10 Southern Thanksgiving Leftover Recipes
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How long are Thanksgiving leftovers good for?
Florida rap artist Plies tried to tell us when he broke down the rules of eating Thanksgiving leftovers. Said another way, Thanksgiving leftovers (or any holiday leftovers) should not remain in the fridge beyond 3-5 days!
Unsure what to do with those Thanksgiving leftovers?
What to do with Thanksgiving leftovers? Check out my below list of authentic Southern soul food recipes that you can use to make delicious use of your holiday leftovers.
You could reheat your leftover holiday meal as is or give new life to your refrigerator full of leftovers! These recipes are all easy enough for anyone to make and everyone to love.
So, let’s not waste another day after Thanksgiving or Christmas. Let’s get cooking with these ideas for leftover Southern Thanksgiving recipes to make delicious new dishes.
Not sure what to do with leftover Thanksgiving cranberry sauce?
Here’s one of my favorite recipe ideas for making a pulled turkey meal in your Instant Pot with leftover cranberry sauce, Thanksgiving turkey, and Southern candied yams.
How long can you eat leftover turkey from Thanksgiving?
Asked another way: How long are Thanksgiving leftovers good in the fridge? 3-5 days is the ideal timeframe to keep leftovers in the fridge. So don’t wait to make these poultry dishes with your turkey leftovers.
African American Southern leftover turkey recipes chicken
Substitute turkey in place of the chicken in the below recipes.
Use the recipe below to make a Southern-style turkey salad recipe.
What goes well with leftover turkey casserole?
Add one, two, or three of your leftover Thanksgiving side dishes. See below for easy options to reheat these favorite dishes.
How do you reheat Thanksgiving leftovers?
Use the microwave, the oven, the air fryer, or the Instant Pot to reheat leftovers.
- The microwave is great for a single plate of food.
- The oven works well if you’re warming an entire dish.
- The air fryer is great for reheating or reviving a dish with an outer crisp.
- The Instant Pot is also an excellent appliance for re-warming on its ‘keep warm’ setting for softer foods like Thanksgiving yams or collard greens.
Black Southern leftover turkey recipes: Soul food turkey yock
Virginia yock recipe – What kind of food is yock (yok)?
Soul food chicken yock is a meal that’s an ode to my hometown in coastal Virginia. The Tidewater region, area code 757. We say two up, two down. Put two fingers up for V, and two fingers down for Ayy – VA (Virginia).
People also ask, “What is chicken yok?”
Chicken yock is a big bowl of comfort. You may know this dish from its menu names, like New Orleans Old Sober. Or its Chinese derivatives, yak, yok, yock-a-mein (yaka mein), or simply Chinese yock.
Or maybe you know this dish by its African-American nicknames given over the years – low-rent lo mein and (New Orleans) Seventh Ward mein.
But today, we’re making yock a little different by replacing this soul food dish’s iconic chicken with turkey meat for a Southern Thanksgiving leftover recipe!
Did you enjoy these Southern Thanksgiving leftover recipes?
Have you had them?
Would you make ’em?
Comment below and lemme know.
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Equipment
- 1 Instant Pot electric pressure cooker
Ingredients
- 2 cups turkey breast pre-cooked
- 8 oz spaghetti noodles uncooked
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup water
- 2 teaspoons chicken bouillon
- 2 tablespoons butter unsalted
- 1 cup onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 teaspoons Creole seasoning
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 hard-boiled eggs cut in half to garnish
- ¼ cup green onions chopped to garnish
- soy sauce hot sauce, or ketchup for serving condiments
Instructions
- Open the Instant Pot lid and turn it on with the sauté setting for 5 minutes.
- With the Instant Pot lid off, sauté the butter, onions, and garlic until the onions soften, and then cancel the sauté setting.
- Pour the water and chicken broth into the stainless-steel inner pot with the sautéed onions and add the chicken bouillon.
- Add the Creole seasoning, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and turkey to the broth and stir the mixture.
- Then break the uncooked spaghetti noodles in half and submerge them in the broth.
- Close the Instant Pot lid (make sure the valve is up – in the position for sealing) and pressure cook on high for 2 minutes.
- When the cooking time is finished, allow a natural pressure release for at least 5 minutes.
- To open the Instant Pot lid, move the valve to ‘venting’ and manually release any remaining pressure, if applicable.
- Serve this turkey yock soul food recipe hot with garnishments of halved hard-boiled egg and chopped green onion to garnish.
- Black folks eat yock with either a squeeze of soy sauce, hot sauce, or ketchup on top. Enjoy!
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