Quiche makes an outstanding leftover.
Thanksgiving produces the best leftovers, IMO, so: mashed potatoes, turkey, stuffing, yams… YUM.
Chili verde.
Gumbo.
Leftover stew gets turned into noodles-with-stew-bits.
Leftover squid or cuttlefish in its own ink get turned into black rice.
There is no such thing as leftover takeout Chinese - any order of Chinese takeout is a multiple-meals order.
Chili
Chopped brisket
Fried chicken
Thanksgiving leftovers are my favorite. When cleaning up after dinner I make up individual ‘tv dinners’ and store them in the fridge (not the freezer). For the next couple/few days I have plates of tasty food that require no more effort than taking plates out of the fridge and nuking them for a few minutes. I like to make a traditional Thanksgiving menu 2-3 times a year partly because of the effortless leftovers.
Mmmmm. Especially lightly heated in a toaster oven.
You can put leftover turkey and gravy in plastic bags, in single servings, remove all the air, and freeze. I’ve never had much luck with freezing mashed potatoes or dressing, but it’s easy to make some rice or mashed potatoes, warm up the turkey and gravy, and enjoy it that way.
Red beans and rice.
Rice pilaf. I purposely make a huge batch so we can have leftovers later in the week. Bonus: it also freezes extremely well, so I also put away about three dinners’ worth frozen in individual ziploc bags. A bag will heat up in about 90 seconds.
Chicken enchilada casserole. Freshly made, it’s saucy and crisp around the edges. Leftover, it’s soft and tender, almost like a savory bread pudding.
Yum. Now I have to make a chicken enchilada casserole.
While I could eat leftover meatloaf all the time, my kids never would.
Sometimes as meatloaf with fresh veggies, or new made mashed taters.
Sliced for sammiches with mustard on good bread always worked.
You have to use leftover meatloaf in sandwiches. It’s a law or something.
I love roasted (winter) or barbecued (summer) vegetables. Peppers, onions, zukes, eggplant, mushrooms are my go-to veggies, served the first night alongside whatever else I’ve grilled, usually meat or marinated tofu.
Day two, I love them on a tortilla heated until the cheese on top gets all melty and then with salsa and maybe a little cilantro, lettuce and tomato on top, too. Dollop of sour cream and I’m in heaven.
When I had a big rice cooker I used to make a whole pot. I’d freeze containers and use them in recipes. It’s easy to make rice pudding, for example, if you have rice in the freezer. Then my rice cooker passed away.
I never seem to be able to make enough meatloaf to have leftovers, unless I make about five pounds of it.
Stunned that curry has not been mentioned. Like chili the spices really develop best when left overnight.
<TriPolar does some rapid calculations in his head. Realizes they are wrong and recalculates. Can’t figure out how he got it wrong in the first place, forgets what his recalculation was, tries it again, then decides to hell with it.>
That sounds about correct. I typically make meatloaf with 3 pounds of meat. With other ingredients it has to be at least four pounds. Until the kids left there weren’t many leftovers.
Curry is a popular dish in Australia and Britain. But it’s still considered relatively exotic in America. It’s not thought of as a “common” meal like chili or meatloaf or pizza or chinese food would be so it doesn’t get associated with leftovers.
Ah that explains the absence. Curry is awesome and very worth trying. 
I like Indian food and I happen to live in an area where it’s relatively easy to get.
But it’s a whole different context in America. I’ll see a British show where some lower-class character will be eating curry as part of a late night bar crawl and that would be ridiculous in America. In America if you were out drinking with your buddies, you’d all decide to stop for pizza or tacos or hamburgers. If you suggested stopping for curry, you’d get dumbfounded looks. And you wouldn’t find anyplace that was serving curry late at night anyway.
In general, foods where you want some time for the flavors to blend do quite well as leftovers. As mentioned, soups, stews, spaghetti sauce, chili, rice-and-whatever dishes, casseroles of various sorts, and I would assume curries, though (see below) I’ve never had leftover curry to test this theory with. Pizza and lasagna are also kind of on the edge of this group too.
I’m much more partial to meatloaf fresh from the oven than heated up the next day, but apparently that’s just me.
Thanksgiving dinner leftovers seem to be a poor fit for being good as leftovers, but they’re great. The best part of hosting Thanksgiving dinner is being able to eat the leftovers all weekend. By Saturday evening, my wife is tired of Thanksgiving food and is ready to move on. Not me. I’ll be taking a turkey sandwich along for lunch at work the following Monday.
This. While I love curries of various nationalities, it’s something I eat at a restaurant, rather than cook at home. And when I’ve eaten Indian or Thai curry at a restaurant, I’ve never had any leftovers to bring home. That bowl of Thai green curry is gone.