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Put your leftover turkey to work in this quick and easy Turkey Noodle Soup. It’s simple but delicious and perfect year-round. Also great with chicken!

Turkey Soup Ingredients

- Broth: You can use either chicken broth or turkey broth in this recipe.
How to Make Homemade Turkey Soup
- In a large soup pot or Dutch oven, heat some olive oil. Then add chopped onion, carrots, and celery. Sauté the vegetables until softened.
- Then pour in the broth, herbs, and the turkey. Bring the soup to a simmer and cook until the vegetables are fork-tender—maybe 15 minutes or so. That’s it!
- If you want noodles, stir them in uncooked. Add extra pasta, if you like—but don’t add too many, otherwise they’ll soak up all your broth and you’ll be left with mush.
- Cook the noodles for as long as it takes for them to soften, anywhere between 5 to 10 minutes.
- Garnish with parsley, adjust the seasoning if needed, then pour into bowls and serve.
Turkey Noodle Soup Recipe Tips & Variations
- Leftovers: Cool completely, then store in the fridge and eat within 4 days.
- Freezer: Freeze for up to 3 months to have on hand for soup emergencies.
- Slow cooker: This takes a lot longer than the stove-top, but I don’t mind if you don’t. Add the broth, turkey, carrots, celery, onion, bay leaves, and thyme to the slow cooker. Cover, and cook on HIGH for 3 hours, or LOW for 6 hours. Stir in the egg noodles and cook 15 minutes longer on HIGH until the egg noodles are tender.
- Turkey Wild Rice Soup: Another perfect use for your leftover turkey. It’s creamy, delicious, and ready in just 40 minutes.

More delicious soups:
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Turkey Soup
Put your leftover turkey to work in this quick and easy Turkey Noodle Soup. It's simple but delicious and perfect year-round. Also great with chicken!
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil or butter
- 1 onion peeled and finely chopped
- 1 carrot peeled and chopped
- 1 celery rib chopped
- 8 cups (2 quarts) chicken broth or turkey broth (see note 1)
- 3 cups cooked turkey chopped or shredded
- 2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme or ½ teaspoon dried
- 1 bay leaf
- 8 ounces wide egg noodles
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- minced fresh parsley for garnish
Instructions
- In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add onion, carrots, and celery and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
- Stir in broth, turkey, thyme, and bay leaf. Bring to simmer and cook until vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes.
- Stir in noodles and cook until tender, about 5 minutes longer. Remove from heat, season to taste with salt and pepper, and garnish with fresh parsley.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Broth: You can use either chicken broth or turkey broth in this recipe.
- Leftovers: Cool completely, then store in the fridge and eat within 4 days.
- Freezer: Freeze for up to 3 months to have on hand for soup emergencies.
Nutrition
Serving: 2 cupsCalories: 222kcalCarbohydrates: 23gProtein: 18gFat: 6gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0.02gCholesterol: 64mgSodium: 946mgPotassium: 284mgFiber: 1gSugar: 3gVitamin A: 1339IUVitamin C: 2mgCalcium: 33mgIron: 1mg
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This is an amazing recipe!
This was an absolute perfect use of my leftover turkey. So good.
Made this easy recipe in my CrockPot didn’t have a carrot but totally delicious! Even better than my last 2 batches of chicken noodles soup. Look forward to making it again soon. Have lots of leftover turkey.
Simple. Excellent day after Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. Great on a wintery day
Excellent simple straightforward recipe.
I’m glad you enjoyed it Adrienne! Thank you!
Good straightforward “simple is best” kind of soup. Perfect after the stresses of Thanksgiving Day cooking; something no-fuss like this is just the ticket.
In response to an earlier post, I like that you suggested chicken broth. Anyone who has homemade stock or broth on hand will surely use that if they prefer, but this works for the folks who may have made a bone-out stuffed breast or something like that, and didn’t have a carcass or homemade stock on hand. Always good to have alternatives.
Why would use several dollars worth of purchased chicken broth when you can make delicious turkey broth by simmering your turkey carcass for a couple of hours? Can also pick those bones and salvage enough turkey for your soup. Save the nice sliced turkey leftovers for another entire meal. Otherwise the recipe is fine. Standard soup recipe, start with mirapois/sofrito, add other ingredients according to what kind of soup you’re making. For example, pork is great with any kind of bean soup (I use the bag of dried 15 kinds of bean.) Ham is great with green split peas or dried lima beans. And of course chicken with noodles or rice for classic chicken soup.
Not everyone cooks a whole turkey or even a bone in breast so that is why people use store bought broth/stock.
awesome recipe will make it again.
Great post. I’m going to be linking here in my upcoming Holiday Leftovers post over at hampersandhiccups.com. I’ll be sure to update you with the link 🙂
Thanks
Katelynn, hampersandhiccups.com
Exelente receta muuuuyyyyy rica te felicito linda Meggan, un fuerte abrazo y muchos besos. tu amigo Juan Carlos