Make These Hot Turkey Sandwiches with Chili Mayo and Roasted Radicchio (Patreon)

Every Thanksgiving season, my kitchen turns into a turkey testing facility. By the time most people are planning their menus, I’ve already roasted half a dozen birds so I can get recipes and videos out in time for the holiday. That means one thing: leftover turkey recipes start appearing in my life earlier than the rest of the country. This year I'll have at least a half dozen of them which I'll be sharing over the course of the week leading up to Thanksgiving.

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Zoe Kahn (@zoekahn on Instagram) sent me to The Other Coast Café in Ballard and told me to order the “Ragin' Cajun”—a spicy turkey sandwich with tomatoes, onions, pepper jack, and a salsa-spiked mayo. Needless to say, Zoe's recommendation was spot on. The sandwich was crusty, hot, juicy, and cheesy in all the right places.

So the other day, when I was staring down a good three cubic feet of roasted turkey breast, making a hot, crusty, cheesy, spicy turkey sandwich was the first thing that popped into my mind.

This sandwich one isn’t a copy, but it's inspired by the Ragin' Cajun and built on the same basic idea: spicy chili mayo, fresh tomatoes, melted cheese, something crunchy and vegetal for contrast, and plenty of leftover turkey.

I started off by combining some Duke's Mayo with one of my favorite condiments: crushed Calabrian chilies from Tuttocalabria. (It's the same combination that we made when we visited Sarah and Jordan to deliver a KAN Shitoku Knife a few weeks back.) I then spread that spicy mayo thick on both sides of a seeded Macrina baguette.

From there, I construct the sandwich similarly to the Ragin' Cajun, layering turkey, thin-sliced red onion, tomato, and slices of cheese, though in this case I used Provolone in lieu of the pepper Jack. I was going to toast it, close it, and call it a day, but then remembered that I had half a head of radicchio sitting in my vegetable crisper, leftover from the Italian hoagie recipe I was working on the week before.

Radicchio is wonderful raw, but it's also one of my favorite vegetables when broiled or grilled. The leaves take on a sweet nuttiness similar to charred broccoli, and given I was going to be using the toaster oven anyway, it seemed like a perfect fit. Before popping the sandwich in my Wonder Oven Pro on the broil setting, I thinly sliced the radicchio, laid it on the opposite side of the sandwich, drizzled it with olive oil, then toasted the entire thing until the cheese was melted and bubbly and the radicchio was starting to frizz and char around the edges.

The sandwich hit all the right notes: spicy, tangy, cheesy, roasty, crunchy, and messy. Thanksgiving leftovers or not, it’s worth making anytime. All it needed was a name. Why the Ragin' Roman when there's nothing actually Roman about it? Alliteration, I suppose (nd “Calabrian Chili Mayo Turkey Melt With Roasted Radicchio On a Seeded Baguette” doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue).

But it is a great hot turkey sandwich, built on the same basic idea: spicy chili mayo, fresh tomatoes, melted cheese, something crunchy and vegetal for contrast, and plenty of leftover turkey.

P.S. You may have noticed my voice has been a little rough and my eye a little red in recent videos. I took the kids to Great Wolf Lodge the other weekend. The kids loved it, but it felt like being stuck on board on a beached cruise ship. Lena joked I’d come home with a pool-borne disease, and lo and behold, the next morning I couldn’t open my left eye. Urgent care confirmed: bacterial pink eye. Ten out of ten. Highly recommend for anyone who enjoy indoor water parks and antibiotics.

Recipe: The Raging Roman Turkey Sandwich

Every recipe I publish here is personally tested, tasted, and approved.

What I love about this recipe:

A Calabrian chili mayo that works on sandwiches, burgers, fries—everything.

Uses leftover turkey in a way that doesn’t feel like leftovers.

Roasted radicchio adds bitterness, sweetness, and crunch all at once.

Broiling gives you perfect melt + perfect veg.

Yield: 2 large halves (1 sub-style sandwich)

Active Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Notes: Works with turkey or chicken. Pepper jack can sub for provolone. Any sturdy baguette or hoagie roll is fine.

Ingredients

For the Calabrian Chili Mayo

3 tablespoons mayonnaise (I used Duke’s, but any works)

1–2 tablespoons Calabrian chili paste (Tuttocalabria or similar)

1 small garlic clove, grated or finely minced

Salt to taste

For the Sandwich

1 medium seeded baguette or sturdy sandwich roll

4–6 ounces sliced roast turkey

2–3 slices provolone cheese

2 thin slices tomato, not too ripe

Kosher salt

A few thin slices red onion

1 cup thinly sliced radicchio

Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling

Method

Make the chili mayo:In a small bowl, combine the mayo, Calabrian chili paste, and garlic. Taste and season with salt. Adjust heat level as desired.

Prep the bread:Split the baguette lengthwise. Spread a generous layer of chili mayo on both cut sides.

Build the turkey/tomato/cheese side:On one half of the bread, layer the turkey and tomato slices and sprinkle lightly with salt. Add the provolone on top.

Build the onion/radicchio side:On the other half, add the red onion slices and pile on the sliced radicchio. Drizzle the radicchio with a bit of olive oil. Season with salt.

Broil separately:Arrange each half on a sheet pan. Place under a preheated broiler until the provolone is melted and bubbling, and the radicchio is wilted and lightly browned at the edges.This should take about 3–5 minutes, depending on your broiler.

Close, slice, enjoy:Close the sandwich, press gently, split, and serve. Give a taste to the doggo.