My Easy Leftover Turkey Curry is quick and simple but packed full of flavour. Ready in just 25 minutes, this tikka masala style curry is a great way to use up your turkey leftovers on Boxing Day and beyond! No leftover turkey? No problem – this tasty curry can be made with leftover chicken or pre-cooked turkey instead.
What to do with turkey leftovers?
What do you usually do with your leftover roast turkey at Christmas time? There are tons of options, from cold turkey with bubble and squeak to turkey sandwiches to leftover turkey pie, but one which is a perennial favourite is leftover turkey curry!
Given how passionate about leftovers in general I am, and how many leftover turkey recipes I have on my blog, it seems rather remiss of me that, until now, I didn’t have a leftover turkey curry on my blog!
Actually, I do have a Leftover Turkey Thai Green Curry on my blog – which has been there for quite a while. But this is the first time I’ve shared an Indian-style leftover turkey curry.
Easy Leftover Turkey Curry
My Easy Leftover Turkey Curry is a great way to use up leftover turkey after Christmas (or Thanksgiving!). It’s the sort of curry I do a lot with roast chicken – broadly tikka masala in style, very quick and simple to make – ready in just 30 minutes. Exactly the knd of meal you want after spending hours in the kitchen the day before.
And this Easy Leftover Turkey Curry is packed with flavour – your taste buds won’t be disappointed! It’s also pretty healthy too. Especially if you serve it with some brown rice – and maybe a healthy Indian-style salad.
Perfect for filling the freezer
So long as you haven’t frozen your cooked turkey before, you can freeze this curry too – making a great easy peasy midweek meal in the future. Just defrost for 24 hours in the fridge then dump in a saucepan, bring to the boil and cook for about 10 minutes, until the turkey is piping hot all the way through.
Alternatively, you could freeze your cooked turkey and then make this curry from scratch later in the year.
What I usually do is, straight after eating lunch on Christmas day strip off all the meat from the turkey carcass and save it in one meal-size boxes (typically 500g in each box). I put the boxes of leftover turkey in the freezer and then defrost them the day I want them (often much later on in January) and cook up this easy leftover turkey curry (or one of my other leftover turkey recipes) from scratch that day.
Either way it’s nice to know you have some quick, easy, healthy and cheap dinner options throughout January and beyond!!
What to serve with turkey curry
This Easy Leftover Turkey Curry is great with brown or white rice, alternatively you could serve it with my easy peasy pilau rice and/or naan breads. If you are watching your carbs and /or calories, you might like to try my pilau cauliflower rice instead!
Easy Leftover Turkey Curry
My Easy Leftover Turkey Curry is quick and simple but packed full of flavour. Ready in just 25 minutes, this tikka masala style curry is a great way to use up your turkey leftovers on Boxing Day and beyond! No leftover turkey? No problem – this tasty curry can be made with leftover chicken or pre-cooked turkey instead.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium onion sliced
- 1 red pepper sliced
- 1 green pepper sliced
- 1 teaspoon chilli flakes
- 3 cloves garlic crushed or grated
- 3 cm ginger grated
- 3 teaspoons garam masala
- 2 teaspoons turmeric optional
- 500 g leftover cooked turkey shredded or cubed (see note)
- 350 ml passata (or chopped tinned tomatoes)
- 200 ml coconut milk
- Salt and pepper to taste
Method
- Place the oil, onions and peppers in a wide, deep pan and cook over a gentle heat (lid on) for about 5 minutes, or until softened but not brown.
- Add the chilli, garlic, ginger, garam masala and turmeric and fry gently for 2 more minutes (add a very small splash of water from the kettle if it gets to dry)
- Add the turkey, passata, coconut milk, salt and pepper and bring to the boil. Turn down low and simmer for 10 minutes until the sauce has thickened slightly and the turkey is piping hot all the way through.
- Serve with rice and/or naans and all your favourite accompaniments
Notes
If you don't have any leftover cooked turkey, you can substitute with leftover cooked chicken. Alternatively start by pan frying cubes of raw turkey or chicken until cooked, before continuing with the recipe.
Suitable for freezing.
Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
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Linkies
I am linking this up to Cook Blog Share and Cook Once Eat Twice.
Corina Blum says
12th December 2018 at 11:06 amYou might have guessed but curry is my absolute favourite thing to make with leftover turkey! This looks so good – It’s a really lovely colour too! Thanks for sharing with #CookOnceEatTwice x
Eb Gargano says
13th December 2018 at 12:15 pmHahaha – I would definitely have guessed that! Thanks for your kind comments 🙂 Eb x
Anna | Once Upon A Food Blog says
12th December 2018 at 4:28 pmA great idea Eb and it looks really delicious. And I’ve not come across your pilau cauliflower rice before. I’ll definitely be looking that recipe up!
Eb Gargano says
13th December 2018 at 12:16 pmThanks Anna! Hope you like the cauliflower pilau rice! 😀 Eb x
Monika Dabrowski says
13th December 2018 at 4:10 pmWith recipes such as this one you almost want to have turkey leftovers so you can make it! Delicious! Thank you for bringing it to #CookBlogShare.
Eb Gargano says
14th December 2018 at 10:23 amHaha – thanks Monika. If my leftovers recipes are tempting people to want to make extra turkey just so they have plenty of leftovers I know I’ve done my job right! 😀 Eb x
Cat | Curly's Cooking says
13th December 2018 at 11:23 pmThis is my kind of boxing day meal! Every boxing day we used to have cold turkey and chips when I was still living at home and I was never a fan. This is a much more appealing way of adding some much needed spice to leftover turkey.
Eb Gargano says
14th December 2018 at 10:28 amThanks Cat! Oooh – no, I would not like to have cold turkey and chips on Boxing Day. That would feel a bit of a let down after the loveliness of the food the day before. Making a bit of a feast out of the leftovers is much more my style! So pleased you like my curry. Eb x
Michelle Frank | Flipped-Out Food says
17th December 2018 at 5:04 pmI’ve used up my leftover turkey in green curry, but I haven’t tried tikka-masala style. It sounds super yummy and easy! I like your strategy for freezing your leftover meat—sadly, my leftover meat gets snarfed down within a couple of days. Well, I guess that’s a good thing, right? 😉
Eb Gargano says
18th December 2018 at 11:24 amOh definitely a good thing! But sadly it’s not the same for everyone and so much leftover turkey gets wasted each year. I love having 1 meal size boxes of leftover turkey ready to go in my freezer. I have a few from the last time I cooked a turkey for the blog and it’s great to be able to pull one out and make a quick, easy and TASTY midweek meal in just a few minutes with my leftovers! Eb x
Dee says
2nd January 2019 at 7:48 amHiya,
Just to let you know when I try to save the recipe in Pinterest it comes up with an error message about too many characters and doesn’t save.
I have to delete all the #hashtags in the description and then it saves fine. Thought you might like to know.
Cheers, Dee
Eb Gargano says
2nd January 2019 at 7:08 pmOooh thanks Dee – I’ll get on to that and get it fixed pronto – thanks so much for taking the time to let me know! Eb 🙂