What to do with Thanksgiving leftovers!
Once again, we can look to the past for inspiration — thank you Margaret Ruskin for the idea! That’s the buzz this week everywhere in the world of food. Forget about the meal itself, let’s fast forward to the day afterwards when we will create an array of tasty meals with the mounds of leftover turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing! And what does someone like me do to perfect the leftovers? And so I cooked Thanksgiving a week ahead of time just to provide readers like you with the perfect way to put your leftovers to good use. In other words, I made Thanksgiving just for the leftovers. And boy did my son and I come up with a winner recipe.
You can make this savory leftover pie a few different ways, but it’s basically layers of your Thanksgiving feast neatly pressed into a deep dish pie dish. It’s a crispy mashed potato crust on the bottom, diced turkey, gravy, stuffing and for a touch of sweetness, a thin corn bread crust topping. Served with some cranberry sauce, as my son says, this dish is “da bom”!
Turkey Leftover Pie
Makes 1 large pie
2 cups mashed potatoes
3 cups stuffing
3 cups cubed turkey
1 cup gravy
1 cup Corn bread batter (1 box Jiffy corn bread works perfectly)
Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. Brush the bottom and sides of a deep dish pie pan with olive oil. Press a thin layer of mashed potatoes on the bottom and up to the sides of the dish as if you were making a crust. Bake the potato crust for 30-45 minutes until golden in the center rack of an oven.
Add a layer of cubed turkey to the potato crust. On top of the turkey press a cup and a half of stuffing down onto the turkey. Pour some gravy on top of the stuffing and add another layer of turkey and one more layer of stuffing. As you layer the ingredients, make sure to press the mixture carefully. (You can flatter the stuffing in between two layers of tin foil to make it flat if you’d like.)
After you’ve finished your layers, spread a thin layer of corn bread batter on top of the pie using a greased spatula. Either freeze or bake. If baking, cook the pie for approximately 30 minutes until the corn bread topping is golden and cooked through.