Martha Stewart's Thanksgiving Leftovers Sandwiches Include One Fancy Upgrade

A Thanksgiving leftovers sandwich may seem like a makeshift hodgepodge of leftovers, but leave it to Martha Stewart to give it a well thought out upgrade. The iconic host and cook has been dubbed the "Queen of Thanksgiving" by outlets like Today and has been teaching Americans how to prepare a proper holiday dinner for decades. Even if Stewart's own recent Thanksgiving plans have been more unconventional and less geared towards classic dishes, she's cooked enough of them in her long career to be an expert on the best turkey cooking methods and every possible use of the leftovers. And while we all love the prospect of turkey soup or turkey pot pie, the thing that gets most people excited, including Stewart herself, is that leftovers sandwich.

Stewart's sandwich fillings are what most people would expect — stuffing is essential, of course — but it's her choice of bread that's interesting. She likes to have her Thanksgiving leftover sandwich on Japanese milk bread. Nice, thick slices are essential to hold in all of that post-Thanksgiving goodness, and the lightly sweet white bread flavor is a great complement to heavy, savory meat and toppings. Stewart recognizes that the turkey and sides you worked so hard on are what the sandwich is all about, and the bread in a Thanksgiving leftover sandwich is there to act as a soft pillow to bring it all together.

To toast or not toast your milk bread is a decision left up to you and what type of sandwich you are making. For a cold Thanksgiving leftover sandwich, Stewart tops her turkey with stuffing, crunchy iceberg lettuce, cranberry sauce, and a creamy condiment like mayo or Russian dressing. With those smooth, cool flavors, a few untoasted slices of white bread sound like the perfect package. For a hot sandwich, Stewart swaps in gravy as her condiment, and that wetter topping and warmer food will probably need some toasted bread to hold it all together and more naturally pair with the rest of the hot ingredients.

The one downside to Stewart's sandwich is that milk bread may be harder to find in your area. It is common at Japanese bakery's and many Asian markets, and it's increasingly showing up in more grocery stores, but it's not available everywhere. Thankfully, soft milk bread is relatively easy to make at home with basic pantry ingredients. The sweetened condensed milk is the only thing you might need to buy. And you don't even need to do extra work for your Thanksgiving sandwich because milk bread makes great rolls that you can serve during the holiday dinner and then repurpose for sandwiches the next day. That's the kind of easy hosting hack that would make the Queen of Thanksgiving herself proud.