The Hot Turkey Sandwich

I love turkey. It’s not just a Thanksgiving thing for me, though that’s when they’re most readily available. I stockpile them in my freezer and roast or smoke them throughout the year. I’ve said before that I will eat every damn turkey.

That time after Thanksgiving though, when there’s a big bag of leftover turkey in the fridge just calling for you, that’s the best. The uses for it are endless. Like many of you, I love to slap some in a dinner roll with some cranberry relish and gravy, or make a hash of turkey and leftover stuffing, or even just eat it cold straight out of the bag. I run out of turkey before I run out of things to do with it.

The hot turkey sandwich, as served in diners in the US, is I think a kind of comfort food based on the post-holiday leftovers bliss. Sadly, as many turkeys as I’ve cooked this November and early December–the warmup turkey, the Thanksgiving turkey, the Friendsgiving turkey, the “why not?” turkey–I did not have the requisite leftovers to do it up right by the time I got around to writing this post. So I decided to do it the way many diners probably do–boxed stuffing, boxed mashed potatoes, frozen corn, jarred gravy–but the turkey. No, the turkey I have to do right.

Rather than roast another whole turkey, though, I roasted just the breast portion for this sandwich. I prefer dark meat–anybody with any sense does–but the breast meat is what is called for in this sandwich, I think. It slices nicer and presents better in an open-faced situation.

Roasted turkey breast

I actually roasted this breast the night before I was going to use it and let it chill to make slicing easier. I used my carving knife to slice along the bone and separate each half of the breast for even greater ease of slicing.

Turkey breast

One thing I’ve learned is that though you can see the grain of the meat clearly on a diagonal from the upper left to the lower right in that picture, there is a second muscle beneath this one in a whole turkey breast with the grain oriented on an opposing diagonal. You might think you want to slice against the visible top grain and end up with long slices, but that leaves you with the lower section of each slice poorly done and falling apart. Your best bet is to split the difference between the two grains and end up with the shorter slices shown on the right below.

Left: WRONG. Right: correct.

Since I cook so many turkeys, I generally have a good supply of frozen turkey stock on hand that I make afterwards from the carcasses (such an appetizing word, I know). I started some of this stock simmering in a saucepan so I could reheat the cold sliced turkey and got started making the rest of the ingredients. (To be entirely honest, I was not feeling at all well that evening and my wife did most of the work making these. She is the best)

With my awful boxed stuffing, mashed potatoes, and frozen corn heated and ready to go, it was time to start assembling the sandwiches.

The hot turkey sandwich as I understand it is an open-faced sandwich that starts with a single slice of white bread, lightly toasted. A scoop of stuffing is placed on the bread, with mashed potatoes and corn (as with many comfort foods, this is carb-heavy, but you could use a different vegetable if you wanted) on the side.

Just add turkey and gravy

I reheated the turkey by taking several slices in tongs and submerging them in the simmering turkey stock for around 10-15 seconds, just long enough to heat it through without having it fall apart or dry out. Then I arranged these slices atop the stuffing.

Hot Turkey Sandwich, diner-style

A note on gravy: homemade gravy is the best, but turkey gravy out of a jar is just fine and you can heat it in the microwave in a minute or two. Just don’t think that one jar is going to be enough. You don’t want to skimp on the gravy with this sandwich. What you see here represents about 30% of a single jar, and I probably could have used a bit more.

Hot Turkey Sandwich, diner-style

So that’s it! Dig in. It always feels weird calling something a sandwich when you have to eat it with a knife and fork–it’s not so much a sandwich as it is a plate of Thanksgiving leftovers doused in gravy, as previously noted–but “doused in gravy” makes up for a lot. Boxed turkey stuffing is not my favorite, but the excellent homemade sage stuffing I grew up eating wouldn’t work here–it’s more of a really dense savory bread pudding, and worthy of a meal on its own. I have a harder time justifying the potato buds, but they work in this context, as almost a dip for each forkful of turkey, stuffing, and soggy toast.

I’ve eaten many a plate similar to this one in many a late November, and never thought to call it a hot turkey sandwich, but who am I to argue with the List?

Jim Behymer

I like sandwiches.

I like a lot of other things too but sandwiches are pretty great