Homemade Turkey Noodle Soup Recipe
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The best Easy Turkey Noodle Soup Recipe! Homemade from leftover turkey, this soup is easy to make in the slow cooker, instant pot or stove.
If you’re currently wondering what the heck to do with leftover Thanksgiving turkey, this turkey noodle soup recipe is the best way to enjoy your holiday leftovers (or any time you have turkey leftovers)!
There’s nothing worse than eating the exact same Thanksgiving meal 3 days in a row or trying to find a creative way to make a turkey sandwich that doesn’t suck.
This soup recipe is so good because it uses leftover turkey meat, nutritious turkey broth, and lots of veggies and noodles.
This recipe is done in under an hour and made with basic, affordable ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry/fridge, and it uses up all those holiday turkey leftovers. No more sad turkey sandwiches or tossing turkey after a few days – this totally transforms it!
If you need other ideas for your leftover turkey, try our Leftover Turkey Soup, Turkey Pot Pie Soup, or our Leftover Turkey Chili.
(If you’re still searching for other Thanksgiving Recipes – check out these Healthy Thanksgiving Recipes!)
liz’s top tips for easy turkey noodle soup
- Use all the leftover turkey meat!! I like to use a mix of white and dark leftover turkey meat. Chop it up into small pieces!
- Pro Tip: Don’t forget to save your leftover turkey carcass and bones and use them to make the most flavorful Homemade Turkey Stock you will ever have!
Ingredients
Substitutions
Spices: You can omit rosemary if you don’t like it. If you don’t have fresh herbs you can sub with 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary. Fresh parsley or fresh thyme would also be a good addition.
Turkey: I use leftover cooked turkey in this recipe. It’s the perfect recipe for Thanksgiving leftovers. A mix of light and dark meat works best. You can also use chicken for a Chicken Noodle Soup.
Carrots: Feel free to add more carrots or leave them out if you prefer.
Extra veggies: You could add chopped zucchini, kale, crushed tomatoesor spinach to this recipe too!
Broth: Broth is the same thing as stock and can be used interchangeably. Vegetable, turkey broth, chicken broth, or beef broth would all work in this recipe.
Pasta: We have only tried this recipe with egg noodles. I wouldn’t recommend substituting smaller kinds of pasta like Pastina, but I think elbows, fusilli, or rotini would all work. I haven’t tried making this with gluten-free pasta, but I would worry that it could easily turn very mushy. I’d boil your gluten-free noodles on the side instead of cooking them all in one pot. For wild rice, try Turkey Wild Rice Soup.
Tomatoes: If you like a tomato based soup, try this pasta fagioli soup recipe and add in cooked turkey! It’s a great way to use up leftover turkey!
Salt/ Black Pepper: You can add more salt to taste, but we recommend making this with low or no salt added broth!
Add Lemon: Have you ever tried adding a little bit of lemon juice to your turkey soup? It’s seriously delicious! We love this Lemon Chicken Soup and enjoy a little lemon juice stirred into this turkey soup too!
How to make easy Turkey Noodle Soup
You can make this homemade turkey soup on the stove or in the crockpot or instant pot. Pictured below you’ll see step-by-step instructions for this turkey noodle soup Stovetop Method.
- Sauté onions and garlic until translucent. Add celery and carrots. Sauté for additional 5 minutes.
- Add all remaining ingredients except noodles and bring to a boil. Reduce heat cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- After 20 minutes, add egg noodles.
- Bring to a boil for 5-7 minutes until noodles are cooked completely.
How do I thicken Leftover Turkey Soup?
We wouldn’t recommend thickening this soup. It is delicious as is, and the soup naturally will thicken on its own as the pasta cooks and cools.
Storage
If you plan to store or meal prep this recipe, COOK YOUR NOODLES SEPARATELY. I know we all love a one-pot meal, but the noodles will get soggy if left in the soup for an extended period of time.
Fridge: This soup will last up to 3 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator. The noodles will absorb some of the broth if cooked together. To avoid this, cook the noodles separately.
Freezer: This soup freezes great and can last up to 3 months in the freezer! I don’t recommend freezing with the noodles, though, as they can get mushy. When you are ready to eat, defrost overnight in the refrigerator. You can also heat it in the microwave or on the stove directly from frozen. We have more tips on how to freeze soup!
Reheating: You can reheat turkey noodle soup in the crockpot, microwave, or on the stove. Add your cooked noodles once the turkey noodle soup is heated.
Other healthy soup recipes:
We love healthy soup recipes. You can get our free Healthy Soup Ebook here or check out these Easy Healthy Soup Recipes. Here are some other healthy soup recipes you may like:
Homemade Turkey Noodle Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup celery chopped finely
- 1 cup onion chopped finely
- 1.5 cups carrots sliced in small circles
- 1/2 tablespoon garlic minced
- 4 cups cooked turkey chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes optional
- 4 bay leaves
- 8 cups turkey or chicken broth LOW or NO sodium
- 3.5 cups egg noodles about 8oz
Instructions
Stovetop Instructions
- Chop vegetables + turkey.
- In a large pot, heat olive oil.
- Sauté onions + garlic until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add celery + carrots. Sauté for an additional 5 minutes.
- Add remaining ingredients to the pan except for noodles. Cover the pot and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- After 20 minutes, bring the soup to a boil. Once boiling, add in noodles. Cook the noodles for 2-3 minutes less than the instructions say. The noodles will continue cooking in the soup and will get mushy if you over cook them!
Instant Pot Instructions:
- Chop vegetables + turkey.
- Set instant pot to saute, 10 minutes.
- Sauté onions and garlic until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add celery and carrots. Sauté for an additional 5 minutes.
- Add remaining ingredients to the pot except for noodles. Cover and set to sealing, High Pressure, for 8 minutes.
- While the soup cooks, cook your noodles in a separate pot according to package.
- Once cooked, allow the soup to naturally release pressure for 10 minutes, then manually release remaining pressure.
- Add cooked noodles to the pot, stir and enjoy!
- *Note: do NOT add noodles to your instant pot. They will be over cooked and turn to mush. Cook the noodles separately.
Crockpot Instructions
- In your crockpot combine all ingredients except for egg noodles.
- Cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours.
- 20 minutes before you’re ready to serve – turn your crockpot to high and add in your noodles. You can also boil them separately on the stove if you’d prefer.
- After 15-20 minutes your noodles should be perfectly cooked and your soup will be ready to enjoy!
Such a great recipe to use and I had all the ingredients already from Thanksgiving. I used the turkey broth recipe for the soup and still have more turkey broth to spare.
It was delicious and my kids all loved it!
I used this as a guide, made 1/2 batch and used poultry seasoning instead of thyme. Just water sautéed the veg (no oil) and used fettuccini noodles instead of egg noodles.
It was delicious!! Thank you so much for sharing this!
So good!! The best pot of soup I ever made!! Thank you! P.S. stored it in my “Souper Cubes” !!
Woo! We love Souper Cubes!
Al I can say is DELICIOUS!! I had a whole turkey breast left over From Thanksgiving and I decided to make this Turkey noodle soup! It’s so so good. Thanks so much for giving my leftover turkey life. Will make this soup with all kinds of meats!!! Yummy!!!
So happy you enjoyed it!
So good! My family finished the whole pot in one meal! Making round 2 tomorrow!
So happy you liked it!