Day-After-Thanksgiving Turkey Carcass Soup

With this warm and cozy leftover turkey soup, you can enjoy every last bit of your Thanksgiving meal.

Leftover Turkey Soup Ingredients

These are the ingredients you'll need to make this turkey soup with Thanksgiving leftovers:

• Turkey carcass: Use the picked-over turkey carcass from your holiday dinner.
• Stuffing: This turkey carcass soup recipe is a great use for all your holiday leftovers, including stuffing.
• Fresh vegetables: You'll need to dice an onion, two carrots, and two celery stalks.
• Seasonings: This flavorful turkey soup is seasoned with poultry seasoning, ground sage, bay leaves, garlic salt, and black pepper.
• Broth: The ingredients are cooked together in store-bought or homemade broth.
• Rice: Long-grain white rice makes this hearty soup even more filling.
• Frozen peas: A package of frozen green beans adds a burst of flavor and color.

How to Make Leftover Turkey Soup

You'll find the full, step-by-step recipe below — but here's a brief overview of what you'll find when you make this leftover turkey soup:

1. Make the stock: Place carcass, stuffing, onion, carrots, celery, poultry seasoning, sage, and bay leaves in a deep pot. Cover with broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about an hour. Remove the carcass from the pot and discard the bones.
2. Make the soup: Return the meat to the pot. Season the soup with garlic salt and pepper. Add the rice, bring the soup to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook for about 15 minutes, add the peas, and continue cooking until the rice is tender.

More Thanksgiving Leftover Ideas

In need of a little more delicious inspiration? We've got you covered. Explore these collections of our best ways to dress up Thanksgiving leftovers:

• 13 Easy Leftover Turkey Recipes for After the Big Feast
• 10+ Ways to Use Leftover Stuffing
• 10 Leftover Turkey Casseroles for After Thanksgiving

Cookdap Community Tips and Praise

“Awesome recipe,” raves Scott C. “Super easy and a great way to use the turkey carcass, instead of throwing it away and wasting it. I decided to make this at the last minute, so I didn’t have any rice. Instead, I added a few chopped up potatoes and it was great!”

“I did not put in the peas and added egg noodles instead of rice,” says Maria. “It was so good! My family liked it too (even my picky eater daughter). It even tasted better the next day.”

“This soup is so great,” according to LML. “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.”