Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey Stuffed Shells
Thanksgiving leftovers with a twist! Jumbo pasta shells stuffed with moist leftover turkey and your favorite fixings! Extra stuffing, gravy and a sprinkle of cheese complete this fun meal! A perfect way to use up holiday leftovers!
I’ve been full blown into the Christmas spirit since the beginning of the month. Honestly, I was itching for it probably before Halloween. And since it’s such an odd and awful year, who could blame me? We didn’t do trick or treating or costumes but we did still make it special. Fast forward a few weeks, and I slowly started to add holiday trinkets around the house. My favorites are snow globes and nutcrackers. The snow globes I only started collecting in the last 10 years or so, but each one had a special meaning. Sadly, I discovered over the weekend that somehow two of them leaked significantly. Thankfully only a few others were damaged from the water but it was still sad.
Yesterday’s mission… snow globe replacement. I was mostly successful. I have always adored music boxes and snow globes that played music. This dates back to when I was a kid and I’d visit a store in the mall with my mom. They literally only stocked these items. It was dreamy and magical. The replacement I found sadly doesn’t play music, but boy do I wish it did. It’s okay… the inside theme is just as special and magical. Characters from The Nutcracker ballet. I can almost hear the music it would play while the snow inside falls.
Do you have favorite holiday decorations? Have you started decorating already or are you waiting till after Thanksgiving?
Let’s talk leftovers!
Leftovers are one of the best parts of Thanksgiving, right?! Leftovers for days and so many possibilities for how to enjoy them. Sure, a classic turkey sandwich is great, but there are so many other fun and flavorful ways to use them up. Create completely new meals of of the same great ingredients and flavors.
In the past, I’ve shared leftover recipes for turkey pie soup, Thanksgiving pizza, turkey shepherd’s pie and many more. A new year… a new leftover recipe!
These leftover Thanksgiving turkey stuffed shells have all of your favorite flavors wrapped up into a neat little package. Cheesy creamy mashed potatoes and turkey filled shells with stuffing and gravy. A super comforting and flavorful must make meal with your holiday leftovers!
PS… this works fantastic as a from-scratch meal as well! No leftovers? No problem! You can whip this up anytime you’re craving a cozy stuffed shell recipe with the flavors of Thanksgiving.
Be sure add this fun Thanksgiving turkey stuffed shell meal to your weekend plans!
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Tips tricks and questions answered…
I don’t have leftovers, can I make this from scratch?
Absolutely! Use the same quantities as listed below. The only difference would be prepping your stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy. Prep and season as you normally would.
Can I use a different cheese?
Yes! Fontina, gruyère and even mozzarella would all be great substitutions. If you have all of the ingredients, minus the cheese, you can totally skip it too.
How small should I chop my veggies?
Small! You don’t want big chunky pieces in your filling mixture. Dice both the onion and celery. This is basically between chopping and mincing.
Would this work well with different meat?
Yes! If you don’t have turkey or don’t like it, you can substitute with chicken. One chicken breast, cooked and chopped should do the trick.
How many will this serve?
This dish will easily serve 3-4.
Do you have other recipes for leftovers?
Yes! You can find them all here. Many are listed below in this post as well.
Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey Stuffed Shells
Ingredients
- 12 jumbo pasta shells
- 1 C turkey
- 1 C mashed potatoes
- 1 Tbsp celery, diced
- 2 Tbsp yellow onion, diced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 3 oz cheddar cheese, shredded and divided
- 1 1/4 C gravy
- 1 C bread stuffing
- salt
- pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 1 1/2 quart baking dish. Set aside.
- Boil pasta shells, cooking for 8-9 minutes. Drain and set aside.
- Meanwhile, prepare filling. Chop turkey into bite size pieces. Heat mashed potatoes until just warm. In a medium bowl, combine turkey, mashed potatoes, diced onion and celery, minced garlic and half of the shredded cheese. Optionally, sprinkle with salt and pepper to season. Stir and toss to combine well.
- Spread 3/4 cup gravy on the bottom of a 1 1/2 quart baking dish. Use a medium cookie scoop to fill each pasta shell. Place in prepared pan. Top off with leftover stuffing, remaining gravy and shredded cheddar cheese.
- Bake at 350°F for 25-30 minutes. Sprinkle with optional fresh parsley, chives or green onions. Serve warm.
Notes
More Thanksgiving leftover recipes:
- Slow cooker leftover Thanksgiving turkey pie soup
- Leftover Thanksgiving turkey shepherd’s pie
- Leftover Thanksgiving turkey pizza
- Slow cooker leftover Thanksgiving turkey and three bean chili
- Slow cooker Thanksgiving turkey and mashed potato chowder
- Slow cooker turkey and stuffing dumpling soup
- Turkey enchiladas
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Can these be frozen?
I haven’t personally tried it but it should work well!
this is soo soo good and am so glad I found this recipe as I always have lots of left over turkey stuffing, gravy and mashed potatoes and rather than make shepherd’s pie all the time this is a great recipe to use up the leftovers and I love it.
So glad you enjoyed it, Michelle!
I couldn’t find where you use the stuffing except when it says leftover on top of shells?
The stuffing is used as a topping. It is not mixed with the shell filling.
This is genius! I also never thought to use a cookie scoop to fill the shells. I just made ricotta stuffed shells for dinner tonight and because of my osteoarthritis I really struggled to fill 20 shells. I have 5 different sizes of scoops. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed the idea! It definitely makes things a lot easier. :)
This recipe was the perfect way to transform our Thanksgiving leftovers and use up some extra shells left over from meal prepping. Absolutely delicious! I omitted the celery and onion since my homemade stuffing had lots, and I added garlic powder and onion powder instead. My dish needed almost an hour to bake but it had been assembled and refrigerated overnight. We loved this dish! Thanks for sharing.
So glad you enjoyed the recipe, Robyn! As you noticed, chilling will definitely add to the bake time. Thank you for sharing and happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.