Leftover Turkey Fried Rice with Pigs in Blankets

This Leftover Turkey Fried Rice recipe is super versatile. It is perfect to use up those Christmas and Thanksgiving leftovers (I’ve even snuck in pigs in blankets). But this super easy and flavour packed 20 minute stir fry dish is equally delicious all year round made with leftover roast chicken, beef, pork, shrimp or my favourite – duck!

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I am always banging on about “traditional” holiday foods not being confined to their “traditional” holidays. I firmly believe that a great Roast Turkey can grace the table at any time. And I am fervent that Pigs in Blankets should be made at least weekly.

So it makes sense that I’m as into creating leftover roast turkey recipes in May as I am in December. And I promise, I really do practise what I preach!

Chronic illness means that I have a staple repertoire of meals I can throw together in less than 10 minutes. Even if some of them are a little weird. Full disclosure, they almost all include bacon and egg in some form.

I’ve actually been making and eating a really simple stir-fry with chopped up bacon, sausages, peas, packet white rice and soy sauce for years. My Plain Egg Fried Rice recipe is so popular as a base for simple and quick dinners that it felt churlish not to throw some turkey and sausage/bacon at it. I knew it would be good.

I’ve also included a whole array of vegetables to make this turkey fried rice a fully rounded meal in its own right. They’re fresh rather than leftovers but even I drew the line at adding parsnips and roast potatoes. And the slight crunch is really needed here.

How to Serve Leftovers Fried Rice

This is a complete meal. We’ve got protein, veg and carbs. And whilst in theory, there isn’t really a sauce or moist maker, fried rice rarely seems to need one.

So get the fried rice out of the wok asap, grab a fork or spoon (chopsticks are tricky when rice is free flowing and not sticky so I channel Korea and use a spoon) and dig in.

If you feel like you need a little extra extra, pop a fried egg on top.

This recipe is loosey goosey. Really all the quantities I’ve given are just a guide. But make it as written or with similar quantities and it’ll serve 2 as a main meal. Use the serving slider to adjust for more or less. If you’re making more of a feast type meal, the given recipe will serve at least 4 as a small side dish.

Make Turkey Egg Fried Rice into a Feast

I truly believe that you can make any dish into a proper feast! Whether thats a feast for one after work on a Tuesday, a casual feast for four on a Friday evening or a feast for 12 for a special occasion!

I’ve mentioned that this recipe is a main dish in itself. That does not mean for a second that I’m not totally on board with adding some sides. The easiest and most obvious is to serve some steamed dumplings. I love my Turkey Steamed Dumplings served with Cranberry Dumpling Dipping Sauce to stick to the turkey theme.

But I also mix it up by serving har gow, siu mai or fun guo along with my super simple Dumpling Sauce. If you’ve taken my advice and make freezer stashes of each, its fun to serve one of each on the side. Otherwise some shop bought varieties are great too.

If you want to create even more of a feast you could add some extra veg sides. Sesame Tenderstem Broccoli and Ginger & Chilli Courgettes are my firm favourites. My Satay Sprouts are especially popular when brussels are in season.

Don’t forget to head over to my Feast Collection pages to find all of my tips and tricks to help you host a fun and stress-free feast. Plus remember to check out my recipe index to create your own awesome Feast!

Ingredients for Turkey Fried Rice

Vegetables

I’ve used fresh bell peppers, courgettes/zucchini, onions and mushrooms. These are all staples that I keep in the house almost as standard.

I’ve also used frozen peas and sweetcorn. You can use fresh or tinned too but again frozen peas and sweetcorn is always something I have in the freezer. It is much easier to just grab a small amount.

Protein

As I’ve written this as a turkey leftovers recipe, I’ve used cooked turkey and pigs in blankets. The bacon wrapped sausages are a surprisingly brilliant addition.

Turkey

You don’t need to have roasted a whole turkey or crown to have cooked turkey on hand. You can buy it cooked and sliced from deli counters and in supermarkets. Try to find turkey that looks like turkey and not the Bernard Matthews type stuff – the texture is nasty.

You can also cook fresh turkey breast just like I do for my Turkey & Butternut Chowder. Just make sure it is cooked before starting to make the fried rice.

Sausage & Bacon

I love pigs in blankets so much that I have to make tonnes of extras to have any remote chance of leftovers. But when I do I am very grateful.

I slice the pigs on a bit of a slant for maximum surface area. Bits of bacon will likely fall off as you slice. It really isn’t an issue.

If you don’t have any leftover pigs, you can simply use sausages and bacon, you don’t especially need to cook them together.

It is easier to use already cooked and cooled sausages/bacon. You need 1 slice of streaky bacon for every sausage. Although playing with the quantities isn’t a problem.

Egg

Egg fried rice wouldn’t be egg fried rice without egg! I’ve just used one egg between two main portions but you could add more if you wanted.

I cook the egg both separately and within the rice by making a well in the rice and mostly scrambling it before mixing it through the whole dish. This gives a lovely combination of identifiable pieces of egg and a very light coating of egg across the other ingredients. Which is exactly how a great egg fried rice should be,

Rice

Sorry Uncle Roger but I’m a huge fan of ready cooked packet rice for fried rice. Although for the record I am with him on pretty much every point in his Jamie Oliver recipe rant. Especially the chilli jam – weird!

I am especially pro packet rice for a leftover recipe. The chances of me having leftover roast dinner ingredients and leftover cooked and cooled long grain rice are almost infinitesimal. But packets of rice are always in my cupboard and ready to grab. So thats what I use and happily suggest you do to.

I do stick with plain long grain rice. I’m not anti brown rice but I don’t like to use basmati or any of the flavoured varieties. I don’t find that basmati goes the right texture. Although I do love it cooked from raw in my green coriander rice.

Seasonings

I ended up using a surprisingly little amount of seasoning in this recipe. Just a little light soy which should not to be confused with its darker heavier partner – dark soy sauce.

And a very small amount of toasted sesame oil. Sesame oil should be use sparingly and only ever as a seasoning, not a cooking oil. It adds a really nice depth of flavour to the rice.

Garlic salt is the final flavour. I’m obsessed with the stuff. It’s available from the spice aisle in all the supermarkets. I prefer the varieties with little or no added onion powder – Morrisons own brand is my preference.

If you can’t find garlic salt, make you own by mixing two parts garlic powder (not granules) with one part table salt.

Be Flexible

Fried rice is the ultimate flexible recipe. But I don’t like to write recipes which are super vague. I could have written “a handful of chopped bell pepper”, “whatever leftover turkey you have”, “1 small onion” and a “glug of vegetable oil”. But not everyone is comfortable with such loose quantities.

So I have given the weights/quantities of every ingredient I’ve used. Less confident cooks can follow the given recipe more closely and the more confident/experienced cooks can simply use it as a guide.

The vegetables you use can be adapted to personal taste, and more likely, to what needs using up in the fridge. And of course to your personal taste. If you don’t like mushrooms, simply leave them out, etc.

What you do need to take into account is at what stage you add different vegetables to the wok. You’ll note that I cook the harder vegetables first before adding the softer mushrooms followed by the frozen veg which merely needs heating through rather than cooking.

And as I’ve mentioned before, you do not need to be confined to using roast turkey and pigs in blankets as your protein element. Almost any leftover roast or cooked meat will be great, as will meats purchased from the deli.

Make it Vegetarian or Vegan

To make the recipe vegetarian, you will want to either leave out the meat entirely and perhaps add extra veg. Or replace it with a veggie substitute like quorn or even sliced veggie sausages.

There are more changes needed to make the recipe vega,. In addition to omitting the meat or replacing it with vegan alternative, you will also need to replace or leave out the egg. There are various vegan liquid egg replacers which should work but otherwise the egg isn’t wholly necessary.

Make it Allergy Friendly

This recipe is free from dairy, gluten and nuts.

Gluten Free: Please make sure that the soy sauce you use is gluten free. The tamari variety is naturally gluten free.

Egg Free: The easy option is to simply not add the egg. To retain the taste and texture, use a liquid egg replacer instead.

Please note that this recipe may contain other allergens not referred to above and any variations suggested have not been tested unless otherwise stated. For more information regarding any dietary information provided on this website, please refer to my Nutritional Disclaimer.

Equipment Notes for Leftover Turkey Fried Rice

The main semi-essential piece of equipment here is a wok. By far the best option is to buy a proper carbon-steel wok rather than a non-stick western version. The good news is that they’re the much cheaper option. Use it properly with a thin layer of oil and over the highest heat you can muster and they’re super easy to care for.

Buy the size that will be the most appropriate for your family. If in doubt, er on the side of larger rather than smaller. My wok is a small one as I most often cook for just me. A wok cleaner is also a great investment – it makes cleaning up a breeze.

If you don’t have a wok, you can use a large frying pan. Try to use either the thinnest one you have or a heavy cast iron skillet which will retain the heat.

A comprehensive list of the equipment used to make this recipe is included in the main recipe card below. Click on any item to see an example. There are no hard and fast rules so many items can be sensibly substituted to achieve the same results.

Get Ahead

You can do almost all of the prep for this recipe up to 24 hours in advance. Store everything ready prepared in the fridge in airtight containers.

In theory you should only ever reheat cooked foods one. So the act of making this fried rice is the second reheat of the turkey/pigs in blankets. So it should not be reheated again.

In reality I store store the cooked dish in the fridge and then eat it no more 48 hours later. I make sure to thoroughly reheat it either back in the wok with a little water or covered in the microwave.

I also freeze the finished result to thaw and reheat at a later date. When I do this, any crunch retained in the veg is no longer be there after freezing.

I’ve never come to any harm as I always make sure that I make sure everything is piping hot when reheating. I’ve given you all the facts, you’re the master of your own destiny and hopefully in possession of a good amount of common sense so I’ll leave you to decide if you want to get ahead or not.

Leftover Leftover Fried Rice

In light of what I’ve said above and by the very nature of this being a leftovers dish, the chances of you having a load of leftovers is slim. The same advice applies re reheating.

Turkey Fried Rice Tips

Getting your pan super hot and then leaving the heat on high is key to stir frying. If you feel like things are starting to stick, add a little water – never add more oil.

Because of this it is key to make sure all of your ingredients are prepared in advance. I am not a prep chef. Much of the time when I’m cooking, I’m preparing the next thing as the last one is cooking. But not with stir-frys – it is essential to be prepared as once you start cooking, you will not leave the wok.

That is because continually moving the food around in the wok is essential. Scrape down the sides, scrape down the bottom and keep moving it about. A little toss with your hand holding the wok handle is part of this.

The slight exception to this is when adding the turkey and sausage to the pan. Because turkey breaks up very easily, I am a little more gentle at this stage of the cooking.

Please do pay attention to the order that I add everything to the pan. There is method to the madness. Ingredients cook at different rates and just throwing everything in together will not end terribly well.

Don’t forget to let me know in the comments if you try making this recipe – I want to know what you think and if you made any substitutions, how did it turn out?

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The Recipe

Leftover Turkey Fried Rice with Pigs in Blankets

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This Leftover Turkey Fried Rice recipe is super versatile. It is perfect to use up those Christmas and Thanksgiving leftovers (I've even snuck in pigs in blankets). But this super easy and flavour packed 20 minute stir fry dish is equally delicious all year round made with leftover roast chicken, beef, pork, shrimp or my favourite – duck!

5 from 6 votes

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KEEP SCREEN ON

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time10 minutes mins

Total Time20 minutes mins

Servings 2

Author Chloe

Equipment

• Sharp Knife – Large
• Chopping Board – Plastic
• Wok
• Silicone Spatula
• Measuring Spoons
• Measuring Scales

Ingredients

 

MetricUSA Measurements

 

0.5x1x2x4x

• 100 g Bell Peppers
• 100 g Courgette (Zucchini)
• 75 g Onion
• 100 g Mushrooms
• 50 g Frozen Peas
• 50 g Sweetcorn
• 150 g Pigs in Blankets - or cooked sausage & bacon
• 150 g Roast Turkey - cooked & sliced
• 1 Spring Onions (Scallions)
• 1 Eggs
• ½ tsp Sesame Oil
• 2 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
• 1 tsp Garlic Salt
• 2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
• 250 g Ready Cooked Long Grain Rice

Instructions

 

Prepare the Ingredients

• Slice roughly 150g Pigs in Blankets into ½ cm slices. Don’t stress if bacon falls off, it doesn’t matter, just slice it too. Slice and then chop 150g Cooked Roast Turkey into 2cm chunks. Don’t cut too small as it will break up more when cooking. Set aside.
  
• Measure out roughly 50g Frozen Peas and 50g Sweetcorn into a small bowl. Set aside.
• Measure out and combine ½ tsp Sesame Oil and 2 tbsp Light Soy Sauce into a small bowl (egg cups are handy!) Set aside. Measure 1 tsp Garlic Salt and set aside.
  
• Trim and finely slice 1 Spring Onion on an angle. Set aside.
• Prepare and dice 100g Bell Pepper, 100g Courgette, 75g Onion and 100g Mushroom. Aim for similar size pieces – rough 1cm chunks. Don’t mix the mushrooms with the other vegetables as they won’t cook at the same time. Set aside.
  
• Add 250g Ready Cooked Long Grain Rice into a bowl and use the tips of your fingers to break up and lumps of rice. Set aside.
  
• Make sure you also have 1 Egg and vegetable oil to hand.

Cook the Fried Rice

• Put your wok or very large frying pan onto the highest heat possible. When it starts smoking add roughly 1 tbsp Vegetable Oil and swirl it around the pan. Do not touch the temperature until you have finished cooking!
• Add the diced onion, courgette and pepper to the pan and stir/toss over a high heat for 2 minutes.
  
• Add the diced mushrooms and stir for a further 1 minute.
  
• Add the peas and sweetcorn. Stir everything until it is all combined and the peas/sweetcorn have warmed through (1 minute max).
  
• Tip the veg out into a bowl and keep that aside. Make sure all traces of the veg are scraped out the pan.
  
• Return the pan to the heat and bring it back to smoking point. Add another 1 tbsp Vegetable Oil to the pan and give it a swirl.
• Add the sliced pigs in blankets and turkey chunks to the pan and stir fry for 1 minute.
  
• Add half the light soy/sesame oil mix and all the garlic salt. If it is looking a little dry, you can add a tablespoon or two of water – don’t be tempted to add more oil. Stir everything and continue frying for 1 minute.
  
• Add the cooked rice and stir until fully combined.
  
• Make a well in the centre of the rice and crack in the egg. Work quickly and keep stirring furiously at the egg in the gap until it is nearly cooked through. Then combine it with everything else in the pan.
  
• Add in the cooked vegetable and the rest of the light soy/sesame oil mix.
  
• Stir and fry everything together for another minute until everything is piping hot.
  
• Tip out of the pan straight away and garnish with the thinly sliced spring onion. And serve!
  

Nutrition (Approx)

Calories: 695kcal | Carbohydrates: 60g | Protein: 32g | Fat: 37g | Saturated Fat: 19g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 146mg | Sodium: 3481mg | Potassium: 1003mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 2136IU | Vitamin C: 89mg | Calcium: 73mg | Iron: 4mg

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