Leftover Turkey Parfait

Y’all remember the movie Shrek? If you’ve read my bio (and I hope you have!), then you know I began - with my best friend Alanna - making the entire Thanksgiving meal in middle school. Seriously, we kicked our parents out of the house. Well, this first Thanksgiving we cooked together was right after Shrek came out on VHS. Yes, I said VHS. Blockbuster was my jam. Anyway, there’s a scene in the movie where Donkey is talking to Shrek during the famous “onion” conversation. Donkey mentions something along the lines of, “Why can’t you be a parfait? Everybody loves a parfait! You go up to a person and say hey, ‘Would you like a parfait?’ They ain’t gon’ say, ‘No, I don’t like no parfait’ Everybody loves a parfait!”

Needless to say, we quoted that movie, and especially that part, all week. So when it came to the best way to eat our Thanksgiving leftovers, the answer felt obvious. Turn them into a parfait!

That first year, we layered just leftover buttery turkey and traditional dressing into a pint glass, microwaved it, then topped with canned cranberry sauce (don't hate!). Over the years, we have all sophisticated our methods on the best way to layer and reheat our leftovers. This is how I make it now:

Grab a dinner plate and add on everything you would normally want to eat for leftovers. For me, that’s pretty much just turkey and dressing and a little bit of mashed potatoes. I love broccoli casserole and squash, don’t get me wrong. But for a leftover turkey parfait, I just want the basics.

Reheat your plate in the microwave according to microwave directions, or ~2-3 minutes.​

Grab a pint glass or even a parfait glass! Start your layering. I like to start with a scoop of dressing, then turkey, then mashed potatoes, then gravy (reheat this separately), then cranberry sauce. Continue. In my opinion, microwaving all of the hot components first makes it easier to layer in the cold cranberry sauce when assembling your parfait. Our original method of microwaving everything in the glass and adding the cranberries on top was fine, but I never got enough cranberry! This also breaks up the heat and texture, so it adds a nice surprise with every bite!

The name may sound gross, but please, dear readers, give this a try. I promise it will be the only way you eat leftover Thanksgiving (or any leftovers?!) from now on.

If this is too adventurous for you, or just feels wrong - another leftover recipe I (and especially Ryan) love is Giada's Crispy Turkey Bites. The bomb.com.