Turkey Salad With Fried Shallots and Herbs

Name: Turkey Salad With Fried Shallots and Herbs
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups thinly sliced shallots; 4 tablespoons peanut oil; 2 cups leftover cooked turkey meat, pulled into bite-size pieces; 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice; 1 teaspoon kosher salt; 1 jalapeño, seeded and minced; Handful of cilantro and mint leaves, torn

Recipe from Naomi Duguid

Adapted by Tejal Rao

Turkey Salad With Fried Shallots and Herbs — Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

Total Time: 20 minutes
Rating: 5(121)
Comments: Read comments

This recipe is adapted from Naomi Duguid's chicken salad in "Burma: Rivers of Flavor." It incorporates shallots two ways, raw and fried, as well as the deeply savory oil used to fry them. Bright with lime juice, the raw heat of a green chile and plenty of fresh herbs, it's excellent plain, or with some chopped cucumber and lettuce beneath it, for crunch. As Ms. Duguid points out in the book, it's a dressing that can be applied to refresh all manner of leftovers, from the roasted turkey you're left with the day after Thanksgiving, to the roasted vegetables. —Tejal Rao

Featured in: Here Comes the Best Part of Thanksgiving: Leftovers

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Ingredients

Yield:4 servings

1½cups thinly sliced shallots
4tablespoons peanut oil
2cups leftover cooked turkey meat, pulled into bite-size pieces
2tablespoons fresh lime juice
1teaspoon kosher salt
1jalapeño, seeded and minced
Handful of cilantro and mint leaves, torn

Ingredient Substitution Guide

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Preparation

Step 1
Divide the sliced shallots: Soak ⅓ cup of the shallots in cold water for about 10 minutes; drain through a mesh sieve and set aside. Heat the peanut oil and fry the remaining ⅔ cup shallots, mixing occasionally, until golden brown. Drain through the sieve, reserving both shallots and oil. (Do not press on the shallots as they drain. They will clump together.)
Step 2
In a mixing bowl, toss together raw shallots and turkey meat. Add lime juice, salt, jalapeño and 2 teaspoons reserved oil from frying shallots, and mix well. Set aside to marinate for 10 minutes. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of fried shallots, along with the herbs, and mix well. Taste and adjust with salt and lime juice as needed. Serve with any remaining shallots and shallot oil on the side.

Ratings

5 out of 5

121 user ratings

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Comments

Donna7 years ago

What happened to the other 1/2 cup of shallots?

Mark7 years ago

Recipe says, "Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of fried shallots, along with the herbs, and mix well." That's referring to the coriander and mint.

Maggie7 years ago

To die for. We added shredded cabbage and served with corn tortillas. Perfect tacos.

Laura Berg1 year ago

Made as tacos and added finely chopped cabbage and served with Greek yogurt.

Lila1 year ago

This was the first leftover turkey recipe I made that didn’t make me feel like I was eating leftover turkey. It was vibrant and light and flavorful and I will definitely revisit it. I used safflower oil instead of peanut oil because that’s what I had. And I used leftover mashed potatoes to make stuffed naan as a side.

Julianne1 year ago

I have made this recipe every year after Thanksgiving since 2017. It’s a way to elevate the leftover turkey into a new kind of food after so many days of buttery overkill. It’s bright, salty, acidic, refreshing… to die for. This has become as much of a tradition in our household as the holiday meal itself. My only complaint is that it is preposterous to suggest that this would only take 20 minutes to prepare. It takes an hour, every year I grumble about it, and then eat it to rapturous joy.

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