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 kind 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!
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Easy Leftover Turkey Curry
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
Instructions
- 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
Pin Easy Leftover Turkey Curry for later
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Corina Blum says
You 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
Hahaha – I would definitely have guessed that! Thanks for your kind comments 🙂 Eb x
Anna | Once Upon A Food Blog says
A 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
Thanks Anna! Hope you like the cauliflower pilau rice! 😀 Eb x
Veronica says
Well I am not a Deliah in the kitchen but this year very much on my own over Christmas ( lost hubby last year) I thought I could wallow in self pity or lucky enough to enjoy turkey great food .
Living in DK now so I decicded to visit butcher in their very lovely Supermarket and ordered my one piece of duck for Christmas 🎄 Day which they celebrate 24th with their trimmings small tiny sweet potatoes redcabbagr in orange delicious . Then I thought I had ordered a 4 pound turkey silly me 4,kilo the smallest one so hey hooo ..had Christmas Turkey me and my little pooch he loved it as much as myself …turkey sandwiches ..and saved leftovers for today to cook your easy to follow quick step leftovers Curry only thing I added was sliced banana as love it with all those rich spices …smells lovely so tonight will taste and put rest away for NY along with rest of turkey…must look st your turkey pie next as not a big pie eater but trying to be adventurous…my wish for Christmas meet a chef ha ha be much easier 😀
Merry Christmas & Hsppy NY 2025
Eb Gargano says
Aw, that’s so great to hear! Thank you for this lovely review 😀
Monika Dabrowski says
With 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
Haha – 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
Corinne says
We found your recipe by chance last year my husband loves chicken and I make a veg one for myself
Eb Gargano says
Aw, yay! That’s so good to hear 😀 Thanks for this lovely comment! Eb 🙂
Cat | Curly's Cooking says
This 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
Thanks 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
I’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
Oh 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
Hiya,
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
Oooh 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 🙂
Richard Halliday says
Hi Eb, Thank you for your turkey curry recipe, I will be making it later today,, will let you you know the outcome,, sure it will be tasty,,
?????????
Eb Gargano says
A pleasure. Hope you enjoy it. Let me know how it goes! Eb 🙂
Rob says
Made this curry today. 27th Dec 19. Absolutely delicious. Thanks so much for making the recipe available. We all had empty plates.
Eb Gargano says
Yay! Thank you for this lovely comment. So pleased to hear you enjoyed my curry. Empty plates is the best compliment! Eb 🙂
Jo Heath says
I was looking for a curry recipe to make with my left over turkey and your photo looked fantastic. I am not a great cook but as I had all the ingredients I followed the recipe exactly.
Sadly it didn’t come out as hoped, my husband thought it had too much turmeric in it, and we ended up leaving most of it.
Eb Gargano says
Oh no – I am so sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy this one. I am at a loss to know why that might be. I’d be surprised if it was the turmeric – I mean it could be, but turmeric is a pretty common spice in curry and I am assuming you generally do like curry! It’s also not a super strong flavour and 2 teaspoons is not an especially large quantity in a recipe designed for 4. The only thing I can think of is this is definitely a ‘healthy’ style curry, in that it has a lot less oil than say a typical takeaway or ready meal curry and no sugar (also found in many takeaway and ready meal curries!) – so that could explain it. Otherwise I am really not sure as I’ve had lots of very positive feedback about this particular recipe. Maybe it just comes down to personal taste. We are all different after all! Eb 🙂
Cat London says
This was tasty — I squeezed in quite a bit of fresh lime because it felt like it needed to be brightened up, and I wish I’d had fresh cilantro, but it was the perfect dinner after two days of Christmas leftovers when no one could face the turkey and stuffing one more time.
Eb Gargano says
Yay! So happy you enjoyed my curry. Thanks for taking the time to let me know! Eb 🙂
Frøydis Adamson says
3 cm ginger??
Eb Gargano says
Yes – although it does depend on how fat your ginger is, I guess! Another way of describing it would be a thumb-sized piece of ginger. But if you are not a ginger fan then obviously feel free to reduce that amount. Hope that helps! Eb 🙂
Chilli Ray says
Thank you for posting this tasty and easy recipe, it was a hit with the family.
I have a vegetarian wife, a 3 year old and my love for hot food ? so I had to make a few adaptations which are fairly normal in my house, no Turkey, extra veg for my wife, not much chilli for my son and extra chilli for me.
I’ve tried my son on jarred curry and he doesn’t like it, he only liked curry from the local Indian restaurant, so to see him eat it all and enjoy it was great to see.
I kept to the recipe quantities but added some mustard seeds while the spices went in, I also added some coriander as I saw it in your photo and the results was great.
I chopped a fresh 7 pod Chilli in to mine which was perfect for my tastebuds.
Thank you
Eb Gargano says
Yay – so pleased to hear this was a hit! I am especially pleased to hear your son liked it – he clearly has good taste 😉 Thanks for taking the time to write this lovely comment. Eb 🙂
Mo says
Looking forward to cooking this today with our leftovers. After cooking can we freeze the curry as I am worried that when we defrost it will be being reheated for a third time.
Please advise or it will be a shame to waste it. TY
Eb Gargano says
Hi Mo, sorry I didn’t get to this comment until today. I hope my advice will still help you! The rule is that you can freeze turkey (or any meat) once uncooked and once cooked. In theory, it should be fine to reheat turkey more than once as long at you reheat it until it is piping hot all the way through each time. However, it really depends on how well you have followed turkey cooking / cooling / reheating best practice. If you are at all worried, I would err on the side of caution and not reheat your turkey for a third time. Please see these websites for more information: https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/reheating-turkey/ https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/cooking-turkey-safely/
June Gaynor says
I’m so pleased I found this recipe, I made it today from my leftover Turkey and it was really quick and easy, yet super delicious. Only problem was I didn’t have any coconut milk, so I added a bit of double cream at the end to give a bit more richness. Hopefully I redeemed myself with the brown rice!
Eb Gargano says
Yay! I am so pleased to hear you enjoyed this so much. I’m sure it was lovely with double cream! Eb 🙂
Holly says
Nice and easy – and tasty, but personally feel this could benefit from quite a bit more spice? Tasted quite tomatoey! I am freezing a batch which I will add some cumin and coriander to!
Eb Gargano says
Hi Holly, I am sorry to hear you did not find this curry spicy enough for your tastes. At least it’s an easy fix for next time! I am glad to hear you found it nice and easy, though. Eb 🙂
Brian McMahon says
I made this!!!!!!
Eb Gargano says
Yay! Good to hear you enjoyed this. And thanks especially for the 5 stars! Eb 🙂
Ann says
My children ate it all with no comment. What a winner!! ?
Eb Gargano says
Yay! That’s so good to hear. I am always especially happy to hear when my recipes go down well with children. They are definitely the toughest critics 😉
Elaine says
Omg this recipie is so good. It’s easy to make and full of flavor with turkey. I used one hot chili for us it was sufficient heat. Next time we have left over chicken will it as well.
Eb Gargano says
Aw, yay! Thank you for this lovely comment and 5* review 😀 I am so happy you enjoyed it so much! Eb 🙂
Faye McDermott says
I had a holiday a few years back in Sri Lanka and hold fond memories of the curries enriched with coconut milk that they served there. This recipe lived up to that! Just wonderful thanks so much!
Eb Gargano says
Aw, yay! I am so happy to hear that 😀
Ashley says
Tastes great, I like a little bit of spice so added some fresh chopped chillies. Perfect for anyone who doesn’t like a lot of heat to their curry (like my girlfriend).
Big love x
Eb Gargano says
Thanks for this lovely feedback – so pleased to hear that both you and your girlfriend enjoyed this curry!
Liz says
Hi Eb
Thank you so much for your recipe for easy leftover turkey curry! My mom passed away a few years ago and had not written down her recipe for leftover turkey curry, so finding your recipe was a godsend. My dad loved the curry and the heat was just as he liked it. I live in South Africa and I love Malay dishes.
Eb Gargano says
Aw, I am so sorry to hear about your mom. But I am delighted that you liked my curry so much! Thank you for taking the time to leave this lovely review 😀
Diane says
Made this for the first (but not last!) time tonight. We were both tired and had left over turkey so I thought I’d give it a try. WOW! It was so easy to pull together and absolutely delicious! I used cauliflower rice this time, but will use brown rice in the future to soak up the yummy sauce. Thank you.
Eb Gargano says
Aw, yay! I am so happy to hear you enjoyed my recipe so much. Thank you for taking the time to let me know, and especially for the 5* rating! Eb 🙂
PETER I LORENZELLI says
i am going to try this recipe today nut not a fan of coconut milk or creams in curries what is beswt for a replacement ,, ? chicken stock ?
Thanks
Eb Gargano says
If you don’t like coconut milk, water or chicken stock would be a good replacement. Eb 🙂
Elon Klein says
This recipe is my favorite dish. Thank you for sharing valuable information.
Eb Gargano says
Aw, that’s so great to hear! You are very welcome 😀
Sarah O. says
Thank you for this recipe! I only had tomato sauce on hand and the dish turned out wonderful. I am a spice fan so I made my measurements heaping for all of the spices. YUM! We are eating it over coconut rice. Such a nice change from turkey and stuffing (but certainly not complaining about that!).
Eb Gargano says
That’s so great to hear! Thanks for this lovely review… and especially the 5* rating 😀
Michael MacInally says
I’ve been making this since before I was a “Pinner” so don’t know where I got the recipe. I’m glad to have it pinned! I add some carrot (sometimes shredded, sometimes chopped depending on my mood) in with the other sautéing veg, a cinnamon stick in with the pasata etc., and some frozen peas when I add the coriander. And I judge people who respond with all the “improvements” they’ve made to the original recipe (lol).
Eb Gargano says
Aw, yay – I am so happy to hear this! Thank you for this lovely review 😀
Vanessa Dickson says
Leaving for vacation and I had: leftover turkey, leftover rice, 3/4 an onion, bell peppers, garlic, and ginger that I needed to use before I left. Wow what a great use of all those! Had in the pantry fire a can of fire roasted tomato and coconut milk, so this was just the ticket for an easy and flavorful meal the night before we go away. THANK YOU!!!
Eb Gargano says
Wow – that’s so awesome that this recipe so perfectly fitted the ingredients that you had / needed to use up before vacation! Thank you for this lovely review… and especially the 5* rating! 😀
DC says
Is your garnish in phots cilantro? You don’t mention.
I used cilantro and it was great
Overall – not spicy enough for m; wife thought it was perfect
Eb Gargano says
Yes, it’s cilantro! Great to hear you liked it and it was the perfect level of spice for your wife. Another time you could always add some extra chilli flakes to your portion for some extra heat!
Jacqui says
I have just finished making this and tasting it for later it tastes amazing I will add some coriander before serving tonight and will freeze the rest,thank you for the recipe.
Eb Gargano says
Aw, that’s so great to hear! Thank you for this lovely review and 5* rating 😀
Karon says
Used some leftover turkey to make this. Really tasty and delicious.