Turkey and Cranberry Grilled Cheese: Thanksgiving Leftovers

By now, we’re on day six of our turkey leftovers. I’m at that point where I’m thinking 1. “I need to come up with a new way to eat these leftovers” and 2. “Are these leftovers still good to eat?” Thankfully, we planned our Thanksgiving menu right and were left with not a lot of leftovers. Over these last few days, I’ve been making, and thoroughly enjoying, a turkey and cranberry sauce grilled cheese.

My favorite thing about Thanksgiving is to slide that cranberry sauce out of that can and slice it up. If your cranberry sauce is not a gelatinous substance in a can, it’s not cranberry sauce. Make your cranberry sauce from scratch all you want, I’ll take the can. My mother-in-law and I are the only two people who like cranberry sauce, so we get to eat it all during Thanksgiving and in the days following.

This grilled cheese combines two of my favorite Thanksgiving food: turkey and cranberry sauce.

Turkey and Cranberry Grilled Cheese

As for the cheese in this grilled cheese, I used swiss with a little cheddar and a little mozzarella. For transparency, I was using a plant-based swiss cheese that does not really melt nicely and used the dairy cheese as glue. In hindsight, I defeated the purpose of using plant cheese, but this is truly a leftovers grilled cheese.

When prepping this sandwich, I highly recommend dunking your turkey in leftover gravy before assembling. After heating the turkey and gravy, shred it and throw the turkey into the gravy. On one side of bread (oatnut is my choice of bread), lay a slice of cheese, then turkey, then cranberry sauce, then another cheese. And to grill the cheese? I spread mayo on the outside of the bread.

Print Recipe

Turkey and Cranberry Grilled Cheese

(No Ratings Yet)

Loading...

Lunch – American

By Lilies and Loafers – Serves: 1

Prep Time: 10 minutes – Cooking Time: 5 minutes – Total Time: 15 minutes

Use your Thanksgiving leftovers to make the ultimate comfort food.

Ingredients

• Left over turkey
• Gravy
• Cranberry sauce (can or homemade)
• 2 slices swiss cheese
• 2 slices of bread (your favorite)

Instructions

1

Warm a skillet over medium heat.

2

Heat up turkey and gravy.

3

Shred or cut turkey into smaller pieces and drop into the gravy.

4

On one slice of bread, lay down swiss cheese.

5

Then layer turkey-soaked in gravy.

6

Top turkey with cranberry sauce. If using one from a can, mash it up a little.

7

Last layer is another slice of swiss before topping it off with a slice of bread.

8

On the top of the bread, spread mayonnaise (or butter if you prefer).

9

Flip the sandwich over onto skillet so the mayo side is cooking first.

10

While cooking, spread more mayo over the other slice of bread.

11

Once the cooked side looks like a nice golden color, flip.

12

Cook for a few minutes until desired golden color and remove from heat.

13

Let sit a moment before cutting in half.

14

Serve warm! I was dunking this sandwich into gravy as well, so know that is also a delicious choice!