How to make the most delicious air fryer leftover turkey burgers. Loaded with all your favourite roast turkey dinner ingredients, they freeze well for later and taste truly amazing.
Tis the season for making great things that you can freeze for later with your leftover turkey. These turkey burgers work well with any roast dinner leftovers and are perfect for after Thanksgiving and Christmas.
This leftover burger recipe was originally shared back in 2019 and updating with new photos and better tips and tricks for making the best leftover burgers.
Leftover Burgers
The idea came to me after last year after making my leftover soup. The idea is that you can throw together all your Christmas dinner leftovers into a bowl and make absolutely delicious meals from it.
After Christmas is over with and you’ve gone through all that effort for one day, you’re often left with a lot of leftovers, and this is perfect for you if all you want to do is make something delicious quickly and then return to your sofa to carry on watching those Christmas movies and eating that Christmas chocolate.
There is no fuss made as it’s all done and dusted in a jiffy and there is no need to make much of an effort yet here you are with delicious homemade air fryer turkey burgers.
Turkey meat can be a bit boring or sometimes it might be dry, and you can really bring it to life.
Your air fried turkey burgers are made when you mixed your leftover turkey meat with whatever you have leftover in a bowl.
When everything comes together it is like a delicious gourmet burger that you have at a restaurant.
So next time you reach for the turkey sandwiches this Christmas instead try out one of these delicious homemade leftover air fryer turkey burgers.
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Can You Cook Turkey Burgers In An Air Fryer?
Yes, you can cook turkey burgers in the air fryer. Whilst this recipe today for leftover burgers is made from turkey roast dinner leftovers, you can also make air fryer homemade turkey burgers or air fryer frozen turkey burgers.
What Can I Do With Extra Turkey?
I recommend you check out our air fryer leftover turkey recipes as there are plenty of ideas there.
But my first thought for leftover turkey is to make:
Turkey sandwiches – Let’s not forget about the moist maker in Friends and you can make a HUGE turkey sandwich in the same way.
Turkey soup – my favourite is our boxing day soup which has all the turkey leftovers in one delicious soup, and it tastes amazing.
Turkey curry – next on the list and great for when you have loads of turkey and want something you can freeze is a slow cooker leftover turkey curry. This reminds me of the turkey curry they mention in Bridget Jones Diary.
If you don’t want to make a specific recipe I have found just placing cooked turkey into Ziploc bags works great and then you have spare turkey for another time.
How Long Is Leftover Turkey Good For?
Chef Dom says that leftover turkey is good for 3 days. So if you cooked the turkey on Christmas Eve (that’s when we do ours) then 27th is the last day you can eat it on before it has to be frozen for later.
My Bowl Of Turkey Leftovers
After Christmas (or Thanksgiving) I will assess what turkey leftovers we have that need using up.
My main plan is usually soup, muffins, or burgers so I will load everything I have leftover into a big bowl.
Then you can mix everything in the bowl with your hands and then make into leftover turkey patties and then store them in the fridge. Then the next day when you want delicious burgers for lunch, you don’t have to make much effort.
Leftover Burger Ingredients
You’re using leftovers from our roast turkey dinner, and we all like different sides and we all have different amounts of leftovers left, so we are all going to vary with what ingredients get added.
In our leftover turkey burgers, we have:
- Turkey
- Stuffing
- Mashed Potatoes
- Brussel Sprouts
- Carrot & Swede Mash
- Potato Bake
- Gravy
But what you do need to achieve is:
- Some sort of liquid to stop them going dry i.e. a little gravy or a little cheese sauce
- Something creamy that will give it the wow factor i.e. mashed potatoes
- Boneless turkey, you don’t want a little bone sneaking in there
- Food that mashes well, nothing hard that will break your teeth
You will also need some breadcrumbs to roll your turkey patties in, so that they stay together.
Then for the kitchen gadgets that we have used in this leftover turkey patties recipe it has just been our Philips air fryer. We have this one and its wonderful for many types of air fryer recipes.
Plus, we recommend you head over to our air fryer recipes category as we have more than 500 tried and tested air fryer recipes and have been air frying for 10 years.
How To Make Turkey Burgers From Leftovers?
- Bowl. Start by loading into a bowl all your leftovers and then using your hands to break down the ingredients and mix well. Alternatively, you can load it all into your blender and let the blender do the hard work.
- Optional. You can also make your turkey burgers more flavoursome by adding some of your favourite seasoning to the turkey patty mixture or some cheese also works well.
- Roll. Next make into turkey burger patty shapes and roll in breadcrumbs.
- Line. As this is a can be a little messy, add a layer of foil into your air fryer basket.
- Cook. Load your leftover turkey burgers into the air fryer basket. Then air fry for 12 minutes at 200c/400f.
And I am sure you can see now how easy it is making turkey burgers from leftovers in air fryer and how you can be doing the same.
Listen To Air Fryer Turkey Burgers
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More Turkey Leftover Ideas
- Air Fryer Leftover Turkey Pie
- Air Fryer Leftover Turkey Calzone
- Air Fryer Leftover Turkey Muffins
- Slow Cooker Leftover Turkey Curry
- Soup Maker Leftover Turkey Soup
- Soup Maker Boxing Day Soup
Your leftover turkey burgers recipe is below, note you can print it out with or without photos, adjust servings, or click between metric and imperial depending on where you are in the world.
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Air Fryer Leftover Turkey Burgers
Instructions
- Load leftovers into a bowl and add in seasonings and anything extra you want to include.
- Mix your leftovers with your hands until they become creamy and you don’t have many big lumps left.
- Then make into burger patty shapes.
- Roll your turkey patties in breadcrumbs.
- Line your air fryer with foil and then place as many turkey burgers as will fit in your air fryer basket.
- Then air fry for 12 minutes at 200c/400f and then double check that they are piping hot in the centre.
- Then load your turkey patties into burger buns with mayonnaise and any extras and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Can’t make it now? Then save it for later!
Great recipe many thanks. These were delicious and just what i was looking for all the turkey i will be cooking over the next 6 weeks.