After a few days of straight leftovers, I made a big batch of turkey mole, from the leftover dark and white meat, half of which is now in the freezer, and then a big pot of stock from the carcass.
Make turkey stock. Tear your carcass up into manageable pieces, add cold water, slowly bring to a boil. skim, and then add whatever veggies you have around (celery, carrots, onions, parsnips, celery root, etc). Cook for a long time with the top slightly ajar. You can freeze the stock to use instead of chicken stock but don't throw out those "used-up" vegetables. In my house whoever strains the stock gets to eat them. And bits of turkey can be saved for your soup.
My favorite is posole (red or green are both good!). Carve the meat off the turkey, use the bones and whatever is left to make the stock for my posole, strain the stock, and add back the meat, chilies, etc. Posole can take care of a lot of leftovers.
Last year I made an Indonesian-style cold salad with turkey, cooked and raw vegetables (potatoes, blanched pea pods, etc), with a peanut, lime and tamarind dressing. https://food52.com/recipes/64841-cold-turkey-or-chicken-pecel-with-peanut-lime-dressing.
Relive the meal without the stress of preparation on Friday (while watching holiday movies!), turkey sandwiches on great bread with mayo and a relish (cranberry or other fruit type chutney), put into soup with vegetables and noodles, make a turkey pot pie, or turkey tetrazzini (and you can make a lot of it and freeze it in portions for later).
Delicious! I hope your Thanksgiving went well. As for leftovers, there's a bunch you can do. Check out what our site recommends:
Here's a pot pie that folds in all that remaining turkey:
https://food52.com/blog/14925-a-leftover-pot-pie-that-doesn-t-taste-like-leftovers
Or have a peek at what some of our community likes to do:
https://food52.com/blog/9189-creative-uses-for-thanksgiving-leftovers
If all of this still feels too heavy and you're craving something a little lighter to balance out today's big meal, why not toss together shredded lean turkey meat with mixed greens and some of yesterday's vegetables. Splash it with some oil and balsamic and you're good to go.
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Here's a pot pie that folds in all that remaining turkey:
https://food52.com/blog/14925-a-leftover-pot-pie-that-doesn-t-taste-like-leftovers
Or have a peek at what some of our community likes to do:
https://food52.com/blog/9189-creative-uses-for-thanksgiving-leftovers
If all of this still feels too heavy and you're craving something a little lighter to balance out today's big meal, why not toss together shredded lean turkey meat with mixed greens and some of yesterday's vegetables. Splash it with some oil and balsamic and you're good to go.
Turkey sandwiches are a pretty popular way to consume leftovers for the days after Thanksgiving although I tend to tire of this rather quickly.
One can also turn some of it into soup (which freezes well).
Some of the meat can be frozen for use in salads, tacos, etc.
I'm sure others will chime in with other ideas.