Now what?

I ran in the grocery store with a short shopping list in my hand.  I made it to the check out when I realized Turkey was $00.29 a pound.   So, now I have a Turkey in the freezer. There is just two of us.  What do I do with the rest?

To begin, smoke the whole bird.
Have nice dinner, the next day you have the ever-popular turkey sandwiches.
Then you make either turkey pot pie or turkey soup.

Also, remember if it fits in the freezer now, the leftovers will fit, when it's their turn, too. When we get a turkey (for just the two of us), John thaws it, breaks it down into more reasonable sized chunks for 2 - 4 people. Some (particularly the meat that's stuck to the bones) becomes soup. Some gets set aside for a specific meal or two, some gets poached in the broth of the soup, to cook and be chopped or sliced up, to make other things, at some future date. But, for Thanksgiving, we do extra, just so we can have a variety of planned leftovers, like a dressing & turkey based leftover casserole, the leftover sandwiches (of course), and all the yum Thomas mentioned, as well as just grabbing a nibble from the fridge, when we want it.

So, for example, this year, our bird is a heritage bird - a lovely gift from a friend who unexpectedly had to clear freezer space to make room for the bull that turned on her husband. The drumsticks (John's favorite part to do renaissance style) are a little smaller, so he left the (also smallish) thighs (my favorite part) attached, and plans to smoke them. The carcass & wings got broken down to fit into a smaller package, to make soup when we have more time. The breasts were packaged individually, and put back into our freezer. So the leg/ thigh quarters, will be our Thanksgiving dinner, and still afford us a couple days of leftovers, the breasts will each make 2 meals for us, later on, and the soup will feed us for at least 3 meals. For something like 9 - 12 meals, total. Oh! And, the skins on the leg quarters will be eaten with the meat, and the rest will be either baked & turned into 'chips', or rendered, for a turkey version of schmaltz.

My favorite part of Thanksgiving was always the turkey enchiladas my SoCal raised Mom or Aunt would make the next day. A batch of red and another green. Still may be my favorite meal.

You could cut it up like you would a chicken then have smaller meal out of the beast, legs, thighs, etc.  This could be done before cooking or after cooking.

Make bone broth out of what ever is left over.

At 29 cents a pound I would have bought two turkeys.

thomas rubino wrote: To begin, smoke the whole bird.

This. The only option for large birds.

This article talks about Spatchcocking.

In several of these recipes, our recommended spatchcocking method is used, which guarantees the most evenly cooked meat, the crispest skin, and the quickest cooking time

I am not familiar with this method, what I liked was some of the bold flavors:

https://www.seriouseats.com/nontraditional-roast-turkey-recipes-11852501