Day-After-Thanksgiving Turkey Carcass Soup Recipe

I made this soup this morning and we just had it for lunch. I followed the recipe exactly except for the peas (didn't have any on hand) but next time will be sure to add those. This soup is so great!! Everyone loves it and several people had seconds - the flavors are excellent and we really like how the stuffing adds another dimension to the soup. Definitely a keeper - next time I'll probably cut back on the rice by about 1/2 cup - the proportion of rice to other ingredients was a little heavy. Thanks for an awesome recipe!!

I always make turkey bone broth with the carcass first. I pick off as much of the meat as possible and then put the carcass with water, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, fresh herbs if I have them (parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, etc) into a crock pot and cook for 24 + hours until the bones are soft. Strain the broth and freeze or make soup!

I make this every year (my family knows I get dibs on the turkey carcass after Thanksgiving dinner)! I’ve made with rice, but prefer egg noodle. To avoid them getting too soggy, once you have the main soup ready, separate the amount you want to eat immediately, and only add the rice or noodles to that (then the peas). Do the same for the leftovers - cook the soup with the noodles or rice so they don’t get too soggy. Only other change is I also add a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg with the other spices. Love it!

More work than I usually put into carcass soup, but worth it. I picked the meat off as best I could then roasted the bones at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes turning them half way through. Used 32 oz. of chicken broth then my leftover gravy with enough water to make 3 cups. Glad I only used 1 cup of rice. No other changes. Great flavor the first day so looking forward to leftovers because usually soups are better the next day.

This has become my "go to" way to make homemade chicken noodle soup. You can use a rotisserie chicken instead of turkey. I don't add the peas or stuffing (preference) and instead after the soup simmers for an hour I will pick the meat off the bones, let it simmer for another 30 with the chicken pieces in it. I make egg noodles on the side and add them to the individual bowls instead of the pot so they don't get soggy. I have made with rice as written- tastes good but by the next day the rice has absorbed all the liquid and its almost a casserole instead of a soup.

Just got done eating a bowl of this. It is alright. I did not have rice so I just threw in the bag of no yolk noodles I had and skipped the peas. I'm not sure about putting stuffing it in, I had to scoop out so bread clumps. With the right amount of salt and pepper it is decent. The boyfriend loved it! ** update- seven years later and I'm still making this!! has more flavor the next day-- so yummy!! Over the years I learned to boil the carcass with the broth (I use better than bouillon because that's just how I roll) and spices for "awhile"- at least hour but usually around 2 hours. Then I add the veggies (always extra carrots). I still use the no yolk noodles- I just think it is too mushy with rice. I add in frozen corn since some family members do not like peas. Oh, and I don't add in the stuffing- I just throw in more seasoning- you know, for balance. :-)

The flavor was very good, in part because my leftover stuffing was made with hot sausage. However, I had to make an adjustment such as adding 5 extra cups of liquid (a combination of chicken stock and water) because the consistency was more like a rice casserole rather than a soup. Another suggestion would be to change the rice to be ½ cup to ¾ cup and the liquid to be 3 quarts, dice the carrots to be the same size as the onions. The fun part of this recipe yields several servings so be prepared for lots of leftovers of the leftover soup. Great News - since I cooked the turkey a week before Thanksgiving and made the soup a few days later... I was able to put the left overs in gift giving plastic containers for our Thanksgiving Day guests!

I thought this was a great recipe, it was my first time making homemade turkey soup. A couple of mods: -I followed the advice of one reviewer and baked the carcass for about 10-15 minutes at 400 degrees before putting it in the pot. -When I make this again, I might not do 2 cups of rice it gets pretty thick. -I did not add extra stuffing only what was left in the carcass. - I did 2 qts of chicken broth and 1 qt of water. -I added a little bit of sea salt for flavor. -I did not use any peas. My husband is a great cook and he was impressed!

We love this soup! Along with some homemade sourdough bread, this was a hearty meal! I made the following changes: first was to make turkey stock from the turkey legs. I used 8 cups of water, diced onion, 2 bay leaves, 1 tsp poultry seasoning, 1 tsp ground sage, 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, cracked peppercorns and about 2 tsp sea salt. Then brought to a boil and covered and simmered for at least 2 hours. I removed the turkey legs and strained the solids from the stock. Next I chopped celery and diced onion and sauteed in 2 T of butter until onions were translucent. Then I added 3 carrots, peeled and chopped, and cooked for a couple minutes using medium-low heat. I added this to the stock along with leftover turkey shredded from breast meat as well as the dark meat pulled from the legs. Then the spices to taste - half tsp cayenne pepper, garlic powder, 1 tsp parsley flakes, and salt and pepper. Instead of rice or stuffing, I added 8 oz of wide noodles from Amish Kitchens. Return to a boil then simmered 10 min until noodles were done. Perfect!

I make turkey soup every year based on this recipe. I always simmer my carcass covered in water for about 5 hours, add some chicken broth, bay leave, onions. After the 5 hours I strain it to get the bones, etc. out and then I cool it down to skim off all the fat. The broth when cool will be very jello like which is perfect. Then I put it into the large stock pot and add whatever vegetable I have on hand, a cup of leftover stuffing and since I make stuffing with pork sausage meat/onions/seasoning and bread crumbs rather than bread cubes I don't end up with chunks of bread. I skip the rice. Add sage/poultry seasoning/onions/bay leaves/pepper and left over turkey meat and gravy and let simmer for another hour. Delicious!

I made some changes as I always read the reviews before making a dish. I boiled the carcass in water for 2.5 hours then strained it and removed bones and skin. I then added one carton of chicken stock, 2 tsp of sage, 1 tbsp of garlic salt, 2 tbsp of chicken seasoning. I brought it back to a simmer and added 2 cans of carrots (I prefer the canned soft carrots), added a package of egg noodles and cooked for 10 minutes then added 2 cups of frozen peas and cooked for 5 minutes... it was delicious!!!

Pleasantly surprised by how tasty this recipe turned out. I had made the stock with a turkey already and had frozen that and the turkey. I had the rest of the ingredients except the stuffing. That would have been tasty, too. Really good and easy! Saving the recipe!

Too much rice.

I would cut back on the sage a bit and less rice.

This recipe is GOLD! 😋

This recipe came out amazing. I boiled the carcass in a pot filled with water for an hour. It came out so flavorful, I did not add the chicken broth. I then added the rest of the ingredients and the rice (1 cup) at the end. My husband loved it too. Thank you for this wonderful recipe. I will be making it when ever I make turkey.

will definitely make again - thanks for great, easy "bone soup" recipe.

Pretty good. I made this and omitted the stuffing, used fresh sage instead of dried, added kosher salt & a heaping tablespoon of better than bouillon roasted chicken base & swapped out chicken broth for turkey broth. It turned out so flavorful!

Did more season to our taste but yummy

Why not make bone broth first- put entire carcass in [after removing as much meat as possible] and simmer overnight. Then proceed .