The best part of any holiday meal, after all the work that goes into making it, is the leftovers. We use the leftover barbecue turkey for turkey sandwiches and turkey paninis. We pour homemade gravy over the stuffing and devour it. We sneak bites of the cold sweet potato casserole from the refrigerator and enjoy it warm as dessert.
But after a day or two, the leftovers loose a bit of their charm and start to feel, well, like leftovers. I’m sure you’ve been there, at that point when you have more leftovers to eat, but you’re over it and you don’t want to eat them anymore. Yet, at the same time, you worry about wasting food.
Been there. Solved that.
In general, I’m not a huge fan of leftovers. To prevent leftovers, I serve most meals in the “build your own” style. This helps keep ingredients separated, so the leftovers are saved separately from each other and are able to be used for another meal in a different way. When I can’t do that, I get creative and turn the leftovers into something new.
One of the favorite way to transform old leftovers into something new and yummy is to turn them into a waffle:
- My Parmesan Spaghetti Bolognese Waffles were made from Bucca di Beppo leftovers.
- The Stuffed Taco Waffles were made from taco night leftovers.
- Our Stuffed Pepperoni Pizza Waffles were made with leftovers from a build your own pizza night, and when we had leftover Domino’s Pizza, we made pizza waffles with it too.
So when I reached the “over it” stage with our Christmas dinner leftovers, more specifically, when I was done eating leftover stuffing, I decided to make it into a Stuffing Waffle.
I originally tried making stuffing waffles with our leftovers after Christmas in 2015, but the results weren’t great. It only sort of worked. While the stuffing got the crunchy texture on the outside that I wanted from cooking it in the waffle iron, it didn’t stick together and stay in the shape of a waffle.
I was on a mission to make stuffing waffles work.
I wanted the stuffing to take on the waffle shape and maintain it when served. I wanted the outside to be crisp and crunchy and the inside to be soft and moist — but not mushy. It needed to be a strong base for the leftover barbecue turkey and homemade turkey gravy I wanted to top it with.
After using an egg successfully to bind my spaghetti waffle together, I had the idea to add eggs to the leftover stuffing to make it bind together.
I preheated my waffle iron on high heat and scooped a bunch of the leftover stuffing into a bowl. I added two eggs to help the stuffing bind in the waffle iron and mixed it together until the egg was no longer visible. I then scooped the stuffing mixture into the waffle iron and closed the lid.
I started it out on high heat with the idea that it would sort of sear the outside into the waffle shape and create the waffle wells. I really wanted Stuffing Waffle wells to fill with gravy. I let it cook on high heat for about three minutes, then reduced the heat on the waffle iron to medium heat and left it for about 5 more minutes to ensure it was crispy on the outside and would hold together.
When I opened the waffle iron lid, they looked amazing. I was so excited! I used two large plastic turners to carefully lift the waffles out of the waffle iron onto plates, topped them with leftover turkey and gravy, and took a bite…
Heaven. Pure heaven. The Stuffing Waffles were perfect. They came out exactly how I wanted them too: crisp and crunchy on the outside and soft and moist on the inside, and the gravy filled all the waffle wells just like I imagined it would.
Now I want to make more stuffing just so I can waffle it.
Quick And Easy Leftover Stuffing Waffles
Transform your leftover stuffing into something completely new and delicious with nothing but a few eggs and your waffle iron.
Prep Time
Cook Time
Total Time
Ingredients
- Leftover stuffing
- 2 eggs
Instructions
- Preheat the waffle iron on high heat. Combine about three cups leftover stuffing and two eggs in a bowl and mix until the egg is fully incorporated.
- Pile the stuffing mixture in the waffle iron and cook on high for three minutes. Reduce heat to medium and cook for another five minutes.
- Carefully remove waffles from the waffle iron and top with leftover turkey and gravy — or anything else you want.
Notes:
Cook time for the Stuffing Waffles may differ based on your stuffing recipe. A dry, more bread heavy stuffing will take less time too cook than a moist, loaded stuffing like ours with apples and raisins.
