My favorite way to use up leftover turkey is to make a delicious pot of turkey soup. This is also a great way to clean out your refrigerator!
To make the best tasting soup, make your own stock, it’s easy!
How to make turkey soup from a carcass:
Bones make a rich, flavorful stock; use the leftover turkey carcass with any leftover turkey meat along with an onion, a few stalks of celery, some garlic, herbs, and anything else you find in your refrigerator and let it simmer on low covered with water for a few hours. Then toss out the bones and vegetables, reserve the turkey and start your soup. There are no exact measurements, use whatever is in your refrigerator, or of course you can use canned stock or broth instead.
And yes, you can do this with chicken too!
Try These Leftover Thanksgiving Recipes:
- Leftover Turkey and Sweet Potato Frittata
- Leftover Turkey Tacos with Brussels Sprout Slaw
- Leftover Turkey Harvest Cobb Salad
- Leftover Turkey Lettuce Wraps
- Leftover Baked Turkey Croquettes
Leftover Turkey Noodle Soup
Ingredients
- 6 cups homemade turkey stock, or low sodium canned
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 cup diced carrot
- 3/4 cup chopped onion
- 3/4 cup diced celery
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- salt to taste
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup chopped parsley
- 3 oz no yolk egg noodles
- 2 cups leftover shredded turkey, about 8 ounces
Instructions
- Fill a large saucepan with homemade turkey stock (or canned).
- Add bay leaf, carrots, onion, celery, garlic, salt and pepper to taste and simmer 10-15 minutes, until the vegetables are soft.
- Add parsley, noodles and shredded turkey; cook according to noodle directions, about 5 minutes.
- Discard bay leaf and serve.
Excellent soup and a new favorite. So satisfying to come away with a rich pot of soup. It really made it doing my own broth from the turkey that had simmered and then I cooked and defatted it. I added more College inn turkey broth which is a bit salty I think–I am glad I didn’t add any extra salt. Used the wide egg noodles as what I had on hand. Got 8 cups worth of soup. Also since I was using my left over turkey for several skinny taste dishes –by the time I did this one really only had dark turkey meat left and that made it extra rich too really. Loved it. Thank you. ( The other recipes I did this time for left over turkey were the skillet “chicken or turkey in this case” enchilada and the turkey pot pie with the sweet potato topping–both wonderful as well. I like the things I make after having the turkey dinner better then the turkey dinner really!
The recipe fails to mention weather cooked or uncooked noodles. Might want to edit & put 3/4 cup of uncooked noodles.
Perfect! Easy to make. Taste wonderful. The only difference I made was to sauté the onion, garlic, celery and carrots with tablespoon of olive oil so it would cook faster. It only took about 5 minutes to make.
Perfect! Easy to make. Taste wonderful. The only difference I made was to sauté the onion, garlic, celery and carrots with tablespoon of olive oil so it would cook faster.
I froze our leftover Thanksgiving gravy and added that to the soup for extra flavor. Yum!
When making the bone broth do you add water..how much?
Made this soup today even if it is not “soup weather.” Delicious! Added just a pinch of dried French thyme crumbled with my fingers to the broth. – a little bit of herbs couldn’t hurt. Can’t wait to try more of your soup recipes! Thanks, Gina!
I made this today. Very good! Thank you again for all your delicious recipes!
In most of your recipes what do you mean by Freestyle points: 3, points +:3, what does the +:3 stand for?
That is point plus, an older WW program.
Great recipe! Using up all of my turkey leftovers from Canadian thanksgiving, I doubled it and added the juice of a whole lemon. So yummy! Thanks for the great soup recipe.
Glad you enjoyed it, hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving!
I think I’m more excited to make this soup tomorrow than I was for Thanksgiving today!
Made this with leftover turkey I vacuum packed and froze. I used store bought turkey stock and this turned out really good. this for sure is a make again…
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I know this is an oldie but goodie, but I just made it today for the first time from a leftover turkey breast I slow cooked on Sunday. This was so easy and came out so flavorful! I doubled it and immediately put half into the freezer. Thanks for the always fabulous recipes online and in the books!!!
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Gina, I love your recipes, and have made this one a few times! However, i do think the nutrition information is incorrect. When i put the ingredients into the myfitnesspal recipe builder it matched the noodles to 3oz cooked noodles, which gives the nutrition info you posted. However, if it’s 3oz of uncooked noodles, then it’s about 225 calories per serving.
I will double check!
I made this soup with some leftover turkey we had and it was so good! I made it just how the recipe said and it was amazing! I love skinny soup recipes because you get such a big helping 🙂 so yummy!
I make my stock as we eat Thanksgiving dinner! I have a HUGE stock pot that I put 2lb.carrots 2lb onions, head of garlic, a bunch of celery, peppercorns, bay leaf, salt, and the turkey carcass, pan drippings, and trimmings. I add 3-4 gallon water and let it simmer away for hours. I allow it to cool outside overnight. The next morning I strain and freeze lots and make a pot of dump soup. Dump soup is all the leftover veggies, turkey, mashed potatoes and even some stuffing into the stock. WOW!
Made this for dinner and used rotini. It was fabulous!
~Stacy @ Stacy Makes Cents