Leftover-Turkey Noodle Soup

This soup is actually my chicken soup recipe, altered just a smidge to use already-cooked turkey leftovers.

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(Jump to the recipe file here.)

It also got rave reviews at the table from my husband… who is not always a harsh critic… but he does have excellent taste, so it counts all the same 😉

This year, I went to all three grocery stores in town to find the smallest turkey I could. I ended up with a twelve-pound bird, did a dry rub the day before and a glaze while cooking, and it was fantastic. It was so good, we just ate the exact same menu the day after Thanksgiving, and then I still wanted to use the rest of it in a few more dishes.

We had turkey pot pie, turkey sandwiches, and this turkey soup. And now it’s gone! (Such a gratifying feeling!)

To make the soup, I just used my chicken soup recipe, which I found online in 2016 at the Seattle Times recipes section. There wasn’t any way to save it without taking a screenshot, which I’ll admit, I didn’t even know hoe to do that on my laptop back then – I’m good with butter, not bytes – so I jotted the recipe down in my handy notebook, of course. I’ve used it regularly ever since, including really easily transforming into this leftover turkey noodle soup.

Leftover-Turkey Noodle Soup

You’ll need:

• 3 stalks celery, sliced
• 2 large carrots, sliced
• 2 yellow onions, cut into 6^th-s
• 1 parsnip
  •      Or ¼ celery root
  •      Or 2 Jerusalem artichokes, whichever you can find.

• 1 dozen sprigs parsley
• 1 dozen black peppercorns, left whole
• 3-4 bay leaves
• 2 tsp salt
• 4-5 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed, but otherwise left whole

• 2 turkey drumsticks and 1-2 turkey thighs, bone-in

• 1 handful Egg noodles, per person

Start by rinsing all your root veggies and your celery.

Then slice each onion into 6 pieces and remove the outer layer and the peel. Slice your carrots and parsnip (or whatever other root vegetable you’re using.) And slice your celery.

Add all of that to the bottom of a deep stock pot, crumple your bay leaves (unless they are dried bay leaves, in which case, just drop them in the pot) just a bit to bruise them, and add them to the pot as well.

Add your 2 tsp salt and dozen whole peppercorns (this time, I also added 4-5 grinds of fresh ground black pepper, which is why you can see pepper in the picture.)

Peel and slightly smash your garlic cloves and add them to the pot.

Then drop your parsley right on top.

Fill your pot to cover everything with at least 1 inch of water. (The parsley insists on floating to the top, so just make sure you’ve got enough water to cover the rest of your ingredients by an inch or two of water, basically 1 ½ cups of water per person you’re wanting to serve.)

Leaving the pot uncovered, bring to a boil, then immediately reduce to a gentle simmer.

(This gentle simmer is often called “smiling,” and it’s where there’s just an occasional bubble rising to the surface.

Next add your turkey legs and thigh, leaving them on the bones.

Allow this to smile and simmer with the turkey added for 30-35 minutes.

(Just so you know, when I make my chicken soup with this recipe, I start with a raw, whole chicken, giblets removed, make sure the chicken is covered by 2 inches of water, and with the chicken in the pot, bring it to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and allow it to simmer for 1 to 1 ½ hours. In this recipe, using leftover turkey, I only simmer the meat for 30-35 minutes.)

Once your soup has simmered and smiled for about 30-35 minutes, use a slotted spoon or pair of big tongs to carefully remove the turkey from the soup pot. Place it on a plate and allow to cool for about 10-15 minutes.

In the meantime, cook your noodles. In about a 4-quart sauce pot, add about 3 quarts of water, add 3 Tbs salt, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add your noodles and cook to package directions. I add a reasonable-looking handful per person, and mine generally take about 11 minutes to come just to al dente.

(I have made egg noodle and egg yolk pasta from scratch, many times, and it’s worth doing, and I enjoy it (I’ll post instructions one day), but I made this soup a few days after Thanksgiving, and so used store-bought noodles, and actually had fun picking out some really nice ones.

While the noodles are cooking, clean the turkey meat from the bones and place in a small bowl, briefly before assembling the soup.

(I have a box of nitrile gloves around that I use for candy making, working with isomalt, and other hot things like cleaning chicken and turkey, so if you’ve got some, I do recommend wearing a pair to clean the meat from the bones; it helps quite a bit. The meat towards the bones is still hot, but the gloves give a pretty decent buffer.)

Once your meat is cleaned and shredded, set it aside. Your noodles should be done. Drain those and set them aside very briefly.

Assemble your soup: Ladle about ½ cup of soup into bowls at a time and doing this small of an amount at a time will allow you to pull out the whole peppercorns, bay leaves, and any larger pieces of celery, all of which you really don’t want to leave in the soup. You can also pull the leaves from the parsley stalks and discard the stalks only – keep those leaves in the soup!

(If you don’t find all 12 whole peppercorns, just give your family a little warning that there may be one or two in their bowl. It’s an acceptable thing at my dinner table – small cautionary warnings about lemongrass stalks or whole peppercorns. I try to account for all these things at the end, but.)

Once you’ve got the soup base in the bowls, add a portion of shredded turkey, then a portion of the noodles.

Then toss everything around with some tongs or a large spoon, and garnish with just a few more sprigs of parsley and a few more carrot slices to make it really pretty.

And serve and enjoy!

I serve it just as it is, since it’s got those nice egg noodles, no accompanying crackers or toasty bread. I really do like it as meal on its own. I hope you’ll give it a try the next time you’ve got some leftover bone-in meat.

You’ll need to get yourself a triangle and mount it on your front porch so you can clang it and yell, “Soup’s on!”

Download the recipe file here.