By J. Kenji López-Alt
Updated Nov. 21, 2023
- Total Time
- 1 hour 20 minutes
- Prep Time
- 5 minutes
- Cook Time
- 1 hour 15 minutes
- Rating
- 4(400)
- Notes
- Read community notes
Wrapping up Thanksgiving leftovers in store-bought pizza dough and baking it all together creates a hand-held pielike treat that’s somewhere between a calzone and one of those Costco chicken bakes. This recipe calls for stuffing, roasted sweet potatoes, turkey and cranberry sauce, but it would work equally well with leftover green bean casserole, mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts (chopped or sliced into small pieces) or squash. If it tastes good together on your Thanksgiving plate, it’ll taste good baked into a pocket. You can use homemade, store-bought or canned pizza dough here, but homemade or store-bought will give you the best texture and flavor.
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Ingredients
Yield:6 pockets
- All-purpose flour, for surfaces
- 1pound homemade or store-bought pizza dough, divided into 6 even balls (see Tip)
- Leftover stuffing
- Leftover roasted or mashed sweet potatoes
- Leftover roast turkey, shredded
- Leftover cranberry sauce
- Leftover gravy
- 1tablespoon heavy cream or milk
- Shredded Parmesan or 3 slices of Swiss or Cheddar, each cut into two rectangles
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Preparation
Step
1
Lightly flour a work surface and lay the 6 dough balls out on top. Dust with flour and cover with a clean kitchen towel. Allow the dough balls to rest at room temperature until easy to stretch, about 45 minutes.
Step
2
Adjust an oven rack to the center position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Working 1 at a time and leaving the rest covered as you work, roll and stretch each ball of dough into a circle about 7 inches in diameter.
Step
3
Working with 1 circle at a time, layer a total 1 cup of leftovers in a log about 2 inches wide and 5 inches long down the center: Start with a layer of stuffing, which absorbs the juices as the pockets bake, then add vegetables, turkey, cranberry sauce and gravy. Do not overstuff.
Step
4
Fold the top and bottom of the dough over the ends of the log. Lift the right side over the log, stretching it a little to completely cover the filling while making sure the top and bottom stay tucked in. Fold the left side over and repeat. You should end up with a neat package about the size of a Chinese egg roll. Repeat with the remaining dough circles and filling.
Step
5
Transfer the pockets seam side down to a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet. Combine the heavy cream or milk with 2 tablespoons of leftover gravy (if you have any) and brush the pockets with the mixture. (You can use plain heavy cream or milk if you do not have any leftover gravy.) Use a sharp knife to cut three slits on the top of the pockets for ventilation. Sprinkle the pockets with a dusting of shredded Parmesan or lay a half slice of Swiss or Cheddar on top of each one.
Step
6
Bake until deep golden brown, 12 to 18 minutes. Serve immediately with extra gravy and cranberry sauce for spooning or dipping. You can also refrigerate the cooked pockets and reheat them in a toaster oven, about 7 minutes at 425 degrees.
Tip
- You can also use canned pizza dough or thawed frozen puff pastry for this. Divide and roll the dough into 6 (7-by-6-inch) rectangles. When forming the pockets, fold one side over the other and crimp the edges with a fork to seal. Bake as directed.
Ratings
4
out of 5
400
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Cooking Notes
Joby
I would put the stuffing on top. Because you're going to cook them crease down, right?
Brie
I have not tried with those but have tried with eggroll wrappers and they are AMAZING! Everyone loves left-over eggrolls with gravy dipping sauce! I imagine left-over hand pies(pie crust) or turn overs(puff pastry) would be just as amazing and just as big a hit with left-over consumers. The beauty of T-day left-overs is the myriad of ways people have for repurposing them. MMMMMMM! Enjoy!
BJ
I do this with flour tortillas or pita bread. Much easier and faster with no dough to roll out. Just be careful not to use too much liquid so that the wrap does not get soaked.
Lee
Has anyone tried freezing these?
agrodolce
Maybe throw in some green bean casserole for color, or so you can pretend it's not just a carb on carb on carb roll.
Rebeka Joy
On Thanksgiving...for a midnight snack my 1st husband of 29 yrs. would do this, but with a dinner roll...the best part of Thanksgiving, ALWAYS! Don't skip baking those dinner rolls, folks! You will not regret it.
Karen
That sounds right to me!
Kristine
This was a HIT with both the cook (me) and the various audiences headed home on long drives. Came together in a flash (I used a baking soda recipe for the dough so it didn’t take very long) and the pocket design so much easier to pack up and send with them than bags or containers. Wrapped in foil they stayed warm until the first rest stop. Beginning of tradition CONFIRMED.
Adina
I have a batch of No Knead bread dough started for tomorrow. It makes very good pizza dough--easy to stretch thin.
Carmine
WINNER, WINNER, TURKEY DINNER!!!! These were fun to make, fun to eat and a great way to use leftovers. Fantastic!!!
catherine
Could you prep and then freeze these, unbaked?
George
I got excellent results making these with a tube of store-bought crescent roll dough. Separate the dough into four rectangles and roll out to about 5 inches by 7 inches. I lined my filling down the center of each, then pulled the sides and ends up and pinched together at the corners. This left a slight opening at the top which is covered with the slice of cheese. They baked up beautifully and were delicious.
Sue Neimooyer
I tried this recipe with a pie shell instead of pizza dough and topped it with cheese. It worked really well--came out more as a Thanksgiving pot pie.
mechteach
Really delicious. I made 8 ~a week ago, and tried an experiment - I took 2 out halfway through baking, and froze both those and 2 that had been cooked the whole time. We reheated all of them from frozen tonight. I tried a 350F oven so that the outside wouldn't get scorched before the inside was cooked. Both sets tasted just fine (with the half-cooked ones staying in the oven a bit longer to brown on the outside more - 25 vs 35 min), but I think the texture of the fully-cooked ones was better.
Just Saying
Interestingly this was already done by Franky on his show Struggle Meals.
George
I got excellent results making these with a tube of store-bought crescent roll dough. Separate the dough into four rectangles and roll out to about 5 inches by 7 inches. I lined my filling down the center of each, then pulled the sides and ends up and pinched together at the corners. This left a slight opening at the top which is covered with the slice of cheese. They baked up beautifully and were delicious.
Aari
After I strained the stock I made from the carcass, I ended up with a great deal of shredded turkey “broth meat” that still had flavor & moisture. Instead of putting it aside for cat food, I mixed in gravy, grated apple, leftover cranberry sauce, leftover braised red cabbage, some fat from the stock, & poultry seasoning, and cooked it in these pockets. Probably should have made smaller ones, but they were a hit even though we had no stuffing or sweet potato to gussy them up. Win.
Jen
This was delicious! Excellent use of T-Day leftovers - this will go into our annual rotation.
Catherine F
I made these tonight (Monday after Thanksgiving) and was amazed at how good they were, even after eating leftovers for three days. There’s something magical about putting them all together, wrapping them in pizza dough, sprinkling parm on top, and then baking until the dough is crunchy. I’ve gone from dreading another plate of leftovers to being sad my leftovers are now gone.
Claudia
I tried this with TJ pie dough (frozen), used a dough-cutting ring to make circles, filled and then crimped edges to make empanadas. Varied filling: turkey and cheese, turkey and mashed potatoes, turkey and cranberry sauce. The empanadas were a bit delicate (flaky) but delicious. Agree with so many here-- a creative way to use leftovers.
Sarah
These turned out great! I reversed the order of the layers since I turned them seam-side down to bake. The sweet potatoes took over the taste of the other ingredients a bit, so I may leave those out next time. Yummy with gravy for dipping.
Rob R
These are fun. Making them turned out to be a family activity; quite good as completed and as, yes, leftovers of leftovers. They hold together surprisingly well for hand-held eating. Infinite variations are part of the fun. Get the dough as thin as possible or they will be bready on the bottom.
Kristine
This was a HIT with both the cook (me) and the various audiences headed home on long drives. Came together in a flash (I used a baking soda recipe for the dough so it didn’t take very long) and the pocket design so much easier to pack up and send with them than bags or containers. Wrapped in foil they stayed warm until the first rest stop. Beginning of tradition CONFIRMED.
Mark
This was so delicious! Mine turned out the size of a large burrito though.
Nim
This was delicious! I ended up turning them more into buns than hot pockets but definitely doing this again next year with leftovers. Slice of cheddar on top was a nice cheesy touch.
Mary Anne
Recipe directions are easy to follow. I always have my homemade pizza dough on hand so it was a good use of leftovers and a fun project for the day after Thanksgiving.
Lorrie
Made this for dinner last night - easy, delicious and the family loved it. What could be better? Great way to use Thanksgiving leftovers.
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