One of my absolute favorite things about Thanksgiving dinner is leftover turkey! And since turkeys are always on sale this time of year, we buy at least a second one to freeze and use for one of our many Christmas dinners. So I welcome the challenge each year to find delicious wholesome kid-approved ways to use up every bit of the leftovers during this busy expensive holiday season.
Since our kids love homemade soups as much as I do, some form of turkey soup always seems to be on the leftover agenda — usually my husband’s wonderful turkey and wild rice soup. But, to mix things up a bit (particularly since we end up with leftover carcasses and meat from multiple turkeys each holiday season), last year I also started adapting our kids’ favorite chicken noodle soup to use up leftover holiday turkey. We always go with a smoked turkey, but this classic soup tastes great with any flavor of cooked turkey.
I like to stretch our meals as far as possible, so I routinely save poultry carcasses to make and freeze stock throughout the year. You can easily substitute chicken stock if you already have that on hand. If you make the stock ahead of time, the rest of this recipe is quick and easy enough to throw together for a hearty family meal after a busy day at work. And if you’d rather not bother with making your own stock, just buy some chicken stock.
- Soup
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 medium carrots, cut diagonally into ½-inch-thick slices
- 2 celery ribs, halved lengthwise, and cut into ½-inch-thick slices
- 4 fresh thyme sprigs
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 quarts turkey stock (see recipe below) or chicken stock (use store-bought if easier)
- 8 ounces dried wide egg noodles
- 1-1/2 cups shredded cooked turkey
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 handful fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
- Stock
- 1 Meaty turkey carcass, including wings and other leftover meat
- 1 Medium onion, quartered
- 2 Carrots, coarsely chopped
- 2 Celery stalks, coarsely chopped
- 5 Garlic cloves, smashed
- 6 Parsley sprigs
- 2 Bay leaves
- 2 Thyme sprigs (or 1 tsp dried thyme)
- 1 Tsp Peppercorns
- 1 Tsp Salt
- Soup
- Place a soup pot over medium heat and coat with the oil. Add the onion, garlic, carrots, celery, thyme and bay leaf. Cook and stir for about 6 minutes, until the vegetables are softened but not browned.
- Pour in the stock and bring the liquid to a boil.
- Add the noodles and simmer for 5 minutes until tender.
- Fold in the turkey, and continue to simmer for another couple of minutes to heat through; season with salt and pepper.
- Sprinkle with chopped parsley before serving.
- Stock
- Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
- Hack carcass into useful sized chunks
- Roast carcass chunks on cooking sheet in oven for 30 minutes
- Put roasted carcass chunks in large stockpot
- Add quartered onion, coarsely chopped carrots and celery, garlic, parsley, bay leaves, thyme, peppercorns and salt to pot
- Fill pot with water to cover all the meat and veggies
- Turn pot on high until it boils, skimming off any “scum” that accumulates on top (I’ve not had this problem)
- Reduce heat and simmer uncovered until meat begins falling off bones–about 3 hours
- Pour stock through a large colander into another large pot–we use our cast iron porcelain pot here. Alternatively, you can pour the stock into a large bowl, and then pour it back into the same pot you used for the stock.
- When the chunks in the colander have cooled, separate out the turkey parts and discard the rest
- Pull off the meat and chop coarsely–discard bones and cartilage
