy pickled pepperoncini before being layered with Swiss cheese, deli ham or prosciutto and leftover turkey. No sandwich press required, this Cubano is toasted in the oven between two heated sheet pans topped by a cast-iron skillet.
Recipe: Turkey Cubano
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