Thanksgiving leftovers are so quick and easy to put together and serve while watching all those football games and during all of the family activities this Thanksgiving weekend.  These turkey nachos turn your leftover turkey stash into a cheesy, crunchy, spicy, gluten-free party food that will be scooped up in seconds!

Part of that Thanksgiving feast is having too many leftovers.  I am all for those leftovers... but after a few days of reheated turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes, my eyes start wandering to that pantry of mine for something else.

BUT... I hate letting perfectly good food go to waste, so the past few years I have started coming up with other Thanksgiving alternatives for those leftovers.  So let me show you what my creative mind came up with:

During all those fun Thanksgiving weekend football games, I pull together my Thanksgiving leftovers turkey nachos for the win.

I easily pull the turkey into smaller sections, sprinkle with cheese, chopped tomato, white and green onions, and then drizzled with sriracha sauce for some heat.

What toppings go well with turkey nachos?

Here are my tried and true taste bud-approved suggested toppings:

• well of course I'm going to suggest you try this turkey nacho recipe with your typical nacho toppings of melty cheeses, chopped tomatoes, peppers, and onions, chopped cilantro, and of course, leftover turkey!
• Have even more Thanksgiving leftovers that you need to devour?  Put your leftover turkey, leftover gluten-free stuffing, and some delicious gravy with a sprinkling of cheese on top of your tortilla chips for a holiday-inspired redo.  It's amazingly delicious!

How to add a kick to your nachos!

To kick this recipe up another notch and bring it from subpar nachos to "the real deal" I added one Carolina Reaper pepper (which I was informed on SnapChat that it is the world's hottest pepper!) and a dash of taco seasoning.

To be very honest with you, this was the first time trying a Carolina Reaper pepper and it was soooooooo hot!  I usually put jalapenos on this dish... but a friend had sent over ghost peppers and this pepper as a gift and I wanted to try them out.

I felt adventurous and tried a small bite of it by itself and promptly took the rest of the slices off the cooked dish (after my eyes stopped running and I could see again).

Those little buggers are hot as you-know-what!  So if you can't handle that kind of heat I'm right there with ya! ... stick to those jalapenos!

Turkey Nacho Ingredients

Here's what you'll need:

• Enough gluten-free corn tortilla chips to fill the bottom of your baking pan
• 2 cups leftover turkey, chopped and pulled
• 2-3 cups shredded colby jack or cheddar cheese, depends on how cheesy you want it
• ½ cup chopped tomatoes
• ¼ cup white onion, chopped
• ⅛ cup green onion, chopped
• 1-2 jalapenos, thinly sliced
• sriracha sauce
• 1-2 teaspoon taco seasoning

How to make leftover turkey nachos:

It doesn't get much easier than these simple steps:

1. Preheat your oven to low broil.
2. Fill the bottom of a baking pan with tortilla chips. add the turkey and then the cheese evenly on top of the chips.
3. Sprinkle the tomatoes, green and white onions, and jalapenos on top.
4. Drizzle with sriracha and sprinkle with the taco seasoning.
5. Broil for 4-8 minutes, or until the cheese has melted and the outside chips/cheese are starting to turn a nice golden brown color.
6. Enjoy.  Remove from heat, allow to cool a few minutes, and serve while cheese is still stringy and melty. Enjoy!

How can I make my nachos look fancy?

There's a couple of things I would recommend trying...

• Drizzle sriracha in a zigzag pattern along the top of the nachos, like I did in my pictures here.
• Sprinkle chopped parsley or cilantro over the dish.
• Zest a bit of lime and add a touch of fresh squeezed lime juice on the very top.  Just a light mist of lime juice though, you don't want to moisten those nachos too much and create a soggy rendition of a good good thing!

Want more leftover turkey recipes?

Be sure to check these out!

• Thai Turkey Lettuce Wraps
• Paleo Leftover Turkey Sweet Potato Frittata
• Turkey Teriyaki Stir-Fry
• Slow Cooker White Turkey Chili