Give Your Thanksgiving Leftovers a New Spin with These Chef-Approved Ideas

The feast is over, and the dishes are done. But after a good nap, those leftovers will be calling your name. Yes, of course you should make a sandwich. But you can do a lot more with that bowl of mashed potatoes, the scoop of extra cranberry sauce, and those extra sweet potatoes. We talked to chefs to find out their best tips for turning leftovers into easy, satisfying meals that taste like anything but reruns for the rest of the holiday weekend. From filled pasta and fluffy pancakes to packed pitas and loaded lasagna, these recipes will wake up your weary palate and have you looking forward to leftovers in a whole new way.

Griddle Me This

Douglass Williams (Mida, Boston)

"My great-grandmother, who is 102, would always make candied sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving," says Douglass Williams, a 2020 F&W Best New Chef. "I wanted to try to find a way to use those sweet potatoes the day after." Since the potatoes are already sweetened, Williams cuts back the amount of brown sugar in the pancakes and plays up the warming cinnamon and clove.

Much Ado About Stuffing

Zoë Kanan (Happy Cooking Hospitality, New York City)

"I was inspired by the overstuffed, colorful, and briny pitas of Tel Aviv," Kanan says of this next-level Thanksgiving sandwich. "The key here is introducing crunch to the sandwich. Use my recipe as a guide, and riff by including whatever textural ingredients you have around, like fried onions, sunflower seeds, or even wasabi peas."

Super Bowls

Shota Nakajima (Taku, Seattle)

As a kid, whenever Nakajima was hungry, he'd grab anything left over from the previous meal to make soup or fried rice. "I grew up in a Japanese family, and I was taught to never waste anything," Nakajima says. This soup, a riff on his mother's recipe, relies on two umami-packed ingredients, dashi and soy sauce, to add depth to buttery leftover mashed potatoes.

Mission Impastable

Sarah Grueneberg (Monteverde Restaurant & Pastificio, Chicago)

"I love Thanksgiving leftovers, so I still want my leftovers dishes to embody those Thanksgiving flavors," says chef Sarah Grueneberg. "I call for roasted butternut squash, but if you make a great roasted sweet potato dish for the big event, those leftovers would be perfect in this lasagna." Pan-fried sage leaves add an elegant twist.

Thanks, Brodo

Tavel Bristol-Joseph (Emmer & Rye, Hestia, Kalimotxo, Henbit, and TLV, Austin)

"After eating heavy food on Thanksgiving, it's nice to have something lighter the day after," says 2020 F&W Best New Chef Tavel Bristol-Joseph. His agnolotti feature a smart shortcut—store-bought fresh lasagna sheets—and are served in a broth made from leftover turkey bones.

Cranberry Feels Forever

Brittanny Anderson (Brenner Pass, Chairlift, and Metzger Bar & Butchery, Richmond, Virginia)

"Most of us only make cranberry sauce once a year, and there's always leftovers," says Anderson. "A vinaigrette is the perfect place to use it all up." In this salad, Anderson pairs the sweetness of cranberries with bitter winter chicories—the ideal combination for day-after-Thanksgiving lunch.