The Ultimate Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey Sandwich Slideshow

First we take a look at the ingredients, most of which you'll see on Thanksgiving, with the exception of mayonnaise and the sourdough bread. We chose to use sourdough because it has that rustic taste and texture that Thanksgiving is all about, and a turkey sandwich isn't a turkey sandwich without mayonnaise.

For our sandwich, we wanted a contrast of textures to balance out the turkey and stuffing combination, so we decided to toast our bread to add a little crunch. We also wanted the bread hot like the other ingredients, so heating it through the toaster was key.

Anyone who has made a version of this sandwich before will raise an eyebrow at these two ingredients, but we melt them together in a sauté pan and use the mixture for a very crucial part of the sandwich, which you'll see in the next slide.

When we thought about the turkey, we started with what we didn't want. What's the worst thing about Thanksgiving turkey? When it goes dry. To avoid this, we heat up our turkey by carefully basting it in the melted chicken stock and butter mixture. 

Stuffing is great as is, but because we wanted to incorporate another one of our favorite parts of the Thanksgiving meal — gravy — into this sandwich, we decided to give it a little special treatment. To reheat the stuffing, we stir a little gravy into it and zap it in the microwave so that it's extra flavorful.

For assembly, we start with the cranberry sauce, spreading it over one slice of bread. In many recipes, you'll see cranberry on both slices, but we deliberately chose to do just one because we thought it added the perfect amount of tang. 

On the other half, we add the mayo, spreading the entire tablespoon evenly across the surface so that it covers every nook and cranny.

When we thought about the presentation of our sandwich, we wanted it to be similar to how you would load up your plate on Thanksgiving. For many of us, cranberry tops the stuffing and turkey, so we added the stuffing as the next layer on the cranberry slice. Using a spoon, we smoothed it out evenly so that it covered every inch of the bread. 

The turkey is added to the other slice of bread, topping the mayonnaise. This was a deliberate choice, because we love the combination of mayonnaise and turkey on any sandwich, so wanted to make sure the two were close by in our version. 

Once the two slices are assembled, it's time to add them together and enjoy. No one can argue with the flavor combination of turkey, stuffing, and cranberry, but we assure you that our recipe for this sandwich is unlike any other, taking each and every step into careful consideration.

Click here to see the Ultimate Leftover Thanksgiving Sandwich Recipe