Boxing Day Turkey Curry in Twenty Minutes

Method

1. Tear the turkey into 3cm pieces, discarding the skin, and leave it on the bench so it is not fridge cold going in.
2. Heat the oil in a wide frying pan or shallow casserole over medium heat.
3. Add the onion with a pinch of salt and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring now and then, until it is soft and just colouring at the edges.
4. Stir in the garlic and ginger and cook for 1 minute, until you can smell them.
5. Tip in the sachet of curry mix and stir it through the onion for 30 seconds so the dry mix coats everything.
6. Pour in about a third of the stock and stir hard until the mix has loosened into a smooth paste with no dry pockets left.
7. Add the rest of the stock along with any jelly from the roasting dish, and bring it to a gentle simmer.
8. Simmer for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce coats the back of a spoon. This is the whole cooking time, so use it to get the rice on.
9. Stir in the mango chutney and taste. Add salt cautiously, since the turkey brings its own.
10. Turn the heat to low, add the turkey and fold it through gently, spooning sauce over rather than stirring it about.
11. Warm for 2 to 3 minutes, only until the meat is hot through. Longer than that and it starts to shred.
12. Take the pan off the heat and rest it 2 minutes so the sauce settles around the meat.
13. Serve over rice, with yoghurt or coconut cream spooned on, coriander scattered over, and the mango chutney and lime wedges on the table.

Leftovers of the leftovers

Cooled quickly and covered, the curry keeps two to three days in the fridge. Get it in there within two hours, in a shallow container rather than the deep pan, which takes half the night to come down. Reheat once, until it is steaming through, and only reheat what you are about to eat.

Read the current Australian advice yourself rather than taking it from a recipe page: the Food Safety Information Council publishes it. The rule that catches people out on Boxing Day is time on the bench, not time in the fridge. The hours a platter spent sitting out count against the leftovers before they are even wrapped.

Questions people ask on the 26th

How long does leftover turkey keep in the fridge?

Cooked turkey keeps two to three days refrigerated, provided it was chilled promptly and kept covered on a cold shelf. Strip the meat off the frame rather than storing the whole bird, because picked meat chills far faster than a carcass. If you know you will not get through it in that window, freeze it on the 26th while it is still good rather than on the 28th when it is borderline.

Can you freeze leftover turkey curry?

Yes, for up to three months, with one condition: the turkey must not have already been frozen and thawed before it went in the pan. Cool it quickly, freeze it flat in a bag so it thaws in an hour, and thaw in the fridge rather than on the bench. The meat comes out slightly firmer, which matters less in a sauce than it would in a sandwich.

What can I make with leftover Christmas turkey?

Curry is the best use of the awkward middle portion, the meat that is too much for sandwiches and too little for a second roast dinner. Beyond that: sandwiches with chutney and something crisp, a pie with the dark meat, and stock from the frame. The wider Christmas food guide has the rest of the table.

Can I use a curry sauce from a jar instead?

You can, and the method holds: warm the sauce, fold the cooked turkey through at the end, keep it off the boil. A jar is wetter than a sachet, so cut the added liquid. A 75g dry mix has the advantage on Boxing Day because you decide how thick the sauce ends up and how much of it there is.

If you are stocking the cupboard

No Hurry Chicken Curry Gourmet Sauce Mix is $9.95 for a 75g sachet, one pan and nothing left over, and the other three Gordon Rhodes mixes on the sauces and mixes shelf are the same size and price. Buy it with the West Bengal Rifles mango chutney and Boxing Day dinner is handled in October. Everything is picked and packed by hand in our Corio room in Victoria. Orders placed before 12pm on a weekday are dispatched the same day, and shipping is free Australia-wide on orders over $100.