Turkey curry and chili are two great options for day-after-Thanksgiving recipes because of how easy they are to prepare.

"Curries, chilis ... those are your basics," Ray told Business Insider.

Ray's recipe for turkey corn chili takes only 25 minutes to prepare and uses simple ingredients like cooked turkey meat, chopped onion, chopped bell pepper, crushed tomatoes, chicken stock or broth, and frozen corn. 

Who doesn't love the smell of a pot of ragù simmering on the stove during the colder months?

Ray's recipe for turkey porcini ragù uses dried, sliced porcini mushrooms, a pound of leftover Thanksgiving turkey, turkey or chicken stock, red wine, onion, garlic, crushed tomatoes, and more. 

For this recipe, Ray recommends rolling leftover stuffing into a ball and dropping it into broth like a matzo ball.

Add "leftover vegetables, any sort of meat, turkey, chicken, or ham, and you have the equivalent of a matzo-ball soup," Ray said.

One of the simplest ways to reuse leftover Thanksgiving turkey is to make a sandwich, wrap, or even a burrito, which Ray said is one of her favorite methods. 

You can add other Thanksgiving fixings like turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and gravy to your tortilla, or you can go a more standard route with fillings like shredded cheese, turkey, lettuce, and tomato. 

One of the most unique ways to use leftover stuffing is to make her recipe for savory stuffing waffles.

"You can put your leftover stuffing in your waffle iron, and then just put the turkey or the pheasant on top of the crispy stuffing once you take it out of the waffle iron," Ray said.

"[Top it] with a little bit of fruity maple syrup, like cranberry sauce and maple syrup, or some sort of warm honey drizzled over the top."

For the first recipe, I utilized all of my Thanksgiving leftovers to make a sandwich from The New York Times.

Our typical Thanksgiving leftovers include mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, and green-bean casserole, so I bought a few store-bought versions for my test.

I also grabbed thick sandwich bread and turkey gravy.

I began by mixing the mayonnaise and cranberry sauce to create a cranberry mayo and combined the chopped turkey and gravy to make a sauce.

Next, I made a box of stuffing, pressed it into a square pan, and refrigerated it until it hardened.

Once it was solid, I fried each side in a bit of oil. This step took the longest to prepare and required some planning ahead.

The sandwich recipe called for stacking layers of cranberry mayonnaise, gravy, mac and cheese, stuffing, green-bean casserole, mashed potatoes, and the turkey between two slices of bread.

I knew it would be a messy disaster before I even put the two pieces of bread together.

Overall, the sandwich was messy and difficult to eat. When I tried to take a bite out of it, all of the ingredients slid out onto the plate.

I ended up eating everything with a knife and fork, which made me wonder why I went through the hassle of stacking it all into a sandwich.

The easiest dish to make was the turkey salad, which was similar to chicken versions I've made in the past.

The ingredients were simple: celery, green onion, paprika, mayo, Dijon mustard, salt, pepper, and finely chopped leftover turkey.

I don't like the crunch of celery or onion, so for this turkey salad, I changed things up a bit.

Instead of adding diced celery, green onion, and salt, I just added celery salt to flavor the dish without adding a harsh crunch to the salad.

I love chicken salad, so I was excited to try the turkey recipe in the form of a sandwich.

It tasted great, as it had plenty of flavor from the mustard, paprika, and celery salt while showcasing the turkey.

Overall, I thought it was simple to make and, as an added bonus, required ingredients I already had in my pantry and refrigerator.

I'd make this turkey-salad recipe again if I had leftovers on hand.

I'm a fan of hearty fall meals, so I was happy to find a recipe for leftover turkey soup.

Out of the three recipes, the soup had the longest ingredient list, including long-grain wild rice, chicken broth, and diced carrots, celery, and onions.

After some chopping, I was ready to try the recipe out.

I love a soup dish that starts with cooking aromatics like carrots, celery, and onions.

Simmering the chopped vegetables in a bit of butter immediately set the tone for the savory soup I was about to enjoy.

After sautéeing the chopped vegetables, I added chicken broth and a box of long-grain wild rice to the pot. Then, I let it simmer until the grains were cooked through.

I also added the half-and-half the recipe called for, though I think you could forgo it to make a lighter soup.

Once I added the half-and-half, the soup was creamy and ready to serve.

I thought the finished dish was so delicious, hearty, and savory. I loved the flavor of the vegetables and turkey.

My family returned for seconds, so we hardly had any leftovers the following day.

I wouldn't mind cooking turkey breast again just to make the soup.

Of all three recipes, the one I'd be most likely to make again is the creamy, delicious turkey-and-wild-rice soup.

Though the Thanksgiving leftovers sandwich and turkey salad were good, I wouldn't go out of my way to cook another bird for either dish.

If I were looking for a way to use pieces of a leftover Thanksgiving turkey, I'd make the wild-rice soup.

This story was originally published on November 23, 2023, and most recently updated on November 27, 2024.