Easy Christmas Pizza Using Turkey Leftovers

Forget sandwiches, this turkey leftovers pizza will turn your holidays around. Whether it’s Christmas pizza or Thanksgiving pizza, eating turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce on crust will be a new tradition.

This is a quick post as we’re in the thick of the holidays and I said I wasn’t going to work.

But at Thanksgiving I saw Cailin from Travel Yourself ordered a thanksgiving leftover turkey pizza and I knew we had to have it as our Christmas pizza.

Making Holiday Cooking Easy

I cook holiday dinners for my family, which I love. However I have two rules:

1. I want to enjoy the holidays rather than being in the kitchen the whole time.
2. Once the big dinner is over. I’m done.

Although, it does work with a few minor tweaks:

Cook Two Turkeys

My family loves turkey soup and turkey pot pie. Every year I cook a whole turkey in the instant pot a week beforehand then make these two dishes so they are done.

When my sister goes back to her house it’s with a freezer bag of food.

She has two small children, I owe her for taking one for the team and having kids when I have chosen not to.

Over the years I’ve cooked turkeys so many different ways:

• Cooking over low heat
• over high heat
• spatchcock
• brined
• butter underneath the breasts

Yet NOTHING beats the Instant Pot in terms of ease, speed and moisture. I’ve cooked 15 turkeys in an Instant Pot and I’ve never been disappointed.

Most importantly, no one has ever said my turkey is dry.

Leftovers Should Be Easy

So on Christmas Eve I cook scallops and lobsters. Then I cook Christmas breakfast and that evening a full turkey dinner.

And on Boxing Day I make an appetizer for a larger family gathering.

After that I’m tired of cooking. Thankfully I always make lots of leftovers.

Whether it’s Christmas or Thanksgiving turkey sometimes turkey leftovers is better than the turkey dinner.

We usually have hot turkey sandwiches with fries or plain sandwiches.

   

I want to spend as little time in the kitchen the next day. I’d rather sit by the Christmas tree, drinking Cuban crema de vie (aka Cuban eggnog) and think about warmer days.

And this Christmas pizza is actually easier than sandwiches and everyone likes it more. Serve it with cherry balls for dessert.

What Kind of Pizza Crust Should I Use?

It really depends on how ambitious you are.

I like to go the easy route because it’s a lazy family dinner, where we sometimes just eat while watching a movie. 

Here are your holiday pizza crust options:

• Making homemade pizza dough from scratch
• Buying dough from the supermarket
• Puff pastry sheets for crust
• Buying a pre-made crust

Although I tend to be a cook from scratch kinda girl. I prefer the easiest option possible – pre-made crust that just needs to be heated. 

This also makes this Christmas pizza recipe extremely family friendly. Kids can help make one big pizza by adding the toppings.

Or you can buy personal size pizza dough – naan bread works so well for this.

If you have a pizza stone it’s always a good idea to throw the pizza on one that has been preheated at a high heat for a crispy crust.

A cast iron pan is also great if you don’t have one. Just throw the cast iron in the oven at 400F for 10 minutes then put your naan on it.

If you only have a baking sheet don’t stress! This is Christmas leftovers dinner!

Christmas Pizza Ingredients

Basically whatever you have cooked the evening before. This isn’t a typical Italian pizza with tomato sauce so add the food you love

• Pizza crust
• Turkey
• Mashed potatoes
• Stuffing, or as we call it, dressing
• Cranberry sauce
• Gravy
• Shredded Cheese
• Green onions or fried French onions
• Sweet potato
• Green bean casserole

Pin it: Christmas or Thanksgiving Pizza

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