This Cranberry Turkey Salad is one of my favorite recipes to make with leftover turkey and cranberries from Thanksgiving! It's so easy, with little prep work required, and takes less than 15 minutes to make. Serve it with crackers, over lettuce, on brioche buns or with croissants.
The day after Thanksgiving, I am absolutely exhausted from cooking and I love recipes like this turkey salad. It's so quick and easy and it uses up Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey and Cranberry sauce. The rest of the ingredients are common fridge and pantry items.
If you have a lot of Thanksgiving leftovers, try these Cranberry Turkey Sliders too!
Jump to:
Why You'll Love This Recipe:
- It's quick, easy and ready in less than 15 minutes.
- Uses leftover Thanksgiving turkey and cranberries and keeps them from going to waste.
- Full of flavor and the cranberry sauce brings something really special.
- The perfect lunch to come home to after Black Friday shopping.
For more easy lunch recipes, check out these Turkey and Cheese Roll Ups, Turkey Lentil Soup, Dill Pickle Egg Salad, and Chili Oil Ramen.
Ingredients:
Turkey-Leftover Thanksgiving roasted or smoked turkey is diced up and used for the base of this turkey salad.
Homemade Cranberry Sauce- Another leftover from Thanksgiving. If you need to buy store-bought cranberry sauce, buy the whole berried sauce, not the cranberry jelly. The texture will be really off with the jelly.
Celery and onion-Used for crunch and flavor.
Mayonnaise and dijon mustard- A classic creamy base for chicken and turkey salads. I recommend Hellmann's mayonnaise for this recipe.
Pecans-For taste and texture. Chop them up pretty fine, but big enough to where it's not ground up like sand.
Optional: A few sprigs of fresh rosemary can be minced and added into the recipe if you like the strong flavor of rosemary.
See the recipe card below for ingredients and quantities.
Substitutions and Variations:
If you don't have leftover turkey, you can use the meat from a rotisserie chicken or consider smoking a turkey breast if you have a smoker at home. It's super simple and less work and time required than cooking a full turkey.
Instead of pecans, you can use walnuts.
Not big on the cranberry sauce? Use ½ cup dried cranberries instead.
Love cranberry sauce, but don't want to make it? Buy the store-bought whole cranberry sauce in the jar or can. I do not recommend the cranberry jelly.
Prefer Chicken over Turkey? Try this Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad recipe.
How to Make Cranberry Turkey Salad:
Step 1: Into a large bowl, combine the turkey, cranberry sauce, celery, onion, pecans, and salt and pepper (and rosemary if using).
Step 2: Stir in the mayonnaise and dijon mustard until fully combined. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Step 3: Serve with crackers or over lettuce, on brioche buns, croissants and more. Enjoy!
Expert Tips:
- Don't add too much more cranberry sauce than recommended or you will have a really hot pink salad.
- Chop the celery, onion and pecans finely for the best taste.
- This turkey salad is intended to eat cold.
For more simple salad recipes, try this Ancient Grain Salad with a curry dressing, Classic Chicken Salad with Rotisserie Chicken and Southwest Chicken Salad.
Recipe FAQs:
There are so many options from soups to sandwiches, like these Turkey Sliders with Hawaiian Rolls or this Turkey Salad with Cranberry Sauce.
Much like chicken salad, turkey salad consists of turkey, celery, and onion with a creamy base of mayonnaise and dijon mustard. Sometimes fresh herbs are added in. This recipe includes pecans and cranberry sauce for an extra flavor punch.
I like serving turkey salad with options like crackers, different breads like brioche, sourdough and croissants and lettuce. This way everyone can choose how they want to make their own.
Store in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 2 days.
More Lunch Recipes You Will Love:
If you tried this Cranberry Turkey Salad Recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it goes in the 📝 comments below. I love hearing from you!
PrintRecipe
Cranberry Turkey Salad
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 3 cups 1x
Description
This Cranberry Turkey Salad is one of my favorite recipes to make with leftover turkey and cranberries from Thanksgiving! It's so easy with little prep work and takes less than 15 minutes to make. Serve it with crackers, over lettuce, on brioche bread or with croissants.
Ingredients
- 2 cups roasted or smoked turkey, diced small
- ¼ cup cranberry sauce (do not use the canned cranberry jelly-see substitutions section above)
- ⅓ cup yellow onion, diced small
- ⅓ cup celery, diced small
- ½ cup pecans, finely chopped
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
- ⅓ cup mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- Optional: ⅛ teaspoon of fresh rosemary leaves, minced
Instructions
- Into a large bowl, combine the turkey, cranberry sauce, celery, onion, pecans, and salt and pepper (and rosemary if using).
- Stir in the mayonnaise and dijon mustard until fully combined. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes.
- Serve with crackers or over lettuce, on brioche buns, croissants and more. Enjoy!
Notes
- Don't add too much more cranberry sauce than recommended or you will have a really pink salad.
- Chop the celery, onion and pecans finely for the best taste.
- This turkey salad is intended to eat cold.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Category: lunch
- Method: no bake
- Cuisine: Thanksgiving
Holly
This was so good with our leftover thanksgiving turkey! Thanks so much for the idea!
Tara Smithson
It's one of my favorites. So glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for the review.