Still have turkey? Here are 5 non-boring things you can still do with it

After several days of turkey-and-gravy bowls, you might be up for something different, amiright?

Here are 5 non-boring strategies to make use of whatever turkey (and the carcass!) you still have in your fridge:

Strategy #1: Shred it and freeze it

The lifespan of leftover turkey in your fridge is somewhere between 4-7 days (depending on the temps in your fridge, how many times the door is opened, how long it sat out before being refrigerated, etc etc etc). So a good strategy is to shred the rest and freeze it on Monday - that's today!

Store it wrapped tightly (eg in a plastic zipper bag with all the air squeezed out) and label it. Trust me on this - unlabeled food in the freezer never looks like something you'll want to eat.

(If your plastic zipper bags aren't "freezer bags," you should double-bag them to protect from frost and freezer burn.)

Then just take what you need from the freezer to make each meal. Do this once a week or so until you're out of turkey (so no one gets tired of it). Bam!

Strategy #2: Add these to your lunch rotation:

Use your turkey in place of chicken in these lettuce wraps on your work-from-home days. You could make the peanut sauce (about 5 minutes) and cook the noodles (another 5 minutes) the night before. Or make things even quicker by skipping the noodles and just making your wraps from the turkey and veggie ingredients:

(That gorgeous photo of Lettuce Wraps is by the infinitely talented Deborah Guzmán Meyer )

Here's an elevated turkey sandwich that also uses your leftover cranberry sauce (score!). If you pull the pre-shredded turkey straight out of the freezer to make the sandwich in the morning it should be ready to eat by lunchtime:

Strategy #3: Use the shredded turkey in place of chicken to make a nice dinner:

With canned enchilada sauce and refried beans, and your pre-cooked, shredded turkey, this is a doable weeknight dinner. You can eliminate one onion along with the next 7 ingredients on the list, and start cooking at Step 4:

These enchiladas will take a little longer, but are also made much simpler with your pre-cooked turkey. Again, you can make them easier with canned enchilada sauce:

Or if you're feeling ambitious, you can make your own sauce with this recipe:

Finally, here's a classic favorite in my house. I wrote the recipe specifically for Thanksgiving leftovers, to work two ways: with leftover turkey+gravy, or just with leftover turkey (so it makes its own gravy). You might even have unused pie dough if your recipe made enough for a double-crust pie but you only used half for your pumpkin pie. Otherwise, you can use storebought pie dough of course. Here's the recipe:

Strategy #4: Make some soup

With just 1 cup of your shredded leftover turkey, you can serve 4-6 with this recipe. The recipe starts with dried beans, but you can turn this into a weeknight dinner by using canned beans and starting at Step 2. I would look for salted beans (they'll have more flavor), and drain them before adding them to the pot along with the turkey/chicken stock in Step 4:

To make Turkey Noodle Soup (below), sub your leftover turkey for the chicken thighs and start at Step 3. Then add the cooked shredded turkey before going on to Step 4:

Strategy #5: Use the carcass to make stock, and then make more soup later

Sub the turkey carcass for the chicken bones in this recipe. If you have a heavy-duty knife like a meat cleaver, chop up the bones to get maximum flavor and richness from them. If not, you might be able to break up smaller bones with your hands. Either way, plan on a very low-and-slow approach to get all that goodness out:

See, look at you!

So responsible with all those turkey leftovers. Your mother would be so proud! (And btw you should call her!)

More where this came from?

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From my adventurous kitchen to yours,

Happy leftovers!

Lynley