Classic Turkey Noodle Soup

Leftover turkey transforms into something completely different when you turn it into soup, going from dry slices on a sandwich to tender shreds swimming in savory broth with vegetables and noodles. This turkey noodle soup tastes like you've been simmering stock and vegetables on the stove all afternoon, but it actually comes together in about twenty minutes using shortcuts and smart techniques that build flavor quickly. The key is starting with that classic French vegetable base of onions, carrots, and celery, sautéing them until they're soft and sweet, then adding good stock and letting everything simmer just long enough for the flavors to meld. Cooking the noodles separately instead of directly in the soup is one of those professional tricks that keeps the broth from getting cloudy and starchy while preventing the noodles from absorbing all your liquid and turning mushy. The leftover turkey goes in at the very end, just warming through, which keeps it tender and moist instead of becoming tough and stringy from prolonged cooking.

I started making turkey noodle soup the day after Thanksgiving about ten years ago when I was tired of turkey sandwiches but felt guilty about all that leftover meat in my refrigerator. That first batch was pretty basic - just broth, turkey, and noodles - and while it was fine, it wasn't anything special. Over the years I've refined it, adding more vegetables, figuring out the noodle situation, and learning that fresh herbs at the end make a huge difference. Now it's become my favorite part of the post-Thanksgiving leftovers cycle, and I actually look forward to making it. My husband, who claims he doesn't like soup, will eat two bowls of this and then pack the leftovers for lunch the next day, which is basically the highest compliment he gives any food.

Ingredients and What Makes Them Essential

• Cooked Turkey (4 cups, shredded): Leftover roasted turkey is perfect here, whether it's white meat, dark meat, or a combination of both. Dark meat stays slightly more moist and flavorful, while white meat is leaner. Shred the turkey into bite-sized pieces rather than cutting it into cubes - shredded meat distributes better throughout the soup and has a nicer texture. If you're putting away Thanksgiving leftovers, shred the turkey while you're at it to save yourself time later.
• Yellow Onion (1 large, diced): Onions form the aromatic base and add natural sweetness to the soup as they cook. Yellow onions are ideal because they're flavorful without being too sharp or too sweet. Dice them into pieces about ½-inch so they soften properly during the brief cooking time without disappearing completely.
• Carrots (2 medium, diced): Carrots add subtle sweetness, color, and substance to the soup. Peel them first, then dice into pieces roughly the same size as your onions so everything cooks evenly. The carrots should be tender but still have some bite when the soup is done, not mushy and falling apart.
• Celery (2 stalks, diced): Celery contributes a subtle herbal flavor and slight crunch that adds complexity. Use the paler inner stalks if possible since they're more tender. Dice them to match your other vegetables for even cooking throughout.
• Fresh Garlic (3 cloves, minced): Garlic adds pungent, savory depth that makes the soup taste more complex. Mince it finely so it distributes evenly and doesn't create harsh bites of raw garlic. Fresh garlic tastes significantly better than jarred minced garlic or garlic powder in soup.
• Fresh Thyme (2 to 3 sprigs): Fresh thyme adds an earthy, slightly minty herbal quality that's classic in chicken and turkey soups. Strip the leaves from the woody stems before adding them to the soup. If you only have dried thyme, use ½ teaspoon instead, though fresh tastes noticeably better.
• Chicken or Turkey Stock (8 cups): Good quality stock is the foundation of your soup's flavor. Homemade turkey stock made from the carcass tastes incredible and is worth the effort if you have time, but store-bought low-sodium chicken or turkey broth works perfectly fine. Low-sodium is important so you can control the salt level yourself.
• Olive Oil (2 tablespoons) and Butter (2 tablespoons): Using both oil and butter for sautéing gives you the best of both worlds - butter adds rich flavor while oil prevents the butter from burning. You can use all of one or the other if that's what you have, but the combination tastes best.
• Wide Egg Noodles (8 ounces, dried): Classic wide egg noodles are what make this feel like traditional chicken noodle soup. They're substantial enough to be satisfying but not so heavy that they weigh down the soup. Don't substitute pasta shapes like penne or rotini - the wide, flat noodles are what creates that comforting, nostalgic soup experience.
• Fresh Parsley or Dill (¼ cup, chopped, for garnish): Fresh herbs at the end brighten everything and add a pop of color. Parsley is milder and classic, while dill adds a more distinctive flavor. Use whichever you prefer or have available. Don't substitute dried herbs for this garnish - they need to be fresh to provide that bright, clean finish.
• Salt and Black Pepper (to taste): You'll need to season the soup at multiple stages and do a final adjustment at the end. Taste as you go and add salt gradually until everything tastes properly seasoned.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Sauté the Aromatics:

Place a large soup pot or Dutch oven over medium heat and let it warm up for about a minute. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of butter to the pot, swirling them together as the butter melts. Once the butter is completely melted and just starting to foam slightly, add your diced onion. Give it a good stir to coat everything with the fat. Let the onion cook, stirring occasionally, for about 3 minutes until it starts to soften and turn translucent. Now add your diced carrots and diced celery to the pot along with a generous pinch of salt - about ½ teaspoon. The salt helps draw out moisture from the vegetables and speeds up the softening process. Continue cooking, stirring every couple of minutes, for another 5 to 7 minutes total. You want all the vegetables to soften considerably and the onions to develop some golden color on the edges. The carrots should lose their raw crunch but shouldn't be mushy. The celery should be tender and slightly translucent. The whole pot should smell sweet and aromatic at this point. Add your minced garlic and the leaves stripped from 2 to 3 sprigs of fresh thyme to the vegetables. Stir constantly for about 1 minute, allowing the garlic to cook until it's fragrant but not browned. If garlic browns, it becomes bitter, so watch carefully during this step. The combination of sautéed vegetables, garlic, and thyme should smell absolutely wonderful and make you hungry.

Add Stock and Simmer:

Pour 8 cups of chicken or turkey stock into the pot with the sautéed vegetables. If you're using homemade stock that has fat congealed on top, scrape off most of that fat before adding the stock to avoid greasy soup. Give everything a good stir, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pot with your spoon to release any flavorful browned bits that might be stuck there - these bits, called fond, add tremendous flavor. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring the soup to a boil, which should take about 5 minutes. Once it's boiling vigorously with big bubbles breaking the surface, reduce the heat to medium-low so it's just gently simmering. You want to see small bubbles occasionally breaking the surface, not a rolling boil. Let the soup simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes. During this time, the vegetables will continue softening and all the flavors will meld together beautifully. Stir occasionally to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom. After 10 minutes, taste a piece of carrot - it should be tender but still have a slight bite, not mushy. If it's still too firm, continue simmering for another 5 minutes and check again. Once the vegetables are tender, turn off the heat temporarily while you prepare the noodles.

Cook the Noodles Separately:

While your soup simmers, fill a separate large pot with water, add a generous amount of salt - about 2 tablespoons for a big pot - and bring it to a rolling boil over high heat. Once boiling vigorously, add 8 ounces of dried wide egg noodles. Give them a good stir to prevent sticking. Cook the noodles according to the package directions, which is usually 6 to 8 minutes for wide egg noodles. You want them al dente - cooked through but still with a slight firmness in the center when you bite one. Start checking them a minute before the package suggests. Once they're done, pour them into a colander in the sink to drain completely. Give the colander a shake to remove excess water. Don't rinse the noodles - that washes away the starch that helps sauce cling to them. Set the drained noodles aside. Cooking the noodles separately instead of directly in the soup is crucial. If you cook them in the soup, they'll absorb a ton of broth and swell up, leaving you with barely any liquid and mushy, overcooked noodles. Plus, the starch they release makes the soup cloudy and thick rather than clear and brothy. The extra pot is worth washing for vastly better results.

Add Turkey and Noodles:

Once your vegetables are tender and your noodles are cooked, return the soup to medium heat. Add your 4 cups of shredded turkey to the simmering soup and stir it in gently. Let the turkey heat through for about 2 to 3 minutes - you're just warming it, not cooking it since it's already cooked. Overcooking leftover turkey makes it dry and stringy, so brief reheating is all you need. Once the turkey is heated through, add the drained egg noodles to the pot and stir them in gently. Let everything heat together for about 1 minute so the noodles warm up and absorb just a bit of the broth's flavor. Now taste the soup and adjust the seasoning. Add salt gradually, starting with ¼ teaspoon, stirring it in, and tasting again. Continue adding salt in small increments until the soup tastes bright and flavorful rather than flat. You might need anywhere from ½ teaspoon to 1 ½ teaspoons total depending on how salty your stock was. Add several grinds of fresh black pepper and stir them through. The soup should taste savory, slightly herby from the thyme, with a good balance of vegetables and rich broth.

Serve:

Ladle the hot soup into bowls, making sure each serving gets a good mix of broth, vegetables, noodles, and turkey rather than all noodles or all broth. Top each bowl with a generous sprinkle of freshly chopped parsley or dill - about 1 tablespoon per bowl. The fresh herbs aren't just for looks - they add a bright, fresh flavor that lifts the entire bowl. Serve immediately while hot, with crusty bread on the side for dipping if you want. If you're not serving all the soup at once, only add as many noodles to the pot as you'll eat immediately, keeping the rest separate. Store leftover soup and leftover noodles in separate containers so the noodles don't continue absorbing broth and turning mushy.

Pin it

My mother-in-law is famous in her family for her chicken noodle soup, and when I first made turkey noodle soup the Friday after Thanksgiving, I was nervous about her tasting it and comparing it to her version. She's generally very nice but also honest about food, so if it wasn't good, she'd find a polite way to let me know. When she tried it, she had two bowls and then asked me what I did to make it taste so good, which was her way of saying it met her standards. She was particularly impressed that the noodles weren't mushy, and when I explained about cooking them separately, she admitted she'd been cooking hers directly in the soup her whole life and was going to try my method. Having her approval felt like passing some kind of important cooking test I didn't even know I was taking.

Making Homemade Turkey Stock from the Carcass

If you've never made stock from a turkey carcass, you're missing out on both incredible flavor and frugal resourcefulness. After you've carved all the meat off your Thanksgiving turkey, save the entire carcass including the backbone, wing tips, and any bones. Place the carcass in a large stockpot - you might need to break it into a few pieces to fit. Add any leftover vegetables you have like onion ends, carrot peels, celery leaves, or garlic cloves. Throw in a bay leaf, some peppercorns, and fresh herb stems if you have them. Cover everything with cold water, filling the pot until the bones are submerged by about 2 inches. Bring to a boil over high heat, then immediately reduce to a very gentle simmer - you should see just a few bubbles breaking the surface occasionally. Simmer uncovered for 3 to 4 hours, adding more water if the level drops below the bones. The long, slow simmer extracts gelatin from the bones and cartilage, creating rich, flavorful stock with body. After simmering, strain the liquid through a fine-mesh strainer into a large bowl, discarding all the solids. Let the stock cool, then refrigerate it overnight. The next day, scrape off and discard the layer of fat that's solidified on top. You now have homemade turkey stock that's richer and more flavorful than anything you can buy.

Understanding the Mirepoix Base and Its Importance

Mirepoix, the French term for the combination of onions, carrots, and celery, forms the aromatic foundation of countless soups, sauces, and stews across many cuisines. This specific trio wasn't chosen randomly - each vegetable contributes something essential to building complex flavor. Onions provide sweetness and depth, especially when sautéed until they begin caramelizing. Their sulfur compounds break down during cooking, transforming from sharp and pungent to sweet and mellow. Carrots add earthiness and additional sweetness, plus their bright color makes soups more visually appealing. Celery brings a subtle herbal quality and slight bitterness that balances the sweetness from the onions and carrots. Together, these three vegetables create a flavor profile that's greater than the sum of its parts. The classic French ratio is 2 parts onion to 1 part carrot to 1 part celery by weight, though home cooks can eyeball it without being precise. Sautéing the mirepoix in fat before adding liquid is crucial - this cooking step develops sweetness through caramelization and creates fond on the bottom of the pot that adds deep, concentrated flavor when the liquid deglazes it. Simply throwing raw vegetables into broth produces soup that tastes thin and one-dimensional by comparison.

Why Fresh Herbs at the End Make Such a Difference

The timing of when you add herbs dramatically impacts their contribution to a dish. Woody herbs like thyme, rosemary, and bay leaves can withstand prolonged cooking and actually benefit from it, releasing their flavors slowly and mellowing over time. That's why this recipe adds fresh thyme during the sautéing stage. However, delicate fresh herbs like parsley, dill, basil, and cilantro lose their brightness and vibrant color when cooked for extended periods, turning drab and tasting flat. These herbs contain volatile aromatic compounds that dissipate with heat, so adding them at the end or as a garnish preserves their fresh, bright flavors. When you sprinkle fresh parsley or dill on soup just before serving, your first impression is that bright, green, herbaceous flavor and aroma, which makes the entire bowl taste fresher and more appealing. The visual impact matters too - a sprinkle of bright green herbs makes soup look more appetizing and restaurant-quality compared to a bowl of solid brown liquid with no garnish. Even people who claim they don't like herbs often appreciate that final fresh note without realizing that's what makes the soup taste "better."

The Problem with Cooking Noodles Directly in Soup

Many home cooks add dry pasta directly to soup because it seems more convenient than cooking noodles separately. While this saves you from washing an extra pot, it creates multiple problems that impact the final result. First, pasta releases starch as it cooks, and when you cook it directly in soup, all that starch stays in your broth, making it cloudy, thick, and gummy rather than clear and brothy. Second, pasta continues absorbing liquid as long as it sits in liquid, which means your soup will have less and less broth over time as the noodles swell. By the next day, you might have a pot full of mushy noodles with barely any liquid left. Third, controlling the doneness of pasta is harder when it's cooking in soup because you can't easily fish out a piece to test it like you can when boiling pasta in plain water. Fourth, if you're planning to store leftover soup, having the noodles already in it means they'll continue absorbing broth in the refrigerator, becoming bloated and unappetizing. By cooking noodles separately, you avoid all these issues. Yes, it's one more pot to wash, but the dramatically better texture and cleaner flavor are worth it. Professional chefs always cook pasta separately for soup for exactly these reasons.

Scaling This Recipe Up or Down

The beauty of soup is how easily it scales to feed different numbers of people. This recipe as written serves about 6 to 8 people generously, but you can halve it for 3 to 4 people or double it for a crowd. When halving, use 2 cups of turkey, 1 small onion, 1 carrot, 1 celery stalk, 4 cups of stock, and 4 ounces of noodles. The cooking times remain approximately the same - vegetables still need about 10 minutes to simmer until tender regardless of quantity. When doubling for 12 to 16 servings, use 8 cups of turkey, 2 large onions, 4 carrots, 4 celery stalks, 16 cups (1 gallon) of stock, and 1 pound of noodles. Make sure you have a pot large enough to accommodate the increased volume - you'll need at least an 8-quart pot for a double batch. For very large quantities serving 20-plus people, consider making two separate pots rather than one massive batch, because cooking huge volumes of soup evenly requires restaurant-sized equipment and is tricky in home kitchens. The great thing about soup is that it's forgiving - if you end up with too much for one meal, it freezes beautifully and provides ready-made lunches or dinners for weeks.

Creative Variations and Add-Ins

Once you've mastered the basic recipe, this turkey noodle soup becomes a template for countless variations. Add different vegetables based on what you have - diced potatoes, corn kernels, green beans, peas, or spinach all work beautifully. Stir in a handful of baby spinach or chopped kale during the last few minutes of cooking for added nutrition and color. For an Asian-inspired version, use ginger instead of thyme, add some soy sauce, finish with sesame oil and green onions, and use rice noodles instead of egg noodles. For a creamier soup, stir in ½ cup of heavy cream or half-and-half at the end. Add some heat with red pepper flakes or a dash of hot sauce. Stir in cooked wild rice or barley instead of noodles for a heartier, more rustic soup. Squeeze in some lemon juice at the end for brightness - the acidity really makes all the flavors pop. Add leftover stuffing cut into crouton-sized pieces for a uniquely Thanksgiving-flavored soup. Include any leftover roasted vegetables from your holiday meal. The possibilities are endless once you understand the basic structure of aromatics, stock, protein, and starch.

Storage, Reheating, and Food Safety

Proper storage and reheating ensures your leftover soup stays safe and delicious. Let the soup cool to room temperature before refrigerating, but don't leave it at room temperature for more than two hours - bacteria multiply rapidly in that temperature danger zone between 40°F and 140°F. Transfer cooled soup to airtight containers and refrigerate for up to 3 days. If you cooked the noodles in the soup, they'll absorb more broth as they sit, so add a splash of stock when reheating to thin it back out. If you kept noodles separate, add them to individual portions when reheating rather than to the whole pot. To reheat, transfer soup to a pot and warm over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until hot throughout. You can also microwave individual portions in microwave-safe bowls, stirring halfway through. For longer storage, soup freezes well for up to 3 months. However, cooked egg noodles don't freeze well - they become mushy and unpleasant when thawed. If you plan to freeze soup, don't add the noodles. Freeze the soup base in freezer bags or containers, leaving some headspace for expansion. Thaw frozen soup overnight in the refrigerator, then reheat and add freshly cooked noodles when ready to serve.

Pin it

After making turkey noodle soup every year for the past decade on the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving, it's become as much a part of my holiday tradition as the actual Thanksgiving meal itself. There's something deeply satisfying about transforming those picked-over turkey bones and leftover vegetables into something warm and comforting that feels like a completely new meal. The soup always tastes better than I remember it tasting the previous year, probably because I've been eating rich, heavy Thanksgiving food for two days and my body is craving something lighter and more broth-based. I love how flexible the recipe is - some years I have lots of leftover vegetables to throw in, other years it's just the basics. Sometimes I use homemade stock from the carcass, other times I'm lazy and use store-bought. It always turns out delicious regardless of these variations, which is the mark of a truly good recipe. Knowing I have a pot of soup ready to reheat for easy lunches throughout the weekend makes the whole post-Thanksgiving period feel less stressful and wasteful, like I'm honoring the turkey and all the work that went into the holiday meal by using every last bit of it.

Frequently Asked Questions

→ Can I use chicken instead of turkey?

Yes, chicken works great in this recipe. Use rotisserie chicken or any cooked chicken you have on hand.

→ How do I store leftover soup?

Keep it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. The noodles will soak up some broth, so you may need to add more when reheating.

→ Can I freeze this soup?

It's best to freeze the soup without the noodles. Add fresh cooked noodles when you reheat it for better texture.

→ What kind of noodles work best?

Wide egg noodles are traditional, but you can use any pasta shape you like. Rotini, shells, or even rice noodles work well.

→ Do I have to cook the noodles separately?

Cooking them separately keeps the broth clear and prevents the noodles from getting too soft. But you can cook them directly in the soup if you prefer.

→ Can I make this in a slow cooker?

Yes, add everything except the noodles and turkey to your slow cooker. Cook on low for 6 hours, then add the turkey and cooked noodles before serving.