This Turkey Soup Recipe Using Thanksgiving Leftovers is so good you just may find yourself roasting a turkey on more than just Thanksgiving! This soup is the number one family favorite meal that everyone asks for after Thanksgiving.
Forget dreading endless days of turkey leftovers and make a big potful of this soup. It’s loaded with deliciousness and can easily be frozen. You’ll not only get a easy to make soup filled with diced turkey, vegetables, perfectly seasoned in a homemade turkey broth to eat today but you can freeze this to eat at another time.
It’s a favorite way to avoid meal burn out after everyone has eaten leftovers for days and days. Cutting back on food waste is a great way to save money too! Especially at this time of year when prices on making holiday meals are going up.
Thanksgiving Leftover Soup (Turkey Rice)
While this recipe is made with Thanksgiving leftovers you don’t have to wait until you make a holiday meal to make this hearty soup. Check out the FAQ section below for tips on how to make this delicious soup any time of the year.
You’ll also find lots of ingredient swaps so you can easily make this soup with brown rice, white rice or even egg noodles. I’ve made it lots of different ways and everyone has been tasty. Here’s what you’ll need to make this soup:
Ingredients for leftover Turkey Soup:
Turkey Meat – you can use any kind of leftover turkey meat (white or dark meat). When I remove the meat from the bones so I can make broth with the bones I set aside a few cups of turkey to make this recipe.
Turkey Broth – make your own homemade turkey stock using the bones from the turkey (great way to save even more money) or use your favorite store bought broth.
Vegetables – I like to include onions, celery and carrots in my turkey soup. These are often the same vegetables that I’ve used to make my Thanksgiving dinner so I have extra leftover vegetables after making that meal.
Rice – you’ll want to use white rice or brown rice for this recipe. They both work in this recipe.
Butter and Olive Oil – you’ll need a bit of oil to sauté the vegetables to soften them and bring out their flavor. I like to include a bit of butter for added flavor. You can use all olive oil or even swap it out for another oil such as vegetable oil, canola oil, safflower oil, coconut oil, etc.
Seasonings – this recipe includes salt, ground black pepper, rosemary, thyme and bay leaves.
How to make this Easy Turkey Soup Recipe:
Step 1: In a large soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the diced celery, carrots and onion. Add the butter. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes over medium heat stirring often until the vegetables are slightly tender.
Step 2: Add the turkey broth, seasonings and rice. Stir and bring the broth to a simmer. Turn the heat down if needed so the broth continues to simmer slowly. Stir often to prevent the rice from sticking.
Step 3: Simmer until the rice is tender. The amount of time needed will depend upon the type of rice you use. Usually this will take 20 to 30 minutes.
Step 4: Stir in the cooked turkey and simmer for another 5 minutes to heat the turkey through.
Step 5: Season with additional salt and black pepper to taste. Remove the bay leaf and serve with your favorite side dishes.
Recipe Variations: Here are some quick and easy recipe swaps that you can try.
- Try adding 1/2 a cup of wild rice for a turkey wild rice soup.
- Add extra veggies such as potato, sweet potatoes, green beans, zucchini or even spinach to this soup.
- Use fresh thyme and rosemary in place of the dried herbs. For every teaspoon of dried herb you will want to use one tablespoon of minced/chopped fresh herbs.
- Swap out the dried thyme with an equal amount of poultry seasoning.
- Turn this into a creamy soup by replacing 1 cup of broth with 1 cup of heavy cream.
- Swap out the rice with 8 ounces of egg noodles and turn this into turkey noodle soup.
- No turkey broth? Use chicken broth or chicken stock instead.
- Don’t have leftover thanksgiving turkey? You can make this recipe any time by simply cooking a turkey breast or turkey cutlets to dice up to use in this soup recipe.
How to store Leftover Turkey Soup:
This soup will last 5 days in the refrigerator in an airtight container. The rice may absorb some of the liquid when you reheat it but that can be easily fixed by adding a small amount of water or even broth to the soup.
What to serve with this Turkey Soup:
Delicious side dishes to serve with turkey soup include:
- Biscuits
- Breadsticks
- Cheese stuffed garlic bread and rolls
- Your favorite crackers
- Salads
- Sandwiches including leftover cranberry turkey sandwiches
Can this turkey soup recipe be frozen?
Yes this recipe makes a great freezer meal.
Not sure you’ll eat all of the soup stored in your refrigerator?
Try placing the soup into freezer containers. It will easily store in your freezer for 3 months. I like to package the soup into single serving sized freezer containers. Whenever I need a quick meal or want to pack a lunch for work I just have to grab a container from the freezer.
The rice in the recipe freezes easily without changing texture. If you swapped out the rice for egg noodles you may find that they fall apart a bit once they are frozen. The taste is still good but they may not hold their shape.
Freezer Tip: If I purposely make a large batch of soup and I want to use noodles, I portion out my freezer containers BEFORE adding the noodles to the main pot. I can easily add in leftover pasta or rice when I reheat my frozen soup.
Can you make this Turkey Soup recipe in the crock pot?
Yes you can!
To make this soup in the crockpot you won’t need to use the butter or olive oil since the vegetables won’t be sautéed. Simply add all of the ingredients except for the turkey into the crockpot. Cook on high for 2.5 to 3 hours or until the rice has softened but is still a little chewy.
Add in the diced turkey once the rice is soft but still a bit chewy. Continue to cook for another hour on high to heat the turkey and to finish cooking the rice.
How do you keep rice from going mushy in soup?
Mushy rice in soup has a few causes. The main reason is overcooking the type of rice you are using in your recipe.
Uncooked rice will absorb liquid from your soup as it cooks. The longer it cooks the more liquid it will absorb. Overcooking rice causes it to become mushy. Freezing soup that contains rice and overcooking it when reheating it will cause the rice to become mushy and pasty. The best way to avoid mushy rice is to cook it just long enough to make it soft and tender.
The following times are cooking rice on the stove top, in soup. If you make this recipe in a slow cooker or even an Insta Pot then the amount of time that it needs to cook will increase.
- Short grain white rice, jasmine rice and basmati rice take about 20 minutes to cook in soup.
- Long grain white rice can take 20 to 25 minutes to cook.
- Short grain brown rice and basmati brown rice will take about 40 to 45 minutes to cook.
- Long grain brown rice takes about 45 to 50 minutes.
- Wild rice takes the longest time and needs to be simmered about 60 to 65 minutes to cook it.
If you are using pre-cooked rice add it at the end when you add in the diced turkey. The rice is already cooked and only needs enough time in the soup to be heated through.
Looking to use Minute Rice in your soup?
This type of rice has already been precooked and then dehydrated so it cooks up quickly. Add it at the very end cooking your soup. It will take about 5 to 8 minutes to cook so add it when you add in the diced turkey.
How can I thicken this Turkey Rice Soup?
Prefer to have a thicker soup? While this is a broth based soup sometimes people prefer to have a thicker broth.
You can easily thicken the broth in any soup by mixing a tablespoon of cornstarch in with 3 or 4 tablespoons of the soup broth until it is smooth.
Blend the cornstarch mixture into the soup and continue to cover over a low heat for 4 or 5 minutes.
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Thanksgiving Leftover Soup (Turkey Rice Soup)
Equipment
- Large Stockpot
- Mixing spoon
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 stalks celery finely diced
- 3 carrots diced or shredded
- 1 large Onion diced
- 1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon Rosemary
- 2 bay leaves
- 16 ounces Leftover Turkey diced
- 8 cups Turkey Broth
- 1 cup Rice
Instructions
- In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the diced celery, carrots and onion. Add the butter. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes over medium heat stirring often until the vegetables are slightly tender.1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 tablespoon butter, 2 stalks celery, 3 carrots, 1 large Onion
- Add the turkey broth, seasonings and rice. Stir and bring the broth to a simmer. Turn the heat down if needed so the broth continues to simmer slowly. Stir often to prevent the rice from sticking.1 teaspoon dried thyme, 1 teaspoon Rosemary, 2 bay leaves, 8 cups Turkey Broth, 1 cup Rice
- Simmer until the rice is tender. The amount of time needed will depend upon the type of rice you use. Usually this will take 20 to 30 minutes.
- Stir in the cooked turkey and simmer for another 5 minutes to heat the turkey through.16 ounces Leftover Turkey
- Season with additional salt and black pepper to taste. Serve with your favorite side dishes.1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper, 1 teaspoon Salt
Nutrition
Looking for other soup or chili recipes to try? Try some these favorite soup recipes:
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