Molly Yeh’s Thanksgiving Leftover Hotdish Is the Coziest Way To Use up Turkey & Stuffing

  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.


If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, SheKnows may receive an affiliate commission.

It may sound shocking, but though we haven’t even hit Thanksgiving yet, it’s truly never too early to start planning what you want to do with your leftovers. Trying to figure out what to cook with leftover Thanksgiving food is actually one of the funnest culinary challenges of the year to us, but it’s also important, because if you don’t plan ahead, you risk one of the following: someone else eats the leftovers you wanted to use in fun recipes, you forget what leftovers are in the fridge and they go bad before you get to use them, or you find yourself totally exhausted from hosting the big day and end up just eating random slices of turkey straight from the fridge for a few days before tossing everything. That’s just not how it should be, and if you’re looking for an easy but delicious Thanksgiving leftovers idea that will make sure nothing goes to waste, look no further than Molly Yeh’s Thanksgiving Leftover Hotdish. We’re already obsessed with the star thanks to the recipes from her cookbooks Home Is Where the Eggs Are and Molly on the Range, but this cozy hotdish is what winter dreams are made of.

More from SheKnows

Yeh, the star of “Girl Meets Farm” on Food Network, is from Minnesota. Her spin on hot dish, a traditional casserole often topped with Tater Tots, takes that Minnesota favorite and gives it a Thanksgiving makeover.

Home Is Where the Eggs Are by Molly Yeh

Click here to read the full article.

Price: $21.73

Buy Now

One thing we love about the recipe is that Yeh makes a very simple cream soup from scratch to make the creamy base of the casserole. Canned condensed soups have a time and place, but the simple elegance of a homemade cream soup, which has a base of onion, celery, and carrot, adds a lot to the hotdish. If you have any leftover gravy, you can also melt that into the cream soup, to add flavor and richness.

Yeh layers leftover wild rice (a traditional Minnesota favorite that the Ojibwe and other indigenous groups in the area have been cultivating and harvesting for hundreds of years) and leftover turkey with the cream soup base. But don’t be afraid to add other leftovers to the hotdish, too — roasted or glazed carrots, some green beans, even a spoonful of mashed potatoes could all be added to the mix.

Courtesy of Rodale Books.
Courtesy of Rodale Books.

Molly on the Range: Recipes and Stories from An Unlikely Life on a Farm

Price: $21.99

Buy Now

To help the hotdish have the best flavor and texture, Yeh layers her ingredients, rather than mixing them up. This helps certain elements of the dish remain distinct, while the cream soup base helps bring everything together.

For the topping, Yeh adds a thick layer of crumbled leftover stuffing. She says you can use any kind of stuffing, including cornbread stuffing. The stuffing on top will get crispy and golden brown, while the hotdish gets super creamy and bubbly in the oven.

It’s one way to use Thanksgiving leftovers that can feed the whole family, and if you have any of your leftovers leftover and truly can’t bring yourself to have another bite of Thanksgiving food, the good news is that this hotdish freezes beautifully.

Before you go, check out our top foolproof holiday gifts for absolutely everyone on your list:

Watch: We Tried Ina Garten’s Overnight Mac & Cheese & We Totally Get Why It Broke the Internet

Best of SheKnows

Sign up for SheKnows' Newsletter.
For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.