Southern Turkey Salad

Take those leftover turkey sandwiches up a notch - and make them turkey SALAD sandwiches instead! This Southern Turkey Salad recipe is creamy, loaded with flavor, and a perfectly delicious way to enjoy those turkey leftovers.

You know what I love just as much as Thanksgiving dinner? Thanksgiving dinner leftovers!

In fact, I may love the leftovers even more than I love that big Thanksgiving dinner itself. I think it's because when it comes to the leftovers, I didn't just spend hours in the kitchen preparing them when I sit down to eat. No, when it comes to the leftovers, I get the pleasure of just grabbing them out of the refrigerator and heating them up. -- Little to no prep involved.

And we all know and love that leftover turkey sandwich, right? It's just hard to beat -- roasted turkey slices loaded onto good-old white bread, slathered with mayonnaise, with a slice of dressing on top. It's one of my favorites, for sure.

But you know, this year I think I've found a way to make that leftover turkey sandwich even better -- turn it into a Southern Turkey Salad sandwich!

This Southern Turkey Salad recipe is creamy, loaded with flavor, and a perfectly delicious way to enjoy those turkey leftovers.

After practicing my Dry-Brined Roasted Turkey recipe for Thanksgiving this year, I had a big plate of leftover turkey staring me in the face when an idea struck me. -- An idea to turn some of that beautiful turkey into turkey salad. I figured if chicken makes a fabulous sandwich-filling salad, then turkey certainly should, too.

I turned to our family-favorite Southern Chicken Salad recipe and modeled this Southern Turkey Salad after that. The result was a creamy, loaded with flavor, turkey salad that's one perfectly delicious way to enjoy those turkey leftovers. And a way our whole family loves.

Turns out the keys to great a Southern turkey salad are the same as those for a great Southern chicken salad -- 1. A food processor, 2. sweet pickle cubes, and 3. hard boiled eggs.

To whip up a batch of Southern Turkey Salad, start with about 3 to 4 cups of coarsely chopped leftover turkey.

But then to get really great creamy texture, process the turkey in a food processor.

Sure, you could just finely chop the turkey with a knife. But you just can't chop as finely as a food processor can.

To achieve that truly creamy, comfort-food texture, a food processor is a must.

You don't want to go overboard and turn the turkey into mush, though. Just give it a few pulses in the food processor to get it all nicely chopped.

Place the chopped turkey in a mixing bowl, and add in finely chopped hard boiled eggs, sweet pickle cubes, salt, pepper, and some mayonnaise.

Hard boiled eggs and sweet pickle cubes are key to the flavor and texture of Southern Turkey Salad, so let's talk about them for just a bit, starting with sweet pickle cubes.

So, just what are sweet pickle cubes?

Sweet pickle cubes are basically sweet relish but in bigger chunks, so they're not as fine and mushy as relish. The cubes add a wonderful little bit of textural crunch to the salad.

You can find sweet pickle cubes in the condiments section of the grocery store, in the same spot as the relish. Look for a jar that says "Sweet Pickle Cubes" or "Sweet Salad Cubes" on it.

Turns out the keys to great a Southern turkey salad are the same as those for a great Southern chicken salad -- 1. A food processor, 2. sweet pickle cubes, and 3. hard boiled eggs.

If you can't find the cubes, use regular sweet relish. -- You'll just be missing some of that nice textural crunch in the finished turkey salad.

As for the hard boiled eggs, this may sound like a strange ingredient. But the hard boiled eggs bring a really nice element to the turkey salad's flavor. There's not a lot of egg in the salad, but just enough to amp up that flavor.

Most people won't even realize the eggs are there, they'll just know the turkey salad tastes oh sooo good!

Give everything a good stir together, and adjust the salt, pepper, and mayonnaise to your personal taste. I find about 1/3 cup mayonnaise to be about right, -- add a little more if you like your salad creamier, or a little less if you prefer it on the drier side.

Refrigerate the turkey salad for about an hour before serving to allow the flavors to meld together.

Then slather a big scoop on a croissant, bun, or between slices of good-old white bread to enjoy the creamy turkey deliciousness! Because this Southern Turkey Salad is one perfectly delicious way to enjoy those turkey leftovers, for sure.

Check out these other tasty recipes for enjoying leftover turkey:

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leftover turkey, turkey salad recipe, recipes with leftover turkey, leftover turkey recipe

Salads

Southern

Yield: About 3 cups

Author: Tracey |