MICHELLE WILLARD, Post staff writer

By now everyone is tired of turkey, but those leftovers are still cluttering up the fridge.

We called around to some of the best restaurants in town and come up with the Top 10 (11, because there’s that much turkey) things you can do with Thanksgiving leftovers.

From soups and sandwiches to potpies, we’ve compiled a variety of options for the leftovers.

1. Steve McGowan, chef and former owner of All Souped Up, suggests putting a different spin on Thanksgiving ingredients with his Caribbean Turkey Soup.

“Get rid of all this traditional stuff and spice it up,” McGowan said.

All Souped Up’s Caribbean Turkey Soup
4 cups turkey or chicken stock
2 cups chopped cooked turkey
1 cup orange juice
1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
Slivered almonds and raisins for garnish

Combine all ingredients in a large pot and bring to boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer covered until vegetables are tender or about 30 minutes. Garnish with almonds and raisins. Serves four.

2. Joey Kneiser, chef at The Front Porch Café, suggests making a simple turkey noodle soup with the leftovers.

“You make it the same way you’d make a chicken noodle, but replace the chicken with turkey,” Kneiser said.

3. Kneiser, who has cooked at the café for seven years, also suggests making a turkey omelet.

“You can even put some stuffing inside it and it’s pretty good,” he said. And if you’re feeling adventurous, garnish the omelet with some cranberry sauce.

4. If you didn’t get the full complement of fat on Thanksgiving Day, here’s a family suggestion from the Hammerhead clan. It’s called the Hot Brown after that open-faced sandwich first created at The Brown in Louisville, Ky.

Hammerhead can’t attest to the authenticity of the recipe, but this hot broiled sandwich is a good way of using up leftover turkey that’s been thin-sliced.

Here’s the ingredients:
1/3 cup butter
3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon of black pepper
2 ½ cups of milk
2 egg yolks
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
8 slices of white bread, toasted
12 ounces thinly sliced turkey
2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese
16 strips of cooked bacon

To make the sauce, melt butter stirring in pepper and flour. Add all the milk at once. Cook until thick and bubbly. Stir some of the mixture in with the yolks, returning that to the sauce mixture. Remove from heat and add the 1/3 cup of cheese.

Place the slices of toast on a broiling pan in a single layer (don’t stack them). Top with the sliced turkey, the sauce and sprinkling the 2 tablespoons of Parmesan on top. Broil 3 or 4 inches about 3 minutes or until the sauce is brown and bubbly.

Put each sandwich on a serving plate and top each serving with two bacon strips formed in an X. Serve immediately.

5. If you’ve got a hankering for some down home cooking, Jeff Sowell owner of at Jeff’s Family Restaurant, recommends a Turkey and Sausage Gumbo.

“It’s a good meal,” Jeff said. “It’s a dynamite dish, I’ll tell ya.”

It takes leftover turkey, of course, smoked sausage, diced tomatoes, okra, onion, green peppers, celery, chicken consommé or stock, ham base, butter, water and garlic. Salt and pepper to taste.

“Add a roux to thicken it,” Sowell said. “Some people put some cayenne in it for a kick but that’s optional.”

6. Chef Julio of The Chef Place by Julio suggests a simple turkey potpie.

Just chop the meat into bite-sized pieces and combine with your favorite vegetables and seasoning. For the gravy, mix a can of cream of mushroom soup or cream of chicken (you could even use the leftover gravy).

“Pour it in a pie shell, cover it with another, put it in the oven and you’ll have best potpie,” Julio said.

Author’s note: You can replace the top pie shell with crumbled dressing and use the leftover gravy instead of the cream soup.

7. For a twist on the potpie, try Matt Rush’s recipe for a Puff Pastry Potpie.

Rush is the head chef at the Stones River County Club and had many ideas for the bird, including the potpie.

“It’s just got your traditional stuffing, turkey, cranberries, green beans, pancetta or bacon, and wrap it in a puff pastry sheet and bake until golden brown,” Rush said.

8. Stones River County Club also has a Turkey Reuben that’s paired with sweet potato chips or fries.

Turkey meat, cole slaw and provolone cheese are piled on toasted rye bread that’s slathered with a homemade Thousand Island dressing.

9. Or if you’re in the mood for some comfort food, Rush suggested a dark meat hash.

“You could make a hash from the dark wing meat,” Rush said.

Combine the dark meat with diced onions, peppers and sweet potatoes and sautéed with garlic and white truffle oil. Olive oil or butter can be substituted for the truffle oil.

10. Murfreesboro Post Operations Manager Kim Council, a cooking enthusiast, offers this recipe for Turkey Shepard’s Pie:

This dish helps clear out all of your leftovers. Just chop up the left over turkey and stir in left over gravy, corn and green beans. Use enough gravy to keep moist. Add cumin to taste and stir thoroughly. Line a baking dish with a thin layer of left over dressing. Press into the dish like you would a piecrust, making sure to go up the sides. Spoon in filling and top with mashed potatoes. Bake in oven at about 375º for 30 to 40 minutes.

11. Whatever you do with all that turkey, don’t feed it to the family dog.

Robert Blaylock at Animal Care Clinic advises against feeding the poultry to your pooch. He sees many animals after the holiday, who’ve eaten more than their fair share of leftovers. And the owners have spent hundreds of dollars at the vet.

“Anytime you feed a dog something that it’s not used to, there’s a chance of diarrhea, vomiting and pancreatitis,” Blaylock said. Pancreatitis is an inflammation of the pancreas that causes severe abdominal pain and vomiting.

Also cooked poultry bones, that goes for chicken too, are more likely to split and can pierce and block the intestines, Blaylock explained.

“Feed the dog a treat while you’re eating if you must,” Blaylock said. “Just make sandwiches and save it for the next week.”

Michelle Willard can be contacted at 869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.