📖 Recipe Card
Turkey Noodle Soup
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
Description
Simple turkey noodle soup made with homemade turkey stock and leftover turkey - and a reminder to season it well.
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 medium carrot, peeled and diced
- 1 celery rib, trimmed and diced
- 1 sprig fresh thyme, or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 quarts turkey stock
- 2 cups dried egg noodles
- About 1 cup leftover turkey, shredded into bite-size pieces (optional; I prefer dark meat)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- A dash or two of hot sauce (optional, to taste)
Instructions
- Sauté the vegetables: Heat the oil in a 6 quart or larger Dutch oven over medium-high heat, until shimmering. Add the onion, carrot, celery, and thyme, and sauté until just starting to brown, about 5 minutes.
- Add the stock: Add the stock, raise the heat to high, and bring the pot to a simmer.
- Cook the noodles: Add the noodles and turkey, return the pot to a simmer, and cook for 10 minutes (or for the time on the bag of noodles).
- Season with salt and pepper: Season with salt and pepper to taste - this is CRITICAL! Soup without salt tastes watery, so don't be surprised if it takes what seems like a lot of salt.
- Finish with hot sauce (optional): Add a few dashes of hot sauce, and taste again. The vinegar and slight heat of the hot sauce pick up the flavors. If you don't want any heat, add a splash of cider vinegar or red wine vinegar instead.
Notes
Tasting is the key step. Does it seem bland? Add salt. Need a little "something"? Add some hot sauce, a splash of vinegar, or some fresh lemon - a touch of acidity often helps. Soup usually needs some last minute adjusting - don't skip this step!
Don't add too many noodles! They absorb a lot of stock, and if you add half a package you'll wind up with noodle stew.
Turkey rice soup: Replace the noodles with an equal amount of leftover rice.
Chicken noodle soup: Replace the turkey stock and turkey with chicken stock and chicken.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
Questions? Comments? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments, below.
Related posts:
Click here for my Turkey Stock Shootout. This post is a part of that series.
Click here for Pressure Cooker Turkey Stock, if you want your turkey stock fast.
Click here for Turkey Stock Done Right, if you want the best turkey stock (or don't have a pressure cooker).
Adapted from:
Cook's Illustrated: The Best Soups and Stews (Best Recipe)
cookbook.
Mike V @ DadCooksDinner says
You're welcome - I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Conveygav says
Thanks for another great recipe. The turkey stock is a delicious base to work from. I added a dash of Worcestershire sauce in lieu of the vinegar/ hot sauce. The soup was a big hit.
Mike V @ DadCooksDinner says
1 tablespoon of Diamond Crystal kosher salt usually works for me. But, my tastes may be different from yours so:
Start with 1 1/2 teaspoons, and work up from there a teaspoon at a time. Taste as you go, and you'll taste the soup go from bland to sweet and full of body.
Chris Lukowski says
Thanks! One more question, how much kosher salt would you suggest as a baseline to season 2 quarts of stock/soup? I have my first batch of chicken stock in years going in the oven now. Can't wait!
Mike V @ DadCooksDinner says
Chris,
It makes great soup, because it only gets this thick when it is refrigerated. At room temperature, it is just a soup full of body.
Chris Lukowski says
When you make a soup like this using pressure cooker stock that's so full of collagen that it gelatinizes, does the soup itself get Jello-y when it cools off? I've had Hot & Sour soup at Chinese places that are very thick and unctuous (which could be due to cornstarch as much as stock, granted) so I'm wondering what the texture of this soup would be like if it isn't thinned out somehow.