Remake your Thanksgiving dinner with this leftover turkey enchiladas casserole! This recipe is a bit of an indulgence, but it completely transforms your turkey and tastes amazing. It’s mild enough for kids but still flavorful, and is also gluten-free. Transform your turkey into a new dinner your family will love!
The holidays are delicious and leftovers can be so good – my family loves leftovers of our Traeger smoked turkey – but after a while you want something new. That’s where this recipe comes in!
It takes your holiday turkey and transforms it into an entirely new dish. It’s what I like to call a Round 2 recipe, where you use one dish and turn it into something else. I live for Round 2 recipes, but I know these types of dishes are most highly sought after Thanksgiving, where leftovers abound.
If you’re into using up what you can and stretching out your dollar, you also need to check out these mashed potato pancakes and some gluten free cranberry orange muffins. But for now, let’s focus on leftover turkey recipes.
Why these are the best leftover turkey enchiladas
This leftover turkey recipe is top notch and I’m going to tell you why.
- It uses up any leftover turkey that otherwise might not get eaten, giving you more bang for your buck.
- The flavor profile of the turkey completely changes so you don’t actually feel like you’re eating leftovers.
- You don’t have to dip the tortillas in oil as in traditional recipes. This is definitely an American take on enchiladas and is more of a casserole as everything kind of melds together – but in a really great, delicious way!
- You can easily customize it to your needs. Make it spiecer, change up some of the filling – it’s all pretty easy to do. See later in the post for my suggested substitutions. Want it spicier? Add some hot chiles instead of mild ones to the filling. Don’t want too much cheese? Reduce the amount by 2 cups. Don’t like black beans? Use pinto beans instead, or even just omit them entirely.
What you’ll need for this recipe
(Note: the full ingredients list, including measurements, is provided in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.)
- Leftover turkey – the whole point of this recipe is to use up what you have.
- Corn tortillas – get ones that are 7.5 to 8 inches wide, not the street taco-sized ones.
- Mild green chiles – we use the ones in the can, but you can certainly use fresh if you like.
- Black beans – make sure to rinse and drain them before adding them to the recipe.
- Shredded cheese – I used a blend of cheddar and pepper jack but you can use a pre-made Mexican blend or just cheddar if that’s what you prefer.
- Enchilada sauce – a mild red enchilada sauce works well in this recipe, but use your favorite.
- Sour cream – use a full fat one for richness or a low fat one to cut some of the calories.
- Garlic & onion – I like to chop mine up fine so it’s more evenly distributed.
- Spices – ground cumin and smoked paprika give a great smokiness to this casserole. Make sure your spices are fresh as older spices lose their pungency over time.
- Olives – these add just a bit of salt and brininess to the enchiladas.
- Oil – you just need a little bit to saute the garlic and onion, and then to grease the casserole dish. I use a mild oil like avocado oil.
How to make a turkey enchilada casserole using leftovers
(Note: please see the recipe card at the end of this post for the complete written instructions.)
Dahn
This is such a great way to use leftover turkey. Leftovers always taste better in my opinion 🙂
Taryn Solie
I agree – leftovers do taste better! Thanks Dahn.