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!
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.