Another Thanksgiving Bites The Dust!

Sadly, another Thanksgiving has come and gone! The good news is, you can enjoy a little bowl of Thanksgiving turkey all winter long! How may you ask?

Well, there’s a ton of meat and stock on the turkey bones that usually goes to waste because it’s difficult to remove.

After a big turkey dinner, don’t let all that meat on the carcass go to waste! Instead, use it to make a delicious homemade turkey noodle soup, that you can freeze in individual portions and enjoy in the coming months!

Side Note- You can also make this recipe with a leftover rotisserie chicken for chicken noodle soup!

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Making Homemade Soup From Scratch

There’s something very old fashioned and nostalgic about making your own stock and soup from scratch. I absolutely love how it fills your home with warmth and delicious smells while cooking! (Cozy vibes!)

As you may have guessed, I’m big on homemade soup! In fact, soup is probably my favorite thing to make in the kitchen! This hearty homemade turkey noodle soup in particular, is one of my favorite soups to make during the holidays!

Forewarning! This recipe is a bit of a commitment! But as they say, all great things take time and patience! (I promise it’s totally worth it!!!)

The good news? You don’t need to make this homemade turkey noodle soup right away! Instead, store the turkey carcass in the fridge for a few days before using it to make soup. (Seriously, give yourself a break after a day full of holiday cooking and baking!)

Enjoy!

The Bonus Cookbook

If you want to see how I made this Turkey noodle soup recipe, here’s some bonus info and a few extra photos to help you out!

Homemade turkey noodle soup and stock from scratch may seem complicated, but it’s actually more of a time commitment than anything. If you have time, patience, and follow the instructions this recipe is relatively straight forward.

Off the bat, it’s worth nothing that there are two separate parts to this recipe:

• Part 1- The Turkey Stock
• Part 2- The Turkey Noodle Soup

If you don’t want to deal with the hassle of making your own turkey stock from scratch (can’t say I blame you), skip part 1 of this recipe. You can cheat, and make a faster “homemade” turkey (or chicken) noodle soup with pre-made stock, and shredded turkey (or chicken) from the store!

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How Long Does It Take To Make Turkey Noodle Soup From Scratch?

Ideally, if you can split up making the stock and the soup over a few days, it will make the recipe(s) more manageable. I always try to make the turkey stock and soup the day(s) after Thanksgiving or Christmas, to give myself a break from all the cooking.

This year with my busy schedule, I didn’t have the time (4ish + hours) to do everything in one day. So instead, I decided to make the stock and soup over the course of several days.

For this batch of turkey noodle soup, I cooked our turkey on Thursday (Thanksgiving), made the stock on Friday, then finished the turkey noodle soup on Saturday.

That said, if you have time and want to get it all done at once, by all means go for it! It is possible to make both the stock and the turkey noodle soup in one day (I have done it many times), but keep in mind that it will be an all-day affair.

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How Long Can You Store A Turkey Carcass In The Fridge For Soup?

A properly refrigerated carcass can last about 6-10 days (or more). Immediately after carving, store your turkey carcass in a large sealed freezer bag. (Well, maybe not “immediately”, allow it to cool a little bit first!)

Boiling the carcass will kill any bacteria that is active at the time, including E. coli and salmonella. With that said, if your turkey looks/smells weird or spoiled, be safe and don’t use it!

Also, if you’re not planning on making your turkey noodle soup anytime soon, you can freeze the carcass! Just take it out of the freezer to thaw for a few minutes before making the stock.

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Part 1- The Turkey Stock

Turkey (or Chicken) Stock Ingredients:

• 1 cooked turkey carcass, giblets and internal stuffing or trimmings discarded (also works with roast chicken)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2-4 large carrots, cut into large chunks
• 1 stalk celery, cut into large chunks
• 2 large white onions, quartered
• 1 head garlic, peeled and halved
• 1 bunch fresh thyme
• 1 bunch fresh rosemary
• 1 bunch fresh sage
• 2-3 bay leaves
• 1-2 tsp whole black peppercorns (tied inside cheesecloth)

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Step 1: Trim and Boil the Carcass

First, trim the extra turkey meat from the carcass, leaving some of the meat on the bones. Store the carved turkey meat in the fridge to enjoy as leftovers! (Thanksgiving sandwiches? Yes please!)

Note: As I mentioned earlier, you can store the carcass in the fridge or freezer for several days before making soup with it.

Prep The Ingredients

When boiling a carcass to make stock, leave the veggies in large sections. These vegetables are just there to add flavor to the stock, and will be discarded when you begin sorting through the turkey meat. Finely chopped vegetables and herbs will be more difficult to remove later.

Prep the cooking vegetables by quartering the onions, and chopping the celery and carrots into approximately 2″-3″ sections. Peel an entire head of garlic, and halve the cloves. Wash the fresh herbs, leaving them whole on the stems.

Similarly, whole peppercorns add a lot of great flavor to the stock, but they’re a pain to remove if you just throw them in there! Instead, place the peppercorns inside a cheesecloth, and tie off the end with cooking twine. You can also use a reusable cloth tea bag if you have one!

Sauté and Simmer

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large stockpot over medium heat. (I mean a VERY large stockpot! Use the biggest one you have!)

Sauté the carrots, celery, onions, garlic, and fresh herbs for approximately two minutes until fragrant.

Next, add the turkey to the stockpot and cover the entire carcass with cold water. (any more will make the broth weak)

Note: If you have extra chicken or turkey broth leftover from Thanksgiving, you can add it to the pot to give the stock more flavor.

Add the bay leaves and whole peppercorns.

Allow the liquid to slowly come to a boil. Then lower the heat to medium-low and gently simmer, (partially covered) for 1 ½ – 2 hours.

Note: While the stock simmers, you can break up the turkey carcass to reduce its size inside the stockpot.

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Step 2: Skim Away Impurities

Check the stock every 20-30 minutes as it simmers. Use a large spoon to skim impurities from the stock, and discard.

Add more water as needed to keep the turkey carcass fully submerged.

What Are “Impurities”?

Simply put, “impurities” are just a fancy way of saying fat, oil and grease. Turkey in particular tends to release a lot of fat, because it’s usually basted with a ton of butter and baking grease.

Impurities will look like a layer of oil or fat that is floating on top of the stock. You don’t want your stock to be too oily, so it’s important to remove these impurities as the stock simmers. (The goal is smooth and creamy, not greasy and fatty!)

Most of the fat should rise to the surface of your stock within the first thirty minutes to an hour. However, depending on how fatty your bird is, there may be impurities towards the end of the simmer as well.

Don’t feel bad if you discard some of the stock while removing the impurities. You want to get rid of as much fat as possible, even if that means sacrificing some of the stock in the process.

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Step 3: Strain The Stock

Simmer the turkey carcass and stock for 1.5 – 2 hours, or until the meat starts to fall off the bones easily.

Note: Depending on the size or your chicken or turkey, it may take more or less time to reach this stage. (The 16 lb turkey I used for this recipe took approximately 2.5 hours to reach this point)

Next, carefully strain the stock into another large pot or bowl. Remove the turkey, cooking vegetables and herbs, then set them to the side to cool.

Note: You may need to strain the stock through a fine sieve a couple times to achieve a smooth stock.

If you don’t have a fine sieve, use a strainer with cheesecloth clamped to the inside to prevent it from falling.

Allow the turkey stock to cool, and place it in a storage container. You can Refrigerate the turkey stock for up to one week, or freeze for several months.

Note: Make sure you always properly cool your stock or soup before refrigerating or freezing!

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Step 4: Sorting The Meat

Making the turkey stock is the easy part, sorting the meat is what requires a bit of time, patience, and work.

Note: It usually takes me at least 30 minutes to an hour to sort through, and hand shred all the turkey meat. You’ve been warned!

Place the “discarded” turkey meat on a cutting board to fully cool before handing. The turkey bones and meat will be extremely hot, so don’t start the sorting process until it has finished cooling.

I typically start with a “rough sort” to remove all the large bones, herbs, cooking vegetables, and any other obvious discards before storing it in the fridge. (This sort should only take about 10-15 minutes.)

Rough Sort

For the first “rough sort”, start going through the turkey meat piece by piece. Remove any large bones, skin or cartilage that you come across.

Discard the cooking herbs and vegetables, at this stage they are only used to add flavor to the turkey stock. (you’ll use fresh ones when making the turkey noodle soup later)

After you’ve removed a majority of the large discardable items. The turkey meat can be stored in the fridge for a day or two (up to three days), or you can move on to the final sort to make turkey noodle soup (part 2) that same day.

When I’m ready to make soup, I do a second “final sort” to remove any smaller bones etc. that I may have missed during the first round of “rough” sorting.

Final Sort

After the first “rough sort”, I like to do a final pass through the turkey meat using two large bowls.

Sort the turkey meat piece by piece for a second time. Hand shred the “good meat” into bite sized pieces, and place them in a large bowl. Place any bones, cartilage, and skin that was overlooked during the first sort in a separate bowl to be discarded.

Once you’ve finished the final sort, you can use the good meat right away to make soup. You can also store the shredded turkey meat and refrigerate it overnight, or freeze for several weeks. If you decide to freeze the turkey meat, defrost before adding it to your soup.

WOO! You made it through the tedious part! Now it’s time to move on to the turkey noodle soup (part 2)!

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Part 2- The Turkey Noodle Soup

Turkey (or Chicken) Noodle Soup Ingredients:

• Shredded turkey meat (from stock recipe, or from store)
• 2+ quarts turkey stock (from stock recipe, or from store)
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 medium white onion, finely chopped
• 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 medium carrots, finely chopped
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme, removed from stems
• 1 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh sage, finely chopped
• 1 handful fresh flat-leaf Italian parsley, finely chopped
• 1-2 bay leaves
• kosher salt, to taste
• freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 8 oz egg noodles (or pasta of choice)

How to Make Homemade Turkey (or Chicken) Noodle Soup

You can make this turkey noodle soup with homemade stock and shredded meat from the turkey carcass (part 1).

Alternatively, if you don’t feel like going through the trouble of making your own homemade stock and shredded meat, you can “cheat” by using two quarts of stock, and two cups shredded chicken or turkey meat from the store.

Note: Turkey (and chicken) noodle soup only lasts about 3-4 days in the fridge! This recipe yields a ton of soup! (I mean a LOT! At least 12-15 servings!) Consider freezing some for later!

Step 1: Saute the Vegetables and Herbs

Start by finely chopping your vegetables and herbs.

Note: Unlike the turkey stock recipe (part 1), these vegetables and herbs stay in the soup. They won’t be discarded like we did with the stock, so chop them down into bite sized pieces.

Place a large stockpot over medium heat, and coat the bottom with olive oil. Add the onion, garlic, carrots, and herbs (thyme, rosemary, sage, and bay leaves). Stir for approximately 6 minutes, or until the vegetables and herbs are softened and fragrant.

Step 2: Add the Stock and Meat

Add your homemade (or store bought) turkey (or chicken) stock to the pot, and bring it to a boil.

Mix in the shredded turkey (or chicken) and fresh parsley. Continue to simmer for a few minutes until the meat is heated through. 

Season the soup with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.

Note: If freezing, do not add the noodles yet! (instructions below)

Step 3: Add Noodles

If you plan on eating your turkey noodle soup immediately, add the noodles of your choice. Simmer partially covered for 5 minutes, or until the noodles are tender.

Note: I personally like using egg noodles because they have a great texture for soup, and they cook quickly.

Serve immediately, and enjoy!

Cheers!

-M

Freezing Soup

When you freeze turkey (or chicken) noodle soup with the noodles in it, they can become soggy and won’t taste as fresh. Trust me, it’s totally worth cooking a fresh batch of noodles with your soup when you defrost it!

If you want to freeze your soup like I always do, skip the noodles and check out our post on how to freeze soup in individual portions!

Want to Learn More?

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Leave a comment below if you have any questions about how to make this homemade turkey (or chicken) noodle soup and stock, or have a few fun tips and tricks of your own that you would like to share!