Nobody wants to cook the day after Thanksgiving, and nor should they. Chances are your fridge is packed with leftovers, so let’s put them to work. These leftover turkey sliders are what I make when I want leftovers to feel a little fancy, but Im totally unwilling to get out of the comfy clothes to feed the fam and friends. It’s just enough effort, without really trying.
Our trick is literally leveling up the one thing everyone hates: cranberry sauce. We start there by turning it into an aioli (aka, a mayo that’s trying too hard) and suddenly leftover sandwiches are insanely good. From there, it’s little tricks like Havarti and a sage butter baste that take these from ‘leftover turkey sandwich‘ again to devoured in seconds.
🔪 Ingredients for Turkey Cranberry Sliders
- Soft slider rolls, still connected: Hawaiian rolls or any soft pull-apart dinner rolls. Keep them in one slab so you can slice them all at once.
- Leftover turkey, sliced: white meat, dark meat or both, roasted or smoked. Still on the bone? Here’s how to carve it. No leftovers? Thick-sliced deli turkey works too.
- Havarti, sliced: plain, not dill. It melts soft and creamy and stays mild enough to let the aioli and sage come through.
- Roasted garlic cranberry aioli: our cranberry aioli goes on both cut faces of the rolls. Short on time? The quick version in the recipe card mixes in two minutes.
- Butter
- Fresh sage: minced fine so it sizzles in the butter and clings to the tops.
- Flaky salt: for the finish.
Equipment
- Serrated knife: slices the whole slab of rolls in one pass.
- 9×13 baking pan or quarter sheet pan: holds 12 connected rolls snugly.
- Small saucepan or skillet: for the sage butter.
- Pastry brush: gets the butter down into the seams.
- Aluminum foil: covers the pan for the first 15 minutes.
📝 How to Make Turkey Cranberry Sliders
- Heat the oven to 350°F. Without separating the rolls, slice the whole slab in half horizontally with a serrated knife. Set the bottom half in a 9×13 pan or quarter sheet pan.
- Spread aioli over the bottom half. Layer the turkey, then the Havarti, covering edge to edge so every slider gets cheese. Spread a thin layer of aioli on the cut face of the top half and set it on.
- Melt the butter in a small pan over medium heat. Add the sage and a pinch of salt and cook about 1 minute, until the sage sizzles and smells toasty. Brush it all over the tops, working it into the seams.
- Cover with foil and bake 15 minutes, until the cheese is melting.
- Uncover and bake 5 minutes more, until the tops are golden and the cheese is bubbling at the edges.
- Sprinkle with flaky salt, rest 2 minutes, and cut along the seams.
🔄 Substitutions
- Thick-sliced deli turkey for leftover turkey: use the same amount, and the sliders work any weekend of the year.
- Leftover roast chicken for the turkey: slice or pull it and build exactly the same way.
- Quick cranberry mayo for the from-scratch aioli: ½ cup mayo, 4 mashed roasted garlic cloves, 2 tablespoons whole-berry cranberry sauce, and a pinch of salt.
- Swiss or Muenster for the Havarti: both melt smoothly and stay mild.
- Brioche slider rolls for Hawaiian rolls: a little less sweet. Buy them connected so you can still slice the slab whole.
💡 Meat Nerd Tips
- One cut, twelve sliders. Slicing the slab whole keeps the rolls connected, so the build goes together like one big sandwich and comes apart along the seams after the rest.
- Cheese to the edges. Cover the turkey edge to edge with Havarti, or the corner sliders come out bare.
- Listen for the sage. The butter is ready when the sage sizzles and smells toasty, about 1 minute in. Brush it into the seams, not just across the tops.
- Foil first, then off. Covered for 15 minutes melts the cheese; uncovered for the last 5 turns the tops golden.
🍽️ What to Serve with Turkey Cranberry Sliders
🧊 Leftovers and Storage
- Fridge: wrap leftover sliders airtight and refrigerate within 2 hours. Eat them within 3 to 4 days of when the turkey was first cooked, not when the sliders were made.
- Oven reheat: 350°F, covered with foil, until hot through. Pull the foil for the last few minutes so the tops crisp back up.
- Air fryer reheat: single sliders at 350°F until hot through.
- Still more turkey? Our Thanksgiving turkey recipes, turkey recipes and leftover recipes have the next night covered.
The day after Thanksgiving, this is the only “cooking” anyone should have to do: leftover turkey, Havarti and cranberry aioli on pull-apart rolls under sage butter, because why should leftovers be boring.
Prevent your screen from going to sleep
Build the Sliders
-
Spread aioli over the bottom half. Layer the turkey, then the Havarti, covering edge to edge. Spread a thin layer of aioli on the cut face of the top half and set it on.
Make the Sage Butter
-
Melt the butter in a small pan over medium heat. Add the sage and a pinch of salt, and cook about 1 minute, until the sage sizzles and smells toasty. Brush it all over the tops, getting into the seams.
Finish Uncovered
-
Uncover and bake 5 minutes more, until the tops are golden and the cheese is bubbling at the edges. Sprinkle with flaky salt, rest 2 minutes, and cut along the seams.
- Make the Roasted Garlic Cranberry Aioli ahead. It keeps in the fridge in a sealed container for up to 4 days.
- Quick aioli for slider night: ½ cup mayo, 4 roasted garlic cloves mashed, 2 tbsp whole-berry cranberry sauce and a pinch of salt.
Calories: 331kcal | Carbohydrates: 15g | Protein: 17g | Fat: 22.5g | Saturated Fat: 8.6g | Cholesterol: 73mg | Sodium: 346mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 2.3g
Quick Summary
Turkey cranberry sliders turn Thanksgiving leftovers into one pan of twelve: sliced turkey, Havarti and roasted garlic cranberry aioli on connected rolls, brushed with sage butter. Bake at 350°F covered for 15 minutes to melt the cheese, then uncovered for 5 until the tops are golden and the cheese is bubbling at the edges.
❓ FAQs
About 20 minutes. Bake 15 minutes covered with foil until the cheese is melting, then 5 minutes uncovered until the tops are golden and the cheese bubbles at the edges.
Soft rolls that come connected in one slab, like Hawaiian rolls or pull-apart dinner rolls. Keeping them connected lets you slice and build all twelve at once.
We use plain Havarti because it melts creamy and stays mild next to the cranberry aioli. Swiss or Muenster work the same way.
Yes. Thick-sliced deli turkey goes in exactly like leftover turkey, so you can make these any weekend.
Cooked turkey keeps 3 to 4 days in the fridge. Count from the day the turkey was cooked, and reheat it to 165°F.