Turkey Tacos with Cranberry Salsa & Cream Cheese
In spirit of my new less is more attitude, I’m not hosting Thanksgiving this year. It’s been at my house the last 8+ years and sometimes I’ve cooked for over 20 people. No big deal because I do it all the time for work but this year I put it out there early on that someone else in the family was going to need to host Turkey Day. I was done. I need a year off and don’t want to be responsible for anything other than bring a side dish or two.
Bless my big brother because he jumped in quickly and offered to take the reigns. Next Thursday I will show up at his house cheesecake and rolls in hand (I can’t show up empty handed) and then promptly take a seat on the couch where I’ll pretend to watch football before giving up and instead thumbing through some of his old cookbooks.
As much as I’m looking forward to not hosting a house full, I’m also having a wee bit of remorse knowing that I won’t get to smell a turkey cooking in my oven all day and what’s more, the leftovers will be sparse. When I do host, my fridge is always better off for it, stocked with every kind of Thanksgiving leftover you can imagine. I like to think of the leftovers as my reward for pulling off cooking for such a large crowd. What will I do without my stuffing sandwiches and warmed up sweet potatoes and gravy to dip my potato chips into?
The mountain always opens the day after Thanksgiving and it’s tradition in our house to ski Friday, Saturday and Sunday and then eat Turkey leftovers the entire weekend. I don’t cook- unless it’s to make soup or heat something up in the microwave.
Feeling a tad regretful about my decision not to host, I bought a whole turkey breast from Whole Foods and roasted one night last week. Since it was just the boys and me for dinner, I had plenty of leftovers that I put in a baggie and tucked into my freezer to save for next weekend. I’ll be damned if I go through next weekend without a turkey sandwich in sight.
I kept out just enough turkey as I knew I wanted them to be the feature in this week’s taco. Sort of a play on my favorite sandwich of cream cheese, turkey and cranberry sauce, the highlight of these tacos is the cranberry salsa. Just sweet enough, the tart salsa is an awesome combo with the crispy flour tortilla, a smear of cream cheese, shredded leftover turkey and fresh cilantro.
Happy turkey day planning, everyone! Are you hosting? What are you making this year?
PrintTurkey Taco with Cranberry Salsa
Ingredients
Cranberry Salsa:
- 8 oz fresh cranberries
- 1 Fuji or Gala apple, quartered and cored
- 1/2 small red onion, coarsely chopped
- 1 small jalapeño, seeded if desired for less heat
- 1/4 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- zest of 1 orange
- 1/3 cup honey
For the Tacos:
- flour tortillas
- leftover roast turkey, shredded
- cream cheese
- salsa
- fresh cilantro
Instructions
- For the salsa, place all the ingredients in the base of a food processor and pulse to combine.
- To make the tacos, smear some cream cheese over entire tortilla and top with desired amount of turkey and cranberry salsa. Fold tortilla in half.
- Heat a pan on the stove over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon of butter. When melted, toast both sides of taco until crispy and turkey and cream cheese are heated through. Serve with extra salsa and cilantro if desired.
16 Comments
I’m glad you posted this! I’ve had this salsa recipe (or one really close-I’m too lazy to go look) and it’s great to have you offer a new way to use it. My younger daughter and her friends adore it. We serve it as a part of the Thanksgiving table, but only if it hasn’t been devoured first as a dip for tortilla chips. Try this, everyone. You won’t be sorry!
This would make a great appetizer!!
I love your taco tuesdays! These look amazing. I am all about cream cheese…bring it on!
Thanks, Sheila! The chili you posted this week looked amazing!
The resorts are always open here in early November, so the brothers Snowboard and my mom and I cook. That is about our only tradition. LOL!
Love these tacos. I actually have tacos going up really soon with a cranberry salsa and I could not agree with you more. The salsa is the star. So good!
Great recipe! What a great way to use leftovers without getting bored and easy enough that my kids can do it themselves.
these look delicious!
i’m giving away a kitchenaid mixer on my blog! i’d love it if you came by and said hi!:
http://lovintheoven.com/2013/11/dulce-de-leche-espresso-bean-cookies.html
So, so, so doing this.
These were delicious and simple. The cranberry salsa adds great flavor and the cream cheese makes it all stick together nicely. I made this with pulled rotisserie chicken because I didn’t have the turkey left overs. My husband loved it–he said, “you should do these again.” It would be easy to prepare ahead of time and then put on the stove when ready. Thanks.
You’re welcome! Good call on rotisserie chicken!
This is a tasty-looking preparation, but it is properly a quesadilla, not a taco.
I kindly disagree. But it doesn’t really matter, does it? Quesadilla or taco, it’s all about what’s inside and I can attest it’s darn tasty!!
That’s a quesadilla 🙂
Call it what you want, it’s delicious!
Do you have to cook the salsa on the stove like regular salsa? Just wondering. I had the tCos at taco boys and loved it but thought it was cooked some.
No, I don’t cook the salsa.