This pesto turkey croissant sandwich recipe is all about ease and simplicity without sacrificing flavour. They're utterly delicious, with all the indulgence you want during the holidays without tasting like Christmas dinner all over again.
And this twist on a turkey melt is easy too. You don't need a lot of ingredients and some you'll have on hand from your holiday dinner.
You could try making croissants from scratch (just plan ahead).
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❤️ Why you'll love it
- Quick and easy - just assemble, bake and serve!
- Perfect for leftovers: Use up leftover ham and turkey without it tasting like Christmas dinner again.
- Great for boxing day brunch and if you're having a get-together, you'll have some very happy guests.
- Big flavour, minimal effort: Umami-rich pesto, sun-dried tomatoes and gooey cheese turn simple ingredients into a flavour bomb.
- Prep-ahead easy! All ingredients keep well either in the pantry, fridge or frozen so you can be ready way ahead of Christmas.
- Flexible and forgiving: Swap the turkey for chicken, use store-bought pesto, or change up the cheese.
- Decadent but simple: Holiday-worthy flavour and comfort that takes minutes to put together.
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Ingredients & substitutions
You'll be blown away by the amazing flavour of these pesto turkey croissants and it all comes from just 6 ingredients!
Jump to the recipe card for full quantities and instructions.
- Croissants: You can use homemade or store-bought croissants. They freeze well so you can buy them in advance and freeze until you need them.
- Turkey: This recipe is the perfect way to use up your leftover Christmas or Thanksgiving turkey but it works equally well with rotisserie chicken too. You could also try deli turkey.
- Ham: The ham is optional but it works great with the turkey. We always have both leftover but if you don't, just leave it out.
- Basil pesto: You can use store-bought or homemade pesto. The upside to store-bought here, as much as I love to make pesto from scratch, is that it's shelf stable - you can buy it well in advance and have it ready for your post-Christmas meals.
- Sun-dried tomatoes: The sun dried tomatoes in oil, in jars are also shelf stable so you can get them well in advance too. You could swap these for sliced fresh tomatoes too.
- Cheese: You want slices of a good melting cheese here. I use Swiss cheese but gouda, edam and colby all work great too.
How to make turkey pesto sandwich croissants
These turkey pesto croissants really are so simple - just assemble and bake until hot and gooey.
Jump to the recipe card for full quantities and instructions.
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Cheese, ham, tomatoes
Those three ingredients themselves make a wonderful toastie (aka melt). Once you've sliced your croissants, sandwich-style, layer up the cheese, ham sun-dried tomatoes.
Should you butter the croissants?
With the buttery flavour of the croissants and the pesto you don't need to spread any butter or even mayo on the croissants but, if you love it, go for it.
Add turkey
Add slices of turkey on top.
Add pesto and bake
Spread pesto over the inside of the tops of the croissants then bake until hot through and the cheese is all melty!
Variations
You can create your own version of these pesto turkey croissants using what you have left from your holiday meal.
- Beef or pork: Go ahead and swap the turkey and ham for sliced roast beef or pork.
- Cranberry sauce: Swap the pesto for cranberry sauce.
- Stuffing: Even stuffing is great stuffed into a sandwich so try that with these turkey croissants.
- Monte cristo croissant: Swap the pesto and sun dried tomatoes for strawberry jam then dust the tops with powdered sugar before serving.
Storage
These are best served fresh so don't bake them until you plan to eat them. Food standards recommends that you don't eat a meat that's been cooked over and over so while cooking it the second time is fine, it's not recommended to then save any of those baked turkey croissants and re-bake them again later.
All that said, I did exactly that after baking these. I stored them in an airtight container in the fridge and baked them a second time the next day and ate them quite happily. It's your choice.
You can assemble your pesto turkey sandwich croissants ahead of time then just bake them when you need them so it makes them a wonderful brunch for a gathering.
If you made this pesto turkey croissant sandwich recipe,
be sure to leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating below. Thank you!
Pesto Turkey Croissant Sandwich
Equipment
- baking sheet
Ingredients
- 4 medium croissants
- ⅓ cup basil pesto store-bought or homemade
- 4 slices Swiss cheese
- 4 thin slices ham
- 200 g sliced roast turkey sliced thinly
- ¼ cup sundried tomatoes diced
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F and line a baking sheet with baking paper.
- Slice the croissants in half (sandwich style).
- Spread the pesto over the inside of the top halves.
- Layer up the the bottom halves with cheese first, then ham, sun dried tomatoes and sliced turkey.
- Place the tops on each one over the fillings and transfer the turkey croissant sandwiches to the baking sheet.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes until heated through and crispy and the cheese has melted. If the croissants look like their getting too dark, just tent some foil over them.
- Serve immediately.
- Please take a moment to leave a comment & rating. It's appreciated and so helpful.
Notes
- Tablespoons: I use a standard Australian 20ml tablespoon (equal to 4 teaspoons). Check yours before measuring.
- Ham is optional and they will still be lovely if you leave it out.
- The turkey can be replaced with rotisserie chicken.
- You can use store-bought or homemade pesto.
- You could try a sun dried tomato pesto and leave out the sun dried tomatoes. Maybe replace them with fresh basil.
- Any good melting cheese will work. Gouda, edam, colby are all good options.
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