This open faced turkey cranberry melt is like taking the insides of Thanksgiving enchilada and melting cheese on top of a buttered roll; an insanely delicious way to eat those leftovers.
Every year a week or two before Thanksgiving, the conversation in our family goes a little some thing like this…
Person 1: “let’s just do a simple meal this year.”
Person 2: “yes, totally agree. just turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, potatoes and something green.”
Person 1: “yes, perfect. We don’t need ALL THAT FOOD!”
Person 3 (my mom): “Ok, but I love the butternut squash.”
Persons 1 & 2: “Ok, we’ll do butternut squash too”
Person 3 (my mom): “Oh, and we HAVE to have the mushrooms.”
Persons 1 & 2: <eye rolling begins>
Person 3 (my mom): “And the artichokes!”
Persons 1 & 2: “Mom! That’s not simple any more!”
And on, and on and on….
So of course we inevitably end up with a Thanksgiving table packed to the gills with every hot plate in the house used up underneath all the serving dishes. Simplicity is apparently not possible in my family.
Which leads to me being sent home with 2 big pyrex filled baking dishes worth of leftovers and a husband who pretty much wants to kill me when I tell him we’re eating Thanksgiving dinner for the 5th night in a row.
So this year, I’m attempting to get a bit more creative with how we use leftovers and this sandwich is meal #1. It’s like Thanksgiving goes Mexican on top of a buttered toasted roll. Sound weird? Yeah, probably a little. But…it’s basically like the inside of an enchilada gets a Thanksgiving makeover and then gets slathered on a sandwich roll. How can you not like that?!
Open faced turkey cranberry enchilada melt
This open faced turkey cranberry melt is like taking the insides of Thanksgiving enchilada and melting cheese on top of a buttered roll; an insanely delicious way to eat those leftovers.
Ingredients
- 2 rolls, sliced in half
- butter
- 8 slices swiss cheese
- 1 cup leftover turkey, shredded
- 1/2 15 ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1/4 cup salsa
- 1/4 sour cream
- 1 green onion, chopped
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
- 1/4 teaspoon cumin
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2/3 cup leftover cranberry sauce
- 1/4 cup grated white cheddar cheese
Instructions
- Butter each slice of the rolls and lightly toast.
- Combine the remaining ingredients except the swiss cheese slices in a bowl and mix together.
- Divide the mixture on top of each roll half.
- Top with 2 slices of swiss cheese and broil until the cheese is melted and the roll becomes crispy and golden brown.
- Remove from the broiler and serve warm.
I was just thinking I need to get a little more creative with leftovers this year. They always rock the first night, but by night 6 my brain is so turkey-ed out that it starts thinking of ways to eat turkey, that should never ever ever ever have happened in a persons life. Turkey and chocolate sauce? Sure, why not!
This sandwich looks like it could save turkey brain….and potentially my marriage. Yum!
Girl, I’ll take the weird with leftovers just about any day! I love this twist on it because Mexican always wins in my book.
I love these pictures. Amazing!
My jaw is hanging open right now… HOLY DELICIOUS. Brilliant. Simply genius!
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Haha! I swear I had that exact same conversation with my family ;). I love leftovers so I’m basically in heaven right now. I will just use my wild imagination and dump and mix whatever I find in the fridge ;). This enchilada melt sounds heavenly! You’re a lot more creative than I, Gina!
This. Looks. INSANE. :) I love anything melty! Leftovers are totally my favorite part of Thanksgiving.
This is such a great idea!!
These sound amazing Gina! I love anything “open-faced”! I hope you had a great Thanksgiving!
Wow, this looks amazing! We already ate all of our thanksgiving leftovers but I pinned this and next year I’m definitely going to make this the day after thanksgiving… I’m like your husband and can’t handle eating the traditional thanksgiving meal too many nights in a row so this will be a great way to switch things up!
so much for not pointing a finger! lol
Also, send the leftovers my way. I’ll help ;)
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this is the most creative way to use leftovers that I have seen – we always have WAY too much food also, and I love a good leftover sandwich
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This is most definitely the best way to do leftovers!!