Leftover Christmas Turkey Porridge

After many years, my husband and I have finally moved into a place that is solely our own, where I have carte blanche.... To think the first meal I'd cook in our new kitchen would be leftover Christmas turkey porridge.

The leftover Christmas turkey porridge is an annual Boxing Day family tradition of my MIL's side of the family. After the annual Christmas family lunch, they'd make turkey porridge with the leftover turkey, using the turkey carcass to make the stock and then using the stock to make porridge with jasmine rice, leftover turkey meat and a little ginger.

Leftover Christmas turkey porridge

I didn't have the turkey carcass because my MIL had first dibs. But I managed to take home the drumsticks and wings. So I used those and liquid chicken stock to make the stock. In a slight deviation from my MIL's recipe, I added some corn. She'd scream blue murder and lecture me about not doing it the "right way" (which mostly just means her way).

But honestly, it's not entirely accurate to say I followed my MIL's recipe anyway. I asked her for the recipe but her instructions were so haphazard and vague that it was impossible to make head or tail of it. It has nothing to do with the agak-agak style of cooking, okay. And she hasn't actually personally made it herself in eons, relying mainly on others to do it. It was the same with her shark fin soup, kiam chye ark and macaroni cheese recipes. So I ended up asking her domestic helper and looking up similar looking recipes to help me along. (Her current domestic helper and the previous ones all had the same trouble as I did.)

I referenced the turkey congee recipe by Funky Asian Kitchen, sans the spinach. For the rice, I used jasmine rice (Thai Hom Mali rice) and short-grain Japanese rice (Hokkaido Sansanmaru) in a ratio of 1:1. Soaked the rice overnight because that helps to shorten cooking time, and helps the rice grains break down faster, which results in a creamier texture.

Jasmine rice and short grain Japanese rice, ratio 1:1

Honestly, is leftover turkey porridge a dish that one would commonly find among the Chinese disapora? It looks that way to me because it's not uncommon for many Chinese Singaporeans to celebrate Christmas with their family, and have a mix of Western, Malay, Indian and Chinese dishes on the feasting table. And then use the leftovers, such as the turkey, in subsequent meals.

My paternal family and Hubby's maternal family would celebrate Christmas with a long luncheon, one that basically takes up the whole afternoon. Both sides would have roast turkey and honey-glazed roast ham. But my side's always had the more Western table, with roasted vegetables, some kind of pasta, beef stew or pot roast, log cake or some other cake.

Hubby's side would be a chapalang: Indian yellow rice (turmeric rice) or fried rice; Singaporean style fried beehoon; sometimes beef rendang; Singaporean style Malay chicken curry; and their family's version of macaroni and cheese (mayonnaise instead of béchamel, canned pineapple and chicken ham). Sweets would include log cake, Nonya kueh, and sometimes Eurasian sugee cake if my MIL was inclined to make it. Hubby and I often bring back honey castella cake from Japan, and it always gets wiped out.

Our non-Chinese and non-Singaporean friends and acquaintances have asked questions about the origins of our Christmas traditions, out of genuine curiosity. And honestly, I actually don't know how it all started. But leftover turkey porridge is always a part of that tradition.

(Parts of this post were originally posted on the little world of yotsuba & clan on 29 December 2025.)