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Rich flavorful turkey leftover soup from carcass. With homemade shredded turkey, vegetables and noodles, this soup is healthy and will feed your whole family!
The best way to use leftover Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey.
Every year we have a lot of turkey leftovers. We are only a family of 4 and two of our family members are little children, the oldest is in kindergarten. Also everyone loves different parts of turkey. I like legs, my kids love wings and my husband likes turkey breast.
We get lots of leftovers that i am trying to reuse withing the next week. I also freeze some of the meat, after i shred it. That can be used for sandwiches, turkey taco bowls or sometimes i add it to my breakfast eggs.
Can you freeze turkey soup?
Yes you can but i recommend to cook noodles separately and don’t freeze them. They will get mushy and overcook when you reheat the soup.
Also, if i know that we are not going to eat the whole pot at once, i cook noodles in a separate pot and refrigerate it separately as well. Depends on what kind of noodles you chose to use too, eggs noodles especially will expand and get mushy.
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Leftover turkey soup ingredients
- Turkey. I used a turkey carcass , it makes a nice bone broth and makes the broth rich and delicious. Additionally i use chopped turkey meat, breast or thighs
- Celery. I only use it when making a broth. After is has being boiled for an hour, i discard it. Honestly i dont like celery pieces in my soup, i use it only for flavor
- Carrots. Cut it in medium chunks
- Noodles. Wide egg noodles will be perfect here but use your favorite.
- Onion. Chop it fine
- Salt, pepper, bay leaf, more spices if desired
How to make easy turkey soup
After holidays we usually have a leftover turkey carcass. This is a perfect and most valuable part of the turkey for a rich flavorful broth. Simmer it in water along with celery, bay leaves and black pepper.
Dont add salt yet. Since we are using a precooked turkey, the amount of salt varies. I used a carcass from my smoked turkey recipe.
Boil broth for 1/5 to 2 hours. Then add other ingredients and cook until done and carrots are tender.
Other comforting soup recipes readers love!
- Leftover ham bone soup
- Caldo de Pollo—– my favorite Mexican chicken soup!
- Instant Pot beef vegetable soup
- Pork Nilaga —– Filipino pork soup
Leftover turkey soup
Ingredients
- 8 cups water*
- 1 turkey carcass
- 4 celery ribs
- 2 big carrots peeled and sliced
- 1 onion chopped
- salt and pepper to taste**
- 4 oz wide egg noodles
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 cups chopped turkey meat could be breast or thighs
Instructions
- Start with placing turkey carcass into your pot with water Add bay leaves and celery. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 1,5-2 hours.
- Discard celery, bay leaves and turkey carcass. Add sliced carrots,, onion and diced turkey. Simmer for additional 30 minutes. Add noodles and cook for 10 minutes (or follow the packaging time directions)
Notes
Nutrition
Doris
Saturday 26th of December 2020
Soup that fills the soul, I simmer my Broth for 6-8 hours. I also add 1 TBS of pepper corns and a mix of dried thyme, oregano and sage approx 2 Tbs Absolutely delicious!
Terry Canning
Thursday 16th of April 2020
That’s a very blasé turkey soup. I can’t imagine not including some turnip, potatoes, and possibly sweet potato. I haven’t tried adding noodles but that sounds good - I often add some barley.
Valerie
Thursday 16th of April 2020
Just making this today Very simple to prep and smells wonderful Thank you
valerie kahanu
Sunday 8th of December 2019
made some delicious turkey soup thank you for sharing your recipe. Will have it with homemade bread sticks.