15 Thanksgiving Leftover Recipes That Turn Scraps Into Seriously Good Next-Day Meals

Stuffing Waffles

A Belgian waffle iron maximizes the crispy, crunchy bits that are the best part of stuffing. You could serve these with maple syrup like regular waffles or use gravy to play up the Thanksgiving theme, but the best idea is to use both.

Waffled Mashed Potatoes With Bacon, Scallion, and Cheddar

Roast Turkey Soup

If you don't want to re-roast your turkey, this simple soup has a great flavor-to-effort ratio. All you have to do is simmer the carcass in chicken stock, then add bacon, onions, carrots, and celery. You can add in other leftovers, too—a little gravy will thicken the soup nicely.

Sweet Potato Pancakes Made With Leftover Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Mashed sweet potatoes are tough to reheat without losing their creamy texture or worse, scorching them and winding up with a sticky mess on the bottom of the pan. Here, we rescue them by mixing them with milk, eggs, flour, and a few more ingredients to make a pancake batter. Sour cream adds enough tang to balance the sweetness of the spuds, while baking powder and baking soda help with rising and browning.

White Chili With Roast Turkey

Have leftover roast poultry on your hands? Put it to use in this simple white-bean stew flavored with a potent mix of jalapeños, Poblanos, and roasted Hatch chilies. Keeping it easy, we use canned beans here and dump them straight into the pot along with all of their starchy liquid, which helps give the chili some extra body.

Thanksgiving Turkey Reuben Sandwich

Thanksgiving dinner meets deli classic in this turkey Reuben. We pair pulled turkey meat with gravy-spiked Russian dressing and a tangy sweet and sour cranberry sauce-sauerkraut mixture. It's all smothered in melted Swiss cheese and sandwiched between two slices of toasty, buttery rye bread.

Gỏi Gà Bắp Cải (Vietnamese Chicken and Cabbage Salad)

Swap out the chicken for turkey in this classic Vietnamese salad with crunchy cabbage, sweet carrot, pickled onion, fresh herbs, and crispy toppings.

Thanksgiving Leftovers Grilled Cheese

If you've never loaded food straight from the fridge onto bread, you've never really experienced Thanksgiving. But if you have had plenty of experience with the classic leftovers sandwich and want something more elevated, try pairing your leftovers with cheddar and griddling up a golden-brown grilled cheese.

Roast Turkey and Black Bean Quesadillas

Turkey is a traditional ingredient in Mexican cooking, so it's no stretch to make Mexican or Tex-Mex food with your leftovers. Here, that means quesadillas, which we stuff with roast turkey, black beans, and grated cheese, plus bright pickled jalapeños and fresh cilantro leaves.

15-Minute Turkey Enchiladas

Don't feel like making a whole casserole full of enchiladas the day after Thanksgiving? If you're just cooking for two, try these skillet enmoladas instead. They're super easy—all you have to do is roll up a few tortillas with turkey and store-bought mole, bake them in a pan, and serve with salsa.

Leftover Turkey "Carnitas"

You might be tempted to throw away the carcass after making turkey stock, but there is probably some super-tender meat left on the bones. Rather than letting it go to waste, pick it off and crisp it up in a skillet to make a dead ringer for carnitas—the resulting tacos will be as tasty as anything you ate on Thanksgiving Day.

Hot and Numbing Sichuan-Style Turkey Salad

Inspired by Bang Bang chicken, this spicy turkey salad is tossed in a dressing seasoned with Sichuan peppercorns, toasty sesame paste, and hot chili oil. Topped with slivered scallions and served on its own or sandwiched between a couple pieces of bread, it's guaranteed to catapult you past turkey palate fatigue.

Brown Turkey Stock

You are making stock with the leftover turkey carcass, right? Simply simmering the bird in water with vegetables will make for a fine stock, but for the deepest, richest flavor, try roasting the bones and browning the vegetables first. We also like to add just a couple tablespoons of tomato paste to give the stock an extra savory note.

Taiwanese Turkey Rice

You probably don't associate turkey with Asian cooking, but in Taiwan, it's traditional to use turkey in a dish very similar to better-known Singaporean chicken rice. Generally, the dish is made with steamed turkey, but leftover roast turkey works, too. If you thought ahead to save the pan drippings when you cooked the bird, you can use them to make a savory sauce.

Turkey Paitan Ramen With Crispy Turkey and Soft-Cooked Egg

Love cooking so much that you want to spend all day Friday in the kitchen, too? It's a bit of a project, but slow-cooking leftover turkey meat and bones with aromatics and charred vegetables makes a wonderfully rich and creamy paitan-style ramen broth. The meat used to make the broth is going to be way overcooked, so we add fresh drumsticks for a few hours to cook them, shred the meat, then crisp it up like we do in our turkey carnitas recipe.