Leftover Turkey Potato Cakes
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Leftover Turkey Potato Cakes. Or use leftover chicken instead for a pure comfort food meal you'll love! These crispy potato and turkey cakes may be even better than the meal that preceded them.
The inspiration for these Leftover Turkey Potato Cakes came from the most unusual of sources. A recipe contest....but it wasn't a recipe in the contest.
Chef Roger Andrews, who is also a culinary instructor at the St. John's campus of College of the North Atlantic, invited me to be a judge for the Saltscapes Magazine comfort food recipe contest. Roger and Kilted Chef Alain Bosse, who is also food editor for the magazine, served up the recipe entries to me and my fellow judges.
One of the other judges, Jonathan Richler, I knew. Jonathan is well known as a radio talk show host at VOCM here in St. John's.
He is also becoming just as well known for being a food entrepreneur with his venture The Jewish Deli. It's a regular vendor at The St. John's Farmers Market and a welcome pop-up in a town sorely in need of smoked meat!
The inspiration For Leftover Turkey Potato Cakes
The final judge that day was Ray Fennelly, a a photography and graphic design instructor at the college. While food is not his business, it doesn't take long in speaking to him to discover that it is his passion.
I could have listened all day about his extensive cookbook collection and a few celebrity chefs we follow. And one or two we think might be a little mad.
Somewhere the conversation turned to comfort food and/or leftovers. I may have mentioned that leftover turkey s a bit of a specialty on Rock Recipes. It was then he suggested Turkey Cakes as post Thanksgiving or Christmas leftover idea.
These tasty leftover cakes are similar in composition to our much loved Newfoundland Fish Cakes. His idea for incorporating turkey leftovers into bit of an "everything-but-the-kitchen-sink" recipe made it a kind of a hybrid with turkey hash or Newfoundland Bubble and Squeak.
Coincidentally, Spouse and I had planned a turkey dinner that very weekend, so within a couple of days the idea took life in my kitchen.
Spouse made some simple mashed potatoes with no butter or cream added. This gives the potato cakes hold together more in the pan. Creamy smashed potatoes are great at other times, but it's a practical impossibility to make potato cakes from them.
Around the same time, my son Noah was frying bacon for a sandwich and of course, once I smell bacon cooking the next move is inevitable.
Turkey and bacon are a great combination in a sandwich so I decided to throw some chopped, crisp cooked bacon into the mix. It's an optional addition of course but I added it because...well...bacon, right?
Ready in no time.
In short order, the turkey cakes were fried to golden perfection and drowned in some leftover, richly reduced gravy from the day before. Some homemade cranberry sauce added a delicious final accompaniment.
The result? Pure comfort food heaven! The turkey cakes needed a gentle touch in the pan but they still held together quite well, yielding a creamy centre with bursts of smoky, salty bacon flavour.
The chunks of tender turkey were plentiful and of course the cakes were punctuated by the familiar flavour of savoury from the dressing. The rich gravy was poured on and with a dollop of the cranberry sauce onto each forkful, it was utterly delectable.
Thanks for the idea Ray; it's one I know we will be making regularly around here and certainly sharing it with friends and family too. I hope our paths meet again so I can steal a few more nuggets from your similarly food obsessed brain.
Originally published Nov 2016.
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Leftover Turkey Potato Cakes
Leftover Turkey Potato Cakes - pure comfort food heaven...and from leftovers too! These crispy potato and turkey cakes may be even better than the meal that preceded them.
Ingredients
- ½ cup diced onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- salt an pepper to season
- 4 cups cold mashed potato
- 2 cups diced turkey, ½ to ¾ inch dice
- 1 cup leftover dressing, stuffing
- 6-8 slices of crisp cooked bacon, chopped. (optional)
- canola oil for frying
- cup flour for rolling cakes. About ¾ .
- leftover gravy and cranberry sauce
Instructions
- Boil potatoes until fork tender, mash them well without adding butter ofr cream. Allow to cool to room temperature or colder. Warm potatoes make the cakes more difficult to form.
- Sauté the garlic and onions in the olive oil, in a small pan over medium heat. Add to a bowl with all the potatoes, turkey, dressing & bacon.
- Form onto 8 equal sized balls and then pat them to about 1 inch thickness. dip the cakes in flour to coat them, then place them on a parchment paper covered plate or tray.
- Cover the bottom of a cast iron or non-stick frying pan with canola oil. Heat on medium for a few minutes before adding the cakes a few at a time. Don't crowd the pan or it will make it more difficult to keep the cakes intact.
- Let them brown very well on one side before gently flipping them over to brown for an equal amount of time on the other side. 4-5 minutes should do it but the browner the better and the easier they will be to flip.
- Transfer to a cookie sheet if making multiple batches and hold in a 200 degree F oven until all of the cakes are fried. Serve immediately with leftover gravy and cranberry sauce.
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Nutrition Information
Yield
4Serving Size
4 ServingsAmount Per Serving Calories 424Saturated Fat 4gCholesterol 47mgSodium 764mgCarbohydrates 43gFiber 7gSugar 3gProtein 26g
OMG! cant begin to say how yummy these sound! ! will definitely be trying these!!!!
So these are AMAZING. I had just enough leftovers to make them. With a big dollop of cranberry sauce... Yummy. These would be deadly with eggs benedict.
I'll Eggs Benny up practically anything. I totally agree!
Just served these to my family for dinner and they were great-- And I even forgot to salt and pepper them! I did have trouble keeping them together while flouring and then while flipping them in the pan, but a bit of patience and attention and it was fine. Very, very good!
Fantastic recipe! Can't wait to try it.
I'm also linking here in my upcoming Holiday Leftovers post over at hampersandhiccups.com. I'll be sure to update you with the link once it's live 🙂
Thanks!
Katelynn, hampersandhiccups.com
It's not absolutely necessary I guess but it does help hold them together.
Made these for dinner tonight with the leftovers from Thanksgiving last week. They are fantastic and will make again (and again)! Am going to try substituting leftover roast chicken. I am sure they will be just as delicious. Thank you for another amazing recipe.
This is a wonderful, tasty recipe that used up a lot of turkey dinner leftovers! And my fMily loved it.
These were delicious, and a big hit with my boys. I can imagine they would be that much better with bacon (I did not have any on hand). My mashed potato leftovers did have butter and cream in them, but were cold so they held up fine. I flattened them on a plate, as I found it easier to compact them so they held together more firmly than trying to shape the patty in the palm of my hand. Just make sure the turkey pieces are not too big, otherwise it compromises the structure of the patty. I would absolutely make them again.
I used a chef's ring mold to help shape these. Easier to compact them this way. Yummy recipe. The next time I make them (we're slowly getting rid of a 25-pound turkey) I'll try adding an egg yolk to the mix.
These cakes look wonderful and as I love fish or crab cakes,I will be trying them.
Great article, very appetizing Turkey, and wanted to cook, I was interested in this recipe, so be sure to cook in the near future and let me know about the result 🙂
Do you think they would freeze well? I've a friend living alone & I thought these would make a great dinner. She manages brekkie & lunch yet by dinner is too tired to cook.
It’s worth a try
Just made them for supper, WOW, they were amazing, my wife and I loved the
Just made for my wife and I , we loved them they were amazing
Certainly going to try these. If I make a large batch how well would they freeze? If ok would I freeze before or after Cooking?
Never tried, I'm afraid, but fish cakes are often frozen.