I could eat leftover stuffing and gravy for weeks, if it lasted that long. Leftover turkey and potatoes are okay, but not great.
What the hell is wrong with you people? You’re supposed to eat your dry turkey and gloppy, congealed gravy and canned cranberries and *like *it! It’s a tradition, goddammit!
It’s hard to condense it. I think Paul Prudhomme’s recipe is classic, and it’s up on Food Network’s web site. Just google it.
Our you could just post the link. That’s actually a video and it plays right away so watch your volume. I didn’t find an actual recipe on Food Network but there are some on Chef Paul’s site.
I generally don’t like most Thanksgiving foods the first time around. Turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, and sweet potatoes are all things I don’t eat. At our house for Thanksgiving we do a ham and a turkey breast or turkey legs for my husband, mashed potatoes, carrots, regular green beans, creamed corn, and a small pan of cornbread stuffing for my husband. And pie, of course! It makes the leftovers much more fun if you actually lke the food to begin with.
What is this dry turkey everybody keeps talking about? If your turkey is dry, you are doing something wrong. Here’s an easy way to get a moist turkey: stuff the turkey with apples and onions cut into quarters. You can add some celery, too, if you like. As the turkey cooks, the apples and onions will steam it from the inside and add their flavor. You can eat them, too, but they are mostly to add moisture and flavor to the bird. If you like bread stuffing, do some in a separate pan with broth made from the neck and giblets.
I’ve done the injecting thing. I have, and use, a turkey frier. These things do give good results but are beyond what people who don’t enjoy cooking are willing to do, especially on a holiday with a house full of people.
Brine the turkey (not strictly necessary, but not difficult). Season the outside of the bird. Stuff with apples and onions. Shove it in the oven. It doesn’t get much easier than that.
You don’t even have to go to that much trouble. Cook the damn turkey upside down (breast down) and the dryness thing is over. All the basting juice runs down INTO the breast meat instead of running down FROM it.
Yum, I always look forward to the day after Thanksgiving almost more than the main meal. My mom makes turkey Mornay which is AWESOME. Basically it’s like this: make stuffing and spread on the bottom of a cake pan, cover that with leftover turkey, cover that with Mornay sauce, cayenne pepper, paprika and bake.
Add me to the “I love Thanksgiving leftovers” list. And at least half, maybe 2/3 of the leftovers will accompany my daughters when they leave.
lots of that food tastes better a day or two later. either don’t eat any of it and have it all as leftovers or cook the meal a day or two early and save it.
safe – its a pizza hut commercial
I’m on my phone from wirk, so I’m not going to sit here and try to search, copy, and paste in the URL window. If pointing you in the right direction isn’t good enough, then I’m not going to lose any sleep.
Not me. Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday, both in the general sense, and in terms of food. There’s just so many things you can make with the leftovers: turkey sandwiches, turkey soup, pot pie, a “turkey & dumplings” kind of thing, pasta dishes like tetrazzini, tacos, turkey salad, turkey-based shepherd’s pie, etc. You’re really only limited by your imagination. And that’s just the turkey.
Thanksgiving really is pretty much the only holiday I really, really look forward to.
We’re doing turkey enchiladas on Friday.
I like the leftovers better than the original meal. I love the Friday turkey sandwich. I will now share the method for the BEST sandwich. Accept no substitutes.
Dark Rye bread.
*Romaine *Lettuce
Sliced Onion
Sliced Pepperoncini
Swiss Cheese
Mayo (miracle whip is fine)
Turkey
I do that, and use an oven bag (I don’t care how the skin comes out). Oven bags are a wonderful invention.
No Thanksgiving leftovers here this year, and I miss them. May just have to do a small-scale turkey/stuffing/mashed potato/gravy deal (DH doesn’t like turkey, and we don’t live anywhere near any relatives, so no point doing the big meal).
I love 'em too, but as others have pointed out, it helps if the meal is foods you like to start out with. A few people have mentioned greenbean casserole, and over the last five years or so “they” seem to be promoting the notion that EVERYONE has this on Thanksgiving and always has. It aint so. We never had it. Pillsbury crescent rolls, either.
Since I almost never host Thanksgiving, but buy enough groceries to earn a free turkey I typically fix a turkey dinner with stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, and some vegetables in the last week of December.
Don’t cook turkey any more, but while we enjoyed two days of leftovers (sandwiches, pot pies) - on the third day without fail, we tossed it all out and ordered pizza. (Being a thrifty sort, I would try and salvage some turkey to cover with gravy and then freeze. But usually it was the gamey tough dark meat, and no one liked it, so it was kind of useless.)
Personally, I find turkey to be vile, but next day stuffing is awesome!
And so, I’m making a large dish of dressing and cooking a small(er) duck.
What we do is get all the meat off the bird and freeze that until we’re ready. Leftover turkey is great for enchiladas.