Comforting Leftover Turkey Noodle Soup made completely from scratch! Homemade turkey broth from the leftover turkey carcass, loaded with turkey meat and slurp-able noodles. This soup is perfect use of that leftover holiday turkey!
It’s soup season and I love it! Now that Thanksgiving is over, I bet you have lots of leftover turkey! And I, like many of you, roasted a turkey; a big turkey, even though there were only two of us. So now I’m stuck with a ton of turkey meat, but what to do with the leftovers? I have the perfect solution, ahem, I mean recipe. Reminiscent of the classic, I created a completely homemade, leftover turkey noodle soup!
The Best Leftover Turkey Noodle Soup
- Perfect Use For Leftover Holiday Turkey
- Easy To Make
- Comforting Soup
- Simple Ingredient List
- Tasty And Delicious
You need this recipe in your life, especially if it’s cold outside. What I love about this soup, is that it’s simple. You can add as much turkey as you want and it can be dark and/or white meat. Easy, flavorful and comforting, it’s the ideal way transform leftovers from blah to wow.
Ingredient Notes
Broth
- Veggies – We want to use carrots, celery, and onion to develop the base of our soup. Note that in the image above the onion is chopped, but you don’t need to chop it. Just add it whole (peeled) to the soup.
- Turkey – We’re making soup right from the carcass, we’re not wasting anything today! This will give tons of amazing flavor and flu fighting power to our soup.
- Seasoning – Salt and pepper – be sparing with this ingredient in the early broth stage.
- Water – A lot of this will simmer off and reduce, leaving us with beautiful broth. You can use no salt added broth instead of water for extra flavor, but really don’t waste your broth, there will be lots of flavor from the turkey carcass.
Soup
- Turkey – Any leftover turkey meat you have, white or dark meat.
- Noodles – Egg noodles, whatever your favorite brand happens to be! Keep in mind they cook way quicker than regular pasta. You can also choose to use your favorite type of noodle.
- Bouillon – I love to add a chicken bouillon cube or vegeta which is actually my favorite in these types of soups. Vegeta adds lots of great flavor and it has no MSG.
- Parsley – Fresh parsley all chopped up.
How To Make Leftover Turkey Noodle Soup
- Make the broth: In a large soup pot, add turkey carcass, water, onion, celery sticks and carrots. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for about 1.5 hours, covered over medium-low heat. Remove the carcass and everything else from the soup using tongs or a slotted spoon, set the carrots aside. All there should be left in the pot should be the broth.
- Make the soup: Add turkey meat and noodles to the pot. You might need to add a couple more cups of water as some of it may have evaporated. Chop the cooked carrots into half moons and add back to the pot. Season with salt and pepper and add the bouillon cube or vegeta. Cook for another 8 minutes until noodles are cooked.
- Serve: Garnish with parsley and serve.
FAQs & Expert Tips
FAQs
If you’d like to make this recipe in your pressure cooker you’re in luck because it’s super simple. Just combine the water, turkey carcass, carrots, celery and onion and cook on the manual high setting for 30 minutes. Remove the carcass and everything else from the soup using tongs or a slotted spoon, set the carrots aside. Chop the carrots into half moons. Add the egg noodles, turkey, chopped carrots, bouillon and allow to cook on Saute setting for 8 minutes or until noodles are cooked. Garnish with parsley and serve.
Absolutely! You’ll want to combine the water, turkey carcass, carrots, celery and onion in the slow cooker and cook on LOW for 7 – 8 hours or HIGH for 3 – 4. Remove the carcass and everything else from the soup using tongs or a slotted spoon, set the carrots aside. Chop the carrots into half moons. Add the egg noodles, turkey, bouillon and chopped carrots and allow to cook for a further 15 minutes or until they are tender. Garnish with parsley and serve.
Feel free to add any spices, herbs or veggies you see fit! Experiment with different flavor combinations and have fun with it.
Absolutely! You can make this soup in advance and freeze it for future meals. Just make sure if you’re planning on making it ahead of time to leave the noodles out. See “Freezing/Make Ahead” for full instructions!
Tips
- You get an amazing turkey flavor to this soup from making your own broth from a turkey carcass, but if you want you can of course use store bought chicken broth or turkey broth.
- This soup is such a great base for some awesome flavors! You can add fresh dill at the end, or add diced parsnips to your broth for some complexity. Dried rosemary also makes a great savory addition.
- I love to keep extra broth on hand for when sniffles season rears its ugly head. I portion it out into reasonable sizes and freeze them for future use. You can incorporate it into any dish that requires broth or stock!
- This recipe will work for leftover chicken as well.
Leftovers
Let soup cool and transfer to an airtight container. Leftover turkey noodle soup will keep fresh in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Freezing/Make Ahead
If you’d like to prepare this recipe ahead and freeze it, you’ll want to assemble everything like normal, but hold off on the noodles. Sadly thawed noodles don’t retain their texture very well. Store in an airtight container in the freezer for 4 – 6 months.
When you’re ready to thaw out the soup, heat it up on the stove and incorporate the noodles then.
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Leftover Turkey Noodle Soup
Equipment
Ingredients
For the Broth
- 1 turkey carcass leftover from a carved turkey, all meat removed
- 14 cups water
- 1 large onion peeled
- 2 stalks celery
- 3 medium carrots peeled
- ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon pepper or to taste
For the Soup
- 2 to 3 cups turkey meat chopped, white or dark
- 8 ounce egg noodles dry
- 1 bouillon cube or 1-2 tbsp Vegeta
- ¼ teaspoon salt or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon pepper or to taste
- 1 tablespoon parsley chopped for garnish
Instructions
- Make the broth: In a large soup pot, add turkey carcass, water, onion, celery sticks and carrots. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for about 1.5 hours, covered over medium-low heat. Remove the carcass and everything else from the soup using tongs or a slotted spoon, set the carrots aside. All there should be left in the pot should be the broth.
- Make the soup: Add turkey meat and noodles to the pot. You might need to add a couple more cups of water as some of it may have evaporated. Chop the cooked carrots into half moons and add back to the pot. Season with salt and pepper and add the bouillon cube or vegeta. Cook for another 8 minutes until noodles are cooked.
- Serve: Garnish with parsley and serve.
Recipe Notes
- This recipe will work for leftover chicken as well.
- You get an amazing turkey flavor to this soup from making your own broth from a turkey carcass, but if you want you can of course use store bought chicken broth or turkey broth.
- This soup is such a great base for some awesome flavors! You can add fresh dill at the end, or add diced parsnips to your broth for some complexity. Dried rosemary also makes a great savory addition.
- Let soup cool and transfer to an airtight container. Leftover turkey noodle soup will keep fresh in the fridge for up to 3 days.
- If you’d like to prepare this recipe ahead and freeze it, you’ll want to assemble everything like normal, but hold off on the noodles. Sadly thawed noodles don’t retain their texture very well. Store in an airtight container in the freezer for  4 – 6 months.
- When you’re ready to thaw out the soup, heat it up on the stove and incorporate the noodles then.
Nutrition Information:
Originally shared Nov 2015.
Excellent! So rich and flavorful. Used Ditalini since I didn’t have noodles. Only drawback, carrots too soft since they had been simmering for 1-1/2 hrs.
I’m so with you on the Vegeta. I’ve used it to replace salt in many if the meals I make. I find that it add tons of extra flavour so you use less of it, and subsequently less sodium. By the way, I make my soup exactly as you write it. So, although I can’t comment on Jo’s recipe, I can to mine, which is the same 🙂 and is wonderful. One difference, I also cut up the celery and add it back. I love celery cooked soft and soggy.
I usually do the same with the celery, but I’m not a huge fan, so sometimes I skip it. 🙂
Do you cook the carcass for 15 hours or was that a typo?
That says 1.5 hours not 15. There’s a period in between.
Wow! Talk about a delicious recipe. I made this and couldn’t stop eating it…just so much flavour in the broth, it will definitely be my new go-to chicken noodle soup!!,
This was such a great way to use our leftover turkey ( and carrots and celery from a veggie tray). I made it in the slow cooker, which was perfect for extracting flavor from the carcass. I love so many of your recipes!
Thank you!!
You get way more flavor if you roast the bones first, till they are dark brown. Then make the broth with the roasted bones
Can I add better than beef boullion instead of chicken cubes
Yes for sure
If I used chicken broth instead of homemade broth, how much should I use?
I would go with about 10 to 12 cups.
Have recently made several of your recipes and they
are all winners with my family. Thank you!
I’m glad you like them. 🙂
I don’t have any leftover turkey but I definitely will be going out to buy some so I can make this delicious noodle soup – it is all I am craving right now!
LOL I hope you try it, if you make some for Christmas it will be a perfect use of the leftover turkey. 🙂
Could you use ham instead of turkey?
Hi Annette,
So glad you stopped by. You certainly could or you can try this recipe for leftover ham soup.
Can’t wait to make it.