Post-Thanksgiving: Turkey Sandwich

Has everyone woken up from them turkey/food coma yet?  I definitely have, and was happy to realize that today is the day after Thanksgiving which can only mean one thing: TURKEY SANDWICHES!  As much as we all enjoy the bird, potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, salad, corn and pie, I think you'll agree that one of the best, if not THE best thing about Thanksgiving is the leftovers.  

I love eating the cold turkey right out of the tupperware my parents sent me home with, but my absolute favorite thing in the world to make with leftover Thanksgiving turkey is sandwiches.  There are different variations of the turkey sandwich but I normally chop up the turkey and make it into a turkey salad, with diced onions, celery, pickle relish, kewpie mayo, dijon mustard and lots of black pepper.  Another tradition is to pile some stuffing and turkey between two slices of bread and douse it with gravy, although I guess that's quite a decadent sandwich!  I'll be making both of those very soon, but today I made a sandwich I'd never made before, based on a sandwich I'd had at a restaurant recently that blew my socks off.


Before I get to the sandwich- here's the lovely spread my parents had waiting for us when we arrived:

Here's my plate- YUM:

And here is a pic of the most incredible apple pie that my dad made- the crust was so flaky and the apples were tender and warm and just slightly gooey and we all went berserk for it (so much so that this is the only photo we took of it!):

So on to the sandwich.  Here's what I used:

• Whole grain, multigrain or seeded bread (the heartier, the better)
• Leftover white and/or dark meat turkey (I like white, J likes dark)
• Sharp white cheddar cheese (I used a 50% light version from Trader Joe's that is still really delicious!)
• Dijon mustard
• Jalapeno jelly (I used Hell Fire Pepper Jelly from Jenkins Jellies)
• Very thin slices of Fuji or Granny Smith apples
• Arugula or other spicy greens (I used microgreens because TJ's was sold out of arugula- blerg!)
• Caramelized onions

First I made the caramelized onions by slowly sauteing some sweet, yellow onions over low heat- it takes about 20-30 minutes for them to get nice and brown and melted.  Then just lightly toast the bread, and stack the ingredients in whatever manner you like:

This sandwich brings so many flavors and textures together- the sweet/spicy jelly, mellower sweetness of the onions, the fresh green taste of the microgreens, the sharp richness of the cheddar and the crisp tartness of the apples.  Of course the super tender turkey is the star here, and everything combines to create one, amazing sandwich.

Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!