Turkey Monte Cristo

This turkey Monte Cristo is made with cranberry sauce, arugula, leftover turkey and Swiss cheese. Perfectly grilled and gluten free! This is the perfect sandwich for using up all those Thanksgiving leftovers!

I always feel like the day after Thanksgiving is a giant hodgepodge of meals. You sit there thinking “how can I use up all this turkey?” Of course there is the typical ways to use it up – turkey soup, turkey wild rice chili or maybe even go full on Friends and make a leftover turkey sandwich with moist maker. The possibilities are endless.

And slightly exhausting. I mean I love turkey but I’m not exactly about eating turkey in every. single. meal. after Thanksgiving. You know what  I mean? 

So this year I decided to try a little something different with my Thanksgiving leftovers. I froze half and instead of doing the typical mayonnaise and turkey sandwich I’m going full of Monte Cristo style. PLUS I can use my homemade ginger laced cranberry orange sauce on the sandwich to bring the perfect balance of sweet and savory. Then I piled on some Swiss cheese, arugula and lots of leftover turkey, obviously.

After all that sandwich building I dipped it an egg mixture and fried it right up….and then sprinkled it with powdered sugar. It’s basically a savory French toast sandwich. It’s 100% delicious and 100% worth it. PLUS it’s 100% gluten free!

Now as you know I do not live gluten free but I have a lot of gluten free friends and family. The great thing about this recipe is that in order to make it gluten free all I had to to do was pick up a loaf of Udi’s gluten free white sandwich bread. The rest of the ingredients in the sandwich were naturally gluten free so it was a super easy substitute.

Another thing about this bread? It totally changed my mind about gluten free bread. I have heard the rumors of how it tastes and I’m here to tell you – not with this bread! It’s soft, fluffy and perfect for sandwiches, toast and obviously this delicious Monte Cristo. So just like you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover you should also never judge a bread by its gluten level..or something like that.

{Looking for more delicious sandwich recipes? Try my Cuban sandwich, tangy apple slaw corned beef reuben or my chicken bacon spinach grilled cheese.}

Turkey Monte Cristo

This turkey Monte Cristo is made with cranberry sauce, arugula, leftover turkey and Swiss cheese. Perfectly grilled and gluten free! This is the perfect sandwich for using up all those Thanksgiving leftovers!

Yield: 4 sandwiches

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• Kosher salt and pepper, to taste
• 8 slices Udi's gluten free white sandwich bread
• 8 tablespoons whole berry cranberry sauce
• 8 slices Swiss cheese
• 3 cups leftover turkey slices or chunks
• 4 small handfuls arugula
• 4 tablespoons butter
• Powdered sugar

Directions:

In a shallow dish whisk together egg and milk. Season with kosher salt and pepper and set aside.

Lay out 4 slices of bread and top in this order - 1 tablespoon cranberry sauce, 1 slice Swiss cheese, equal amount of leftover turkey and 1 handful of arugula. Cover the other slices of bread with 1 tablespoon each of cranberry sauce and top the sandwich.

In a large skillet or griddle set over medium heat add 2 tablespoons butter. Let the butter melt and get hot.

Once the butter is hot dip the sandwich (both sides) into the egg mixture and add to the skillet. The bread slices are small than normal bread so depending on the size of your skillet or griddle you can fit anywhere from 2 to 4 sandwiches. Cook until the bottom is golden browns and flip. If the skillet needs more butter add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter.

When you remove the sandwich from the skillet the cheese should be melted (and the inside of the sandwich will be hot) and the outside will be golden brown. Serve hot with extra cranberry sauce and sprinkled with powdered sugar.

Learn more about living gluten free! Visit http://udisglutenfree.com/community 

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Udi’s Gluten Free. The opinions and text are all mine.

Follow Udi’s on Facebook!