Healthy Leftover Turkey Recipes That are Easy to Make

Cooking an entire turkey can be challenging but rewarding. This is why most people do it once a year on Thanksgiving. We are often left with food on Black Friday. We can put that food to good use with some healthy leftover turkey recipes.

These delicious and healthy leftover turkey recipes are perfect to put those turkey leftovers to good use! The entire family will enjoy these meals! We buy turkeys based on the average number of pounds a person can eat.

For example, people eat an average of 1-1.5 pounds of turkey, so a 10-pound turkey should be enough for 6, maybe 7 people. Unfortunately, not everyone has the same appetite; the best we can do is use averages.

This means there is almost a guarantee that we will have leftover Thanksgiving turkey. The most common thing to do with Thanksgiving leftovers is to make sandwiches.

We can even put that cranberry sauce to good use in these sandwiches; they are easy recipes. However, we don’t have to stick to sandwiches. In fact, we can transform that turkey in tasty ways using exciting, healthy recipes.

We just enjoyed a big meal with all the fixings. Why would we want the same flavors on repeat for a week? We may not be able to put that cranberry sauce to use without a sandwich, but that leftover turkey meat is the best part, anyway.

We can find new favorite ways to use those leftovers with these healthy leftover turkey recipes.

Healthy Leftover Turkey Recipes

We don’t have much of a problem with leftover chicken since it can often be enjoyed as is with just a little reheating. Turkey is an entirely different situation since there is so much left over.

These recipes help us use that leftover turkey in new ways. Some of those ways are extreme, like in a turkey tetrazzini recipe. Tetrazzini is one of the pasta bakes to avoid the casserole dish and breathe new life into the turkey.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with a good casserole. In fact, there are super simple ways to ditch the sweet potatoes from Thanksgiving and swap them out with noodles in a leftover turkey and noodles recipe!

We can go extreme or simple; either way, these recipes will give us a great way to use those leftovers.

Quick Leftover Turkey Recipes

A turkey casserole and tetrazzini are delicious and don’t take much effort. We want to keep things in that lane, nice and easy with simple ingredients. Leftover turkey casseroles are the perfect way to get that done, but so is a delicious white bean turkey chili recipe.

That Thanksgiving dinner is far in the rearview now with a leftover turkey chili recipe. We can use all that meat, even if there are loads of leftover turkey. White meat, dark meat, it won’t matter in a bowl of chili.

Serve the chili over white rice, and you have a complete meal. Though not all of the quick recipes are hot dishes, some are cold. We can make a quick turkey salad recipe, similar to chicken salad, but with turkey instead.

This salad recipe is one of the healthy things we can turn leftovers into, but not the only one. We can fit many of these recipes into a healthy diet.

Best Ways to Use Leftover Turkey

Having multiple healthy leftover turkey recipes helps us find new favorite leftover recipes. Bonus points if we can fit them into a healthy lifestyle. Of course, we want the recipes to be delicious recipes, like in this effortless leftover turkey soup recipe.

Soups can go a long way if you freeze them, extending the turkey meat’s shelf life. Warm yourself up with some cozy soup any night of the week. Soups and stews can extend the life of the meat by allowing us to refreeze without losing the flavor.

Consider it an entirely new recipe, even if it uses leftover turkey. Another recipe that can be used similarly is this turkey and dumplings recipe. Turkey and dumplings ends up tasting very similarly to turkey pot pie.

We could make a turkey pot pie itself, but making it this way reduces the risk of a burnt mouth.

Creative Turkey Recipes

We have turned leftover turkey into pasta bakes, soups, and even salads, but what about something with a main dish vibe? Something a little more creative? Luckily, there are healthy leftover turkey recipes that should definitely be considered main dishes.

We can make turkey enchiladas with this very easy and tasty leftover turkey enchiladas recipe. The enchilada sauce adds a ton of unique flavor to the turkey. That should be the goal of a main dish recipe.

We want our main dishes to be packed with flavor so we can pair them well enough with sides. After all, we want to save the sides for the Thanksgiving dinner sandwiches.

We can still have one or two leftover sandwiches, but with recipes like leftover turkey curry, why would you want one?

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