I have a delicious, simple turkey salad recipe for you to make the most of your leftovers!Turkey salad is one of those beautiful things that you can whip up in a matter of moments, and this recipe has the perfect ratios and flavors to take all the guesswork out of it.
Don't forget to PIN it for later!
How to Make Turkey Salad
Turkey salad is incredibly easy to make! Since you're starting off with pre-cooked ingredients, like leftover turkey, this dish takes only minutes to prepare. Simply chop up the ingredients and mix them all together. Voila! Turkey salad.
My partner and I were discussing the various ways we could enjoy our Thanksgiving leftovers when he shared his favorite: turkey salad sandwich. He described how it was made: chopped up turkey, mayonnaise, and two slices of white bread. While you can't really go wrong with turkey and mayo, I prefer a little extra flavor and bread just isn't in the cards for me.
I headed into the kitchen to whip up my own version of turkey salad, serving mine in a bowl and his as a sandwich.
The Turkey Salad Recipe
For the turkey, I used dark meat. I think it packs a lot more flavor, doesn't dry out as quickly, and my mom totally hates it: that means 95% of the turkey leftovers I packed home from Thanksgiving at her house consisted of dark meat. She was happy to get rid of it, I was happy to receive it, everybody was happy. Use whatever you have on hand and chop it up into small pieces.
I also had some pre-cooked bacon in the fridge; while I'm not necessarily in the "bacon makes everything better" crowd, it certainly took this turkey salad recipe to the next level. You can leave it out if you don't have any prepped and ready to go or quickly fry some up. This recipe only calls for one piece of bacon all diced up, so follow your heart?
Dice up celery and onion, then combine all the chopped ingredients in a bowl with mayo. Depending on how your turkey was seasoned and whether or not you used bacon, the amount of salt needed will vary. Give the mixture the good old taste test and season the turkey salad with salt and pepper accordingly.
Enjoy your new favorite turkey salad recipe!
Trying to figure out what to do with the rest of your turkey leftovers?
Try one of these:
- Turkey Bone Broth Recipe
- Turkey Meal Prep
- Chayote Chicken Noodle Soup with Turkey Instead
- Shredded Chicken Chili subbed with Turkey
- Keto Chicken Tetrazzini with Turkey
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 oz turkey meat cooked
- 1 piece bacon cooked, optional
- 1 stalk celery
- ¼ onion
- 3 tbsp mayonnaise
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Chop pre-cooked turkey meat into small chunks. Dice bacon (optional but delicious), celery, and onion.
- In a small mixing bowl, combine turkey, bacon, celery, onion, and mayonnaise. Taste the mixture and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve or refrigerate until ready to eat.
Nutrition
Hi, I'm Tasha–nutritionist, recipe developer, and multi-published cookbook author.
Leave a Reply