Happy Thanksgiving.
On this day, we come together for the cozy fall holiday, sharing thankful thoughts around the table. We set the table with dishes, piled high with traditional family recipes. Whatever your custom, it’s a day made for the cushy comforts of home.
When the feast is over and the china has been put away, the refrigerator might still be packed. Keep the feast going forward by mixing up a special dish — or two or three or four — featuring those leftovers. We enlisted Atlanta chefs to help fashion leftovers into dishes you will look forward to as much as the originals.
Sweet Potato Waffle with Cranberry Sorghum Syrup
“Our Thanksgiving meal has been pretty much the same my whole life,” said Hudson Rouse, chef-owner of Avondale Estates Southern comfort restaurant Rising Son. To shake up the feast routine, he likes to cook a mashup meal late night on Thanksgiving or the next morning for breakfast. “I’m usually thinking what I’m going to make next with everything during the Thanksgiving meal,” he said. Turning a savory sweet potato side dish into a sweet and savory breakfast dish has become part of the tradition. Instead of serving waffles with maple syrup, he prepares cranberry sorghum syrup using leftover cranberry sauce.
—Courtesy of Rising Son chef-owner Hudson Rouse
Leftover Turkey Rillettes
“Most people prefer the turkey breast on Thanksgiving and the dark meat is overlooked,” said butcher Rusty Bowers of Pine Street Market in Avondale Estates and Chop Shop in Edgewood. His solution for using the rich, flavorful dark meat is to turn it into rillettes, a meat preparation similar to pâté. “This is something we make after every Thanksgiving,” Bowers said, calling it an excellent dish to serve at holiday parties or to offer as a hostess gift.
—Courtesy of Rusty Bowers of Pine Street Market and Chop Shop
Turkey Croquetas
The Iberian Pig executive chef John Castellucci loves to use leftover turkey meat to make croquetas the next day. “You can use both the breast and thigh. It extends the shelf life on them 3-4 days and you don’t have to worry about the breast drying out,” he said.
—Courtesy of the Iberian Pig executive chef John Castellucci
Green Bean Casserole Farrotto
New Realm Brewing executive chef Megan Brent puts a clever spin on traditional Italian risotto by using farro instead of rice and adding leftover green bean casserole for the base flavor. The dish is an ode to her brother because green bean casserole is his favorite Thanksgiving dish. “My mom makes it every year, the old-school way with mushroom soup and those French’s crispy onions,” Brent said. “She makes so much of it that we always have so much left over. Reheating it doesn’t look pretty, so I came up with this recipe. It’s one of my favorites.”
If your family doesn’t include green bean casserole on the menu, other leftover Thanksgiving vegetables can be used instead. Substitute 1 1/2 cups roasted Brussels sprouts, roasted carrots, or squash for the green beans.
—Courtesy of New Realm Brewing executive chef Megan Brent
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