Leftover Turkey "Carnitas" Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What can I do with leftover turkey fat? ›

Left over pan drippings from your roast turkey can be poured off into a separate container and used later to flavour a host of dishes such as soups, stews and mashed potatoes. You can freeze them in ice cube size quantities and store them for months, adding a few to a casserole to lift the flavour.

USDA recommends using cooked turkey within 3 to 4 days, kept refrigerated (40°F or less). Refrigeration slows but does not stop bacterial growth. Turkey can be frozen for 3 to 4 months. Although safe indefinitely, frozen leftovers can lose moisture and flavor when stored for longer times in the freezer.

Plate the Turkey on Top of Gravy

If the turkey is dry, sitting in the moist gravy will help to rehydrate it. Serving more sauce on the side also helps to add moisture. Finally, if you've made a large turkey and have a lot left over, use it in recipes such as Turkey Pot Pie or a soup such as Turkey Wild Rice.

Place the turkey pieces in a baking dish and drizzle with a few tablespoons of stock and/or butter. Cover the dish with foil and heat in the oven at 350°F for about 30 minutes. Alternatively, you can microwave the sliced turkey (cover with a damp paper towel) in a microwave-safe dish at 50% power in 1-minute intervals.

To not dry out a turkey, you need to add moisture when you reheat the meat. You'll see in our reheating methods that we add homemade gravy, chicken stock or butter to the turkey before heating it up low and slow. This ensures that juices in the turkey won't escape as steam when they're exposed to heat.

At the same time, the hardened grease – after being re-heated and filtered until there is no impurity left – is a good substitute in recipes that ask for butter or lard.

The English term "schmaltz" is derived from Yiddish and is cognate with the German term Schmalz, which refers to any rendered fat of animal origin, including lard (more fully Schweineschmalz) and clarified butter (Butterschmalz). English use tends to follow Yiddish, which limits its meaning to rendered poultry fat.

But unofficially, providing it has been stored in a cold part of the fridge, in a clean sealed jar, we would keep it for a month for cooking. When you use it make sure it looks and smells good – the rendered fat should look clean and feel firm and any jelly should be set.

Frozen Turkey

Turkeys can be kept in the freezer indefinitely. However, cook turkeys within 1 year for the best quality.

Cooked turkey and other leftovers can be kept in the fridge safely for about three to four days, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and FoodSafety.gov say. But after that time, "the risk of food poisoning goes up," the Mayo Clinic notes, pointing to the growth of bacteria in refrigerated leftovers.

Is it safe to eat leftover turkey after 6 days? ›

Like other leftovers, leftover cooked turkey can—and will—go bad. “The texture and smell of turkey will indicate when it has gone bad,” Edwards says. “Generally it will smell bad and get a slimy texture. It's best to throw it away after four days in the fridge or move it to the freezer at that point.”

Simply heat your oven to 300 degrees, put the carved meat in a baking dish, and add some chicken broth or turkey stock to the pan. The meat will absorb some of the liquid as it heats, making it nice and juicy. Cover the pan tightly with foil and place it in the oven until the meat is hot, 20 to 30 minutes.

The flavor is variously described as "rancid," "stale," and like "cardboard," and even compared to "damp dog hair." Warmed-over flavor is caused by the oxidative decomposition of lipids (fatty substances) in the meat into chemicals (short-chain aldehydes or ketones) which have an unpleasant taste or odor.

When the contracting muscle fibers reach 180° F they begin to break up. The bonds within the molecules begin to break down, causing proteins to unravel and the muscle meat becomes more tender. Of course the longer the turkey is cooked, the more the proteins are denatured and the meat gets tougher.

Properly stored and refrigerated turkey lasts for up to four days. “Leftover turkey is safe to eat as long as it's handled properly (from start to finish) and refrigerated promptly,” Chelsea Edwards, a registered dietitian and the owner of Huntsville Nutrition Collective in Huntsville, Alabama, tells Southern Living.