10th Anniversary of the Thanksgiving Leftover Sandwich

It's been 5 years since the last one...it was time.

Hawaiian Roll Bun. Mayo. Turkey. Pepper. Dressing. Brown Sugar Sweet Potatoes.

It was all warm and delicious.

It had been 5 years since I'd made stuffing and a big part of why I made it this year, was so I could have this sandwich.

Thanksgiving Leftover Sandwich Strikes Back

This year had it all. Warm turkey, my stuffing/dressing, and brown sugar sweet potatoes. All on a Hawaiian Roll bun.

Also, I feel like I've gotten a lot better at food photography.

The Thanksgiving Leftover Sandwich Returns

Previously, I've made turkey sandwiches with dressing and sweet potatoes. Well, for the last two years we didn't have the candied sweet potatoes that I needed. This year, I didn't make stuffing so the sandwich was simple. Hot turkey with some honey glaze and candied sweet potatoes. Delicious. 

But that's not the only kind I've had since Thursday. I also made one with cold turkey, honey mustard, black pepper, jalapeno slices, colby-pepper jack and mayo.

And then another one. This time I used the leftover aioli (mayo-garlic-lemon-fresh parsley) with cold turkey, black pepper and cheese.

I enjoy these as much as the hot turkey on feast day.

return of the thanksgiving leftover sandwich

A year ago, I had the first annual thanksgiving leftover sandwich. Well, this year we planned the menu. And I made sure to have stuffing and sweet potatoes--plus this year, plenty of maple/brown sugar sauce. My bread choice this year was inspired--a quartet of joined Hawaiian Rolls, sliced. Starting from the bottom, I added a thin layer of mayo, then white and dark meat. On top of that is my homemade stuffing (that includes apple, celery, onion, pecans and dried cranberries). And then the topper is my also homemade sweet potatoes, with a generous serving of sweet sauce. As you can see in this action shot below, I sacrificed a little bit of structural integrity in favor of flavor with the choice of Hawaiian Rolls. But it was worth it. The best way to eat it was to sit it upright, to minimize lifting. A++++ WOULD DO AGAIN.

thankgiving leftover sandwich

Back on June 5th, I dreamed up the ideal Thanksgiving leftover sandwich:

And then I came across this page of layered Thanksgiving leftover sandwiches. As I said before I'm usually a simple leftover sandwich guy. But if I were to think about such things, I wouldn't be a fan of cranberries or mashed potatoes on mine. Instead I would go with turkey, dressing (aka stuffing, but we don't stuff ours) and a little bit of brown sugar sweet potatoes. Mmmm.

So on Black Friday, while everyone else is crowding into Best Buy, I was making this:

(click for HD!)

I started with a generous layer of white and dark meat turkey. The middle layer is stuffing, this one of the cornbread variety. The top layer is roasted sweet potatoes, with a noticeable lack of brown sugar sauce. I thought about putting mayo on it, because of the turkey, but ending up going without condiments because I didn't think it would jive with the other layers. The result? It was a warm, delicious endeavor. It was plenty moist and didn't need condiments. It was in fact better than just a plain turkey sandwich. The only thing that it was missing was the brown sugar sauce. Maybe next year.