35+ Recipes to Help with Thanksgiving Leftovers! (2024)

FAQs

How do you deal with leftovers on Thanksgiving? ›

The answer is simple: leftovers can be kept in the refrigerator for three to four days. This means you have until the Monday after Thanksgiving to eat all those delicious leftovers or place them in the freezer to enjoy later. If you store leftovers in the freezer, they will be of best quality within 2-6 months.

If foods have been left out for more than two hours, discard items to prevent foodborne illness.

Instead, try turning your leftovers into a casserole, like our turkey divan, our chicken stuffing casserole, or our turkey pot pie; a soup, like our turkey noodle soup, our leftover turkey & wild rice soup, or our homemade turkey stock (made from your turkey carcass); or something lighter or more flavorful than before, ...

Transfer the turkey and mashed potatoes into oven-safe dishes, add a little stock to the turkey and butter to the potatoes, and cover both dishes. Reheat them together for about 30 minutes at 350°F. You're winning the leftover dinner game right now.

Cover leftovers, wrap them in airtight packaging, or seal them in storage containers. These practices help keep bacteria out, retain moisture, and prevent leftovers from picking up odors from other food in the refrigerator. Immediately refrigerate or freeze the wrapped leftovers for rapid cooling.

Leftovers can be kept for 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator. After that, the risk of food poisoning goes up. If you don't think you'll be able to eat leftovers within four days, freeze them right away.

USDA recommends using cooked turkey within 3 to 4 days, kept refrigerated (40°F or less). Refrigeration slows but does not stop bacterial growth. Turkey can be frozen for 3 to 4 months. Although safe indefinitely, frozen leftovers can lose moisture and flavor when stored for longer times in the freezer.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service recommends throwing out refrigerated leftovers after three to four days. If foods are kept in the freezer, they can usually still be consumed for three to four months.

Millions of people across the United States will sit down to a traditional Thanksgiving meal, including turkey, potatoes, squash, corn, and cranberries.

What are 4 commonly consumed foods at Thanksgiving other than turkey? ›

Then pumpkin pie and Candied yams/sweet potato casserole. Those are the ones that are really unique to Thanksgiving. Green bean casserole and mashed potatoes are also pretty common. So is pecan pie, dinner rolls and maybe apple pie.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Add a dash of cream or milk, and some more butter to the dish before baking. To further avoid dryness, don't skimp on butter and other dairy products. Reheat the potatoes until they're warm throughout—the potatoes should reach 165 degrees before serving.

Heat the oven to 350°F and transfer the dish to an oven-safe dish (or just keep it in the dish that it was originally cooked in), then cover with foil and bake until the stuffing is warmed throughout. Depending on how much stuffing you're reheating, this can take up to an hour.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service recommends throwing out refrigerated leftovers after three to four days. If foods are kept in the freezer, they can usually still be consumed for three to four months.

I'm the leftover king in our house, so I indulged on Mr. Turkey and sides for several more meals, none quite as good as the first, in my opinion. Apparently I'm in the minority, as this poll reported that 80 percent of Americans prefer the leftover version.