Macheesmo

There’s come a point after every Thanksgiving meal where there are a few huge bags of leftover turkey meat in the fridge and everybody has pretty much had as much turkey as they can take. This is when these Leftover Turkey Fajitas come in to save the day!

After you have eaten turkey with stuffing, put it on a sandwich, and probably snuck it at midnight, but sometimes even with all of that, you’ll be left with more turkey than you know what to do with.

These fajitas may just be the perfect way to use leftover turkey. Let me explain:

1) They take just a few minutes to make. After slaving away over the stove for days, it’s nice to have a quick meal.

2) They are somewhat healthy. They are mostly lean meat, veggies, and salsa. It’s actually a somewhat light meal after days of gorging.

3) They have a different flavor profile. Even though you’re using turkey, it has a completely different taste because of the spices.

Even though the actual turkey day is still a few days away, this Leftover Turkey Fajitas recipe is a great way to put a dent in some of those leftovers!

Do you have to use leftover turkey?

Of course not! Turkey is a great healthy protein and you can absolutely cook some turkey just for these fajitas. I would recommend using a boneless turkey breast, sliced into strips, or a turkey tenderloin. Season the turkey with some taco seasoning, or keep it simple with ground cumin and chili powder, and then cook the turkey in a skillet and it’ll be great on these fajitas!

How to Prepare the Turkey for Fajitas

As far as the turkey goes, you can definitely use white or dark meat. I used leftover turkey and a mix of both. Don’t worry if you have any sort of flavors in your turkey (brined, etc.). It’ll work well in the fajitas.

No problems at all.

There are some options when it comes to prepping the turkey. You could shred it, but I like my fajitas to have larger chunks of meat so I just roughly chopped my leftover turkey.

Turkey Fajitas Ingredients

Like I said, one of the great things about fajitas is it gives you a chance to use some nice fresh veggies after days of carbs.

I like my fajitas to be really pepper-heavy so I usually use a red bell pepper, one other kind of pepper, and a jalapeno or two. I also like a medium onion (you could use a red onion or yellow onion), sliced, and a few jalapenos. 

Slice up the peppers and onions. For the jalapeno, if you’re using one, remove the seeds and chop it a bit smaller. Nobody will enjoy a huge slice of jalapeno in their fajitas.

This might take 5 minutes to prepare.

Cooking the Turkey Fajitas

Before you actually start cooking your fajitas, I’d recommend wrapping your tortillas in some foil and sticking them in a hot oven for 5 minutes or so to get them nice and warm.

The fajitas themselves only take about 10 minutes to cook at the maximum.

Start by heating your oil in a large skillet over high heat. Once it’s hot, add your onions and peppers and cook them until they start to caramelize a bit, about 5 minutes. Then add the turkey and spices and a pinch of salt and pepper.

Cook this all for a few more minutes and you’ll be ready to rock.

Cooking the fajitas on high heat is key so you get some browning on the veggies and on the turkey.

While they cook, I always like to get some fun toppings ready. For this meal, I just used some salsa, sour cream, cilantro, limes, and diced up an avocado. While you could add cheese, I actually prefer fajitas without cheese. Personal preference!

Serve the fajitas with a few flour tortillas and pile on the toppings.

Two or three fajitas is a really good meal.

There’s nothing tricky or hard about this recipe for Leftover Turkey Fajitas. It’s just straightforward good food which is all you need when you’re looking for a way to use your leftovers and relax.

If you have some turkey leftover after Thanksgiving (who doesn’t?), try out the Tex-Mex route!

My Leftover Turkey Fajitas Recipe

Leftover Turkey Fajitas

This easy recipe is a quick and delicious Tex-Mex fajita dish that makes it easy to use up some leftover Thanksgiving turkey!

3.52 from 27 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 5 mins

Cook Time 10 mins

Total Time 15 mins

Course Main Dishes

Cuisine Tex-Mex

Servings 6 Servings

Yield 12 Tacos

Equipment

• 1 skillet

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1-1½ pounds leftover turkey chopped
• 1 red pepper sliced
• 1 orange, yellow, or green pepper sliced
• 1 yellow onion sliced
• 1 jalapeno sliced thin
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• Salt and pepper
• 12 flour tortillas

Toppings:

• Sliced avocado
• Salsa
• Sour cream

Instructions

 

• Chop up turkey roughly. You can use white or dark meat. Also slice peppers and onions into strips.
• Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees and wrap tortillas in foil. Add tortillas to oven and let heat up for 5-10 minutes.
• Add oil to a large skillet over high heat. Once hot, add the peppers and onions and cook until they are slightly caramelized, about 4 minutes.
• Add chopped turkey to skillet with spices and a pinch of salt and pepper.
• Toss ingredients together well and cook until the turkey is slightly browned.
• Serve turkey mixture with warm flour tortillas and toppings.

Nutrition

Serving: 2TacosCalories: 458kcalCarbohydrates: 34gProtein: 38gFat: 18gSaturated Fat: 5gPolyunsaturated Fat: 4gMonounsaturated Fat: 8gTrans Fat: 0.1gCholesterol: 124mgSodium: 567mgPotassium: 468mgFiber: 3gSugar: 4gVitamin A: 867IUVitamin C: 45mgCalcium: 116mgIron: 4mg

Keyword Homemade Fajitas, Thanksgiving Leftovers, Turkey Fajitas

Did you make this?

Snap a photo and tag @macheesmo so I can see your work.

Here are a few other leftover Thanksgiving ideas!

• Leftover Turkey Waldorf Salad
• Turkey Bahn Mi
• Mashed Potato Gnocchi
• Turkey Cranberry Sliders from Graceful Little Honey Bee