Description

Making homemade turkey soup after your Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner is super easy and a delicious way to use all the leftovers. This is the basic, easy homemade turkey soup recipe you remember your mom making. It’s delicious!

Scale

Ingredients

Turkey stock:

Bones from your roast turkey

Homemade Turkey Soup:

1 teaspoon olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
4 celery stalks, chopped
3 large carrots, chopped
6 cups turkey stock
3 cups reserved turkey meat (see notes)
Sea salt, to taste
Optional: cooked egg noodles

Instructions

Turkey stock:

Remove all of the meat from the turkey and reserve 3 cups for the soup. If you’ve cooked your stuffing in the turkey, make sure to remove it all.
Break the roast turkey into 3 or 4 pieces small enough that they will fit in your largest pot. Fill the pot with cold water so that the water comes 2-inches above the bones. Bring the pot almost to a boil then reduce the heat so that it is barely simmering. You want the water to moving around, but not boiling. Cook for 8-10 hours, leaving the lid off. (See notes if you’d like to use your crockpot instead.)
Strain the turkey stock through a colander into a large bowl and discard the solids. Strain once more through a fine-mesh sieve. You can either use the turkey stock immediately or let it cool and refrigerate it for up to 3 days or freeze it for up to 3 months.

Homemade Turkey Soup:

Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes. Add the carrot and cook until it begins to brown in a few places, about 5 minutes.
Add the celery, turkey stock, and the reserved turkey meat to the pot and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes, or until the carrots and celery are soft. Season to taste generously with sea salt.
If you’re using the egg noodles, add them cooked to your soup bowl, ladle in the soup, and garnish with a little sprinkle of parsley.

Notes

If you’d like to use your crockpot to make the turkey stock, put all the bones in, fill with water, and set the timer for 8-10 hours. PRO TIP: this while you’re cleaning up from dinner so you don’t have to store the bones! Here’s a link to the full Crockpot Turkey Stock recipe.

If you don’t have enough turkey meat left, you can add 2 chicken breasts or 4 chicken thighs to the soup and let them cook in the soup. Once they’re cooked, shred the meat and return it to the pot.