8 turkey tips and leftover ideas from budget-minded, low-waste chefs

Make the most of your holiday dinner with these turkey tips and leftover recipe ideas, including a recipe for 'scrappy' stock

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Published Dec 25, 2024  •  Last updated 4 hours ago  •  10 minute read

"You feel like you're still preparing something for a group, instead of just being like, 'Everybody go in there and make a sandwich,'" Jess Rice says of Budget Bytes' turkey sliders. Photo by Smallhands Creative /Budget Bytes

For chef Jess Rice, Christmas dinner is all about the leftovers. “I always go for a little more turkey than I have guests,” says Budget Bytes‘ senior recipe developer, Neil Young’s private chef and a former chef-instructor at Niagara College in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. “My family really is a leftovers family.”

Rice may have cooked for Canadian rock royalty since 2016 and toured the country with the likes of Pearl Jam, but being budget-conscious and reducing food waste is “ingrained in everything.” One of Rice’s favourite recipes featuring leftover turkey is her colleague Marsha McDougal’s turkey sliders. A butter glaze brushed on top transforms it from a typical turkey sandwich to something special.

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“Everything just melts together, and it turns into a completely different dish,” says Rice. “You feel like you’re still preparing something for a group, instead of just being like, ‘Everybody go in there and make a sandwich.'”

Turkey pot pie is a staple, but “we make it a little bit more budget-friendly, so you could make it year-round where you use frozen vegetables.” After the holidays, toss in any leftover vegetables, such as green beans, corn or roasted squash.

Rice’s three-year-old daughter enjoys a quesadilla-like folded tortilla wrap filled with leftover chopped turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and melty cheese. You can also use chopped turkey (or ham) in a customizable leftover stuffing muffin. “It’s sort of a no-brainer because stuffing forms into a giant muffin loaf anyway when it’s sitting in the fridge,” says Rice, laughing. “Add a little bit of extra oomph to it — a little extra effort — and it’s this perfect little bite.”

At home in Nashville, Rice devotes a couple of days after Christmas to repurposing leftovers in new meals and making turkey stock, which she freezes. “It’s such a warming, nice thing to have all winter.”

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Jess Rice says turkey pot pie is a staple, but “we make it a little bit more budget-friendly, so you could make it year-round where you use frozen vegetables.” Photo by Smallhands Creative /Budget Bytes

Toronto-based writer Puneeta Chhitwal-Varma is also a fan of making “scrappy” stock (recipe follows). The author of Good Food, Healthy Planet freezes the scraps from her holiday meal prep — including “(turkey) bones and the bits and bobs, like the neck and the organ meat” — to use later.

“We forget that we can use the freezer not only to freeze our leftovers but also to freeze what can become amazing food, like our vegetable peels and bones. And in January, when everything is cold and gloomy, and you want something easy, what if we could make this amazing stock and then use it, of course, for soups, stews and curries, but also risotto?”

Chhitwal-Varma recommends chopping leftover meat before storing it in the freezer for versatility. Reviving previously frozen turkey with “juicy flavour is hard,” so she likes to add sauce. Turkey makhani (“butter” sauce) and golden turkey salad are two favourites. She makes the salad every year and adds a tadka — a topping of spices, nuts and aromatics such as garlic bloomed in hot oil.

Making a tadka is one of Chhitwal-Varma’s top tips for reviving frozen turkey. “You can add a tadka to anything your family might think is boring food, and it will add this little bit of sunshine, happiness and crispiness. You could add a tadka of sliced garlic, turmeric or mustard seeds, and it brings it all together.”

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To make a tadka, heat oil with a high smoke point, such as vegetable, peanut or olive oil (not extra-virgin), in a pan until it shines. Add your whole spices — Chhitwal-Varma suggests fennel, mustard and cumin seeds for this time of year — then add a tablespoon or two of chopped peanuts and ground turmeric for its golden sheen.

“Move quickly. Toss it, allow the oil and the ground spice to coat the peanuts, and then pour it on top of the chopped turkey. Add a sauce. I would whisk maybe sesame seeds, tahini and yogurt — one of my go-to sauces — and toss the turkey in that. Then, add some chopped vegetables, something crunchy.” Celery, lettuce, arugula or kale would all be excellent choices.

For Langley, B.C.-based cookbook author, recipe developer and photographer Holly Nilsson, creator of Spend with Pennies, “the stuffing and the gravy is hands-down my favourite part of turkey dinner.” Like Chhitwal-Varma, Nilsson saves food scraps in a container and stores them in the freezer if she’s prepping far in advance.

“When we finish turkey dinner, I bring out a big crock pot, and I throw those scraps in along with the carcass and any little bits of scraps that I’m not going to save.” Turkey soup is a must in Nilsson’s house, as are open-faced hot turkey sandwiches with gravy. “I always plan for leftovers — if we have enough, I either do a turkey pot pie or a turkey tetrazzini. Those are my two go-tos.”

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TURKEY TIPS

Pounds per person

Rice recommends buying one to one and a half pounds (455 to 680 grams) of turkey per person. (Half a pound or 225 grams per person if you buy a boneless breast.)

Opt for smaller cuts

When you buy meat, you’re paying per pound, says Rice. Opting for smaller cuts is an easy way to trim the cost. “If you have a family of three, you don’t necessarily need a 15-pound turkey.” Buy turkey drumsticks for dark meat fans and turkey breast for those who prefer white meat.

Chhitwal-Varma also recommends shopping for smaller bone-in cuts. “You can caramelize them in a pan and get them to look how you want, and then pop it in the oven for the length of time you need for the size of cut you have.” It’s often more affordable than buying a whole turkey and saves space, too. “Not everybody has those enormous ovens that would fit a turkey.”

Be prepared

Even though Nilsson has made more turkeys than she can remember, she still writes down a timeline on paper. “Step by step, so it’s easy to follow, especially if you’re doing sides as well.” A timeline helps ensure you’ve allowed enough time for the turkey to thaw and, if you’re going to brine, that you’ve accounted for the extra 24 hours. “I just feel like it lifts so much stress off.”

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For chef and culinary educator Bill Nolan, a supervisor at the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line, being prepared is a big part of the puzzle.

“The most rewarding thing to me is when you get that customer on the phone, and they’re very stressed out, and by the time you get them off, or they are done with the call, they’re like, ‘Whew, boy. I’m sure glad I called,’” says Nolan. “Be prepared. Do your mise en place. Have everything ready to go. It’s not that hard, and it takes the stress out of doing it for the holiday, and you can enjoy the process and enjoy your guests, and that’s what it’s all about.”

Spatchcock to save space

If you have limited oven space, Rice recommends spatchcocking your turkey. The method yields plenty of crispy skin (more on this below) while saving space and time. It takes roughly 80 minutes to cook a spatchcocked turkey at higher heat versus several hours at a lower oven temperature.

To spatchcock your turkey, follow Rice’s instruction: “Turn the turkey over and, using sharp poultry shears, cut out the backbone. Turn the turkey back over and press on the breastbone with the heel of your hands until you hear a crack. Don’t throw away the backbone — you can use it in your turkey stock later.”

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Spatchcocking is Nolan’s favourite way to make a turkey. If it doesn’t snow this Christmas in Darien, Ill., he’ll spatchcock his turkey, rub it with mayonnaise or brine it in buttermilk and grill it over a hardwood fire.

“I try to do something a little bit different, but it’s not too far gone, where people are going to be like, ‘Hmmm, I don’t know.’ They’re still getting something traditional that they can put gravy on if they want to and enjoy it. It’s fun to experiment, to a degree.”

To brine or not

According to Nolan, “Brining is very big, particularly dry brining.” Even with a pre-basted turkey like Butterball’s, whether to brine or not — and whether to choose a wet or dry brine — comes down to the cook.

“Wet brining is much more cumbersome. You have to be able to lift that turkey. You’re in and out of the refrigerator with the pot. You have to have the refrigerator big enough to hold the vessel. So it depends on the person. If it’s somebody who’s older or doesn’t have the grip strength or strength to be lifting things and throwing them around, maybe a dry brine is a better idea. It’s a little bit easier to manage for them.”

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Nilsson loves the flavour it brings but opts not to brine. “It’s so busy during the holidays. Adding the brining just adds on another day. So I love it. But the reality is that I don’t actually do it myself.”

Lawrence Goodridge, a professor in the University of Guelph’s Department of Food Science and director of the Canadian Research Institute for Food Safety, brines his turkey but does so carefully. He adds the water to the brining bag with a measuring cup instead of the tap to reduce aerosols, which can cause cross-contamination, and recommends skipping the rinsing.

Poultry can contain salmonella and other bacteria. Goodridge references an episode of The French Chef in which Julia Child demonstrates how to roast a chicken, rinsing it in the sink and patting it dry with paper towels. She then wipes down the counter with the same towels before throwing them in the sink. This example of food safety misinformation raises several concerns, including cross-contamination and aerosol generation, and illustrates why Goodridge advises never rinsing poultry.

When brining, he removes the turkey from the bag, puts it in a roasting pan, pats it dry with paper towels and prepares it for the oven. “I haven’t found that it’s too salty.”

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Upping the moisture

When slow roasting a turkey, Rice puts a couple of roughly chopped yellow onions and halved lemons in the cavity. (She cooks the stuffing separately.) Rice finds this helps keep the turkey moist and adds subtle flavour. The acid from the lemon juice helps crisp up the skin, too. (More on that below.)

The coveted crispy skin

Rice recommends patting the turkey dry with clean paper towels before rubbing it with butter for crispy skin. If she’s slow roasting it, Rice bastes it occasionally in the last hour or two of cooking, “when the juices have really begun to accumulate” in the roasting pan.

“Spatchcocking your turkey is another great way to ensure you’ll have more crispy skin, as it reveals more surface area of the bird,” adds Rice. (Plus, it saves space in your oven.) If your turkey starts to brown too quickly, shield the top of the breast with a loose piece of aluminum foil.

Invest in a food thermometer

Nilsson recommends investing in a food thermometer. “That is the No. 1 thing I recommend people get in their kitchen because meat is so expensive, you want to make sure you’re cooking it properly.” To measure doneness, insert a food thermometer into the thickest part of the breast or thigh. Health Canada recommends cooking birds until the temperature reaches 82 degrees Celsius (180 degrees Fahrenheit).

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Cook stuffing in a separate dish until it reaches a minimum internal temperature of 74 C (165 F).

And, if your turkey has a pop-up timer, “just pull that out and throw it away. That thing doesn’t work.”

SCRAPPY STOCK

Puneeta Chhitwal-Varma’s scrappy stock from Good Food, Healthy Planet is perfect for using the leftover carcass of your Christmas turkey. Photo by Diana Muresan

Recipe and image excerpted from from Good Food, Healthy Planet by Puneeta Chhitwal-Varma. Copyright ©2024 by Puneeta Chhitwal-Varma. Reprinted with permission of TouchWood Editions. touchwoodeditions.com.

3 cups vegetable trimmings, for example:

• Asparagus ends
• Carrot peels and base
• Celery, fennel, and leek ends
• Cucumber and apple skins
• Ginger and garlic peels and bits
• Green bean and snap pea tails
• Onion ends (limit to 1/2 cup due to strong flavour)
• Potato peels

1 cooked turkey carcass
2 black cardamom pods
1 bay leaf
1 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp peppercorns

Step 1

Rinse the vegetable trimmings and place them in a big soup pot. Put the leftover carcass of a whole roast turkey in the soup pot, including the bones, cartilage, etc., along with the vegetable trimmings. Add enough water to cover everything. Note: Some of the water will evaporate during the cooking process, so start with as much as your pot will hold and add more as needed.

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Step 2

Bring it to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Add the whole spices and continue to simmer for 2 hours. Turn the heat off.

Step 3

After the liquid has cooled, strain the mixture out. Press out every last drop of stock from the bits in the strainer to draw out the flavour and nutritional goodness.

Step 4

Use the stock straightaway or refrigerate it for up to a week. You can also freeze it in freezer-friendly glass jars for up to 5 months. Thaw and use as needed.

How to eat: Use in risotto, daal, stew, pulao, biryani, soup, etc.

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