Turkey Cranberry Sandwich

Turkey cranberry sandwiches pop up predictably every year around the holiday season. A turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce is a good and simple way to use up holiday leftovers. This sandwich is especially good.

It’s a riff on the club sandwich format, but it uses a slab of focaccia as its base rather than slices of bread. Assembling the sandwich is quick and easy and much less fussy than making separate individual sandwiches.

Turkey Cranberry Sandwich Ingredients

Ruthie Darling for Taste of Home

• Cranberry sauce: Whole-berry cranberry sauce brings that tangy, traditional holiday flavor to the mayo.
• Mayonnaise: Mayo is the sandwich-maker’s most useful condiment. Mostly it’s used as-is; here it serves as the base for a flavorful cranberry spread.
• Chopped pecans: Toasted pecans bring textural contrast and a pleasant nuttiness to the sandwich.
• Dijon mustard: Dijon mustard has a signature tang and slight heat that bring nuanced flavors to the spread.
• Honey: Honey’s sweetness balances the tartness of the cranberries and mustard.
• Focaccia: The thick flatbread makes a pleasant alternative to ordinary sandwich bread.
• Lettuce: Lettuce adds moisture, color and a crisp texture to sandwiches like this one.
• Turkey: Thin-sliced turkey is the star of the show, bringing lean protein along with its understated but assertive flavor.
• Gouda: The Gouda cheese adds a savory note to the sandwich, but won’t overpower the turkey.
• Tomato: Slices of tomato bring moisture and savory flavors to the sandwich.
• Bacon: Bacon’s sweet, salty, smoky flavor is the element that brings all of the sandwich’s other tastes together.

Directions

Step 1: Assemble the sandwich

Ruthie Darling for Taste of Home

In a small bowl, mix the mayo, cranberry sauce, pecans, mustard and honey until they’re well blended. Cut the focaccia in half horizontally, using a long serrated knife. Spread the cut sides with the mayonnaise mixture. Layer the bottom half with the lettuce, turkey, cheese, tomato and bacon. Then, replace the top half of the bread.

Step 2: Cut

Ruthie Darling for Taste of Home

Cut the sandwich into quarters, and then into wedges. Serve.

Ruthie Darling for Taste of Home

Turkey Cranberry Sandwich Variations

• Don’t downplay the cranberries: Mixing cranberry sauce into a spread with mayonnaise and other ingredients is one way to add that signature holiday flavor to your sandwich. Another, and arguably better, is to just use the cranberry sauce as your spread for one side of the bread. The mayo and other ingredients can be spread on the other half of the bread. You’ll get a bolder, punchier cranberry flavor that way. It’s distinctively different, and an easy way to use up leftover cranberry sauce.
• Dial back on the fillings: This particular turkey and cranberry sandwich is a riff on the club-sandwich format. It’s a delicious sandwich, but sometimes it might be a bit much. Consider paring it back to a lighter, simpler version keeping just the cranberry mayo, the turkey and the gouda. Stick with lettuce for the greenery, or swap it for baby spinach as this tea sandwiches recipe does.
• Make it a sub: Focaccia is a dependable bread for sandwich-making, but it’s not necessarily the best option if you want to take your sandwich with you. For lunch-making purposes, a hinge-cut sub or hoagie roll (cut it open, but leave top and bottom joined) is often better. Spread the roll with the cranberry mayo and layer the ingredients as directed in the main recipe, then wrap your sandwich tightly and refrigerate it until it’s time to go.

How to Store Turkey Cranberry Sandwiches

Ideally these sandwiches are best eaten immediately, but if you’re prepping them ahead of time they can be wrapped and refrigerated. Any airtight wrapping is fine: plastic wrap, wax paper, deli-style sandwich papers and reusable beeswax fabric wrappers all work. Sandwich bags aren’t a good choice because they’re often too small for a sandwich this thick.

Can I make turkey cranberry sandwiches ahead of time?

You can make them up to a day ahead without it affecting the sandwiches’ quality too badly. You may want to reserve the lettuce, and add it at the last minute before serving the sandwiches.

How long will these sandwiches last?

Cranberry turkey sandwiches remain food safe for up to 3 or 4 days in the fridge. The bread may stale noticeably over that time, though, and the lettuce will wilt. If you’ve used leftover turkey in the sandwich, it’s best to eat them within a day or two.

Turkey Cranberry Sandwich Tips

Ruthie Darling for Taste of Home

Can I use my leftover holiday turkey in this sandwich?

Absolutely. Most sandwiches like this owe their existence to the annual task of “using up the rest of the bird.” It’s useful to refresh your memory of the USDA’s turkey guidance before you start, no matter how many birds you’ve roasted. Your leftovers are good for 3 to 4 days total. If you make sandwiches ahead, or put a leftover sandwich in the fridge, count their safe storage life from the day you cooked the turkey.

Would this sandwich work as an appetizer?

It would, or you could use it as part of a table of small sandwiches when you’re entertaining. One advantage of using a focaccia slab is that you can cut the individual servings to any size and shape you want. For appetizers, instead of cutting four servings of two wedges each, you could cut each quarter-slab into four smaller squares and then halve those into wedges. It’s a tall sandwich, so you’ll need to use sandwich picks to hold the individual servings together. You can also use the pics to hold a garnish (an olive, a caper, a cherry tomato) in place on top.

What other breads would work with this cranberry turkey sandwich?

Well, almost any kind of bread would work. This recipe is a riff on the club sandwich, so you could opt for three slices of sandwich bread and layer it the traditional way. You could also opt for a soft roll, ciabatta or rye bread. The fillings here aren’t squishy, so opt for something crusty if you wish.