Thirty years ago, we started to host Thanksgiving for my wife’s family, who all live out of state. They would stay at our house starting Wednesday and leave on Saturday or Sunday. One of the meals we fed them was a cream of turkey soup I made from the Thanksgiving turkey carcass. I created the recipe on the spot, but it was such a favorite that I have been making it every year since. It is a straightforward recipe that stretches a Thanksgiving turkey just a little bit further. Here is my easy cream of turkey soup recipe.

In a large pot break up the turkey carcass and add a bunch of cut up carrots, one onion, and a few stalks of cut up celery.

Add some spices. I’m adding around 1 tsp of poultry seasoning, 1 tsp of salt (I’ll adjust more at the end), 1/2 tsp of pepper, 1 heaping spoon of chopped garlic, 1 tsp of oregano, and a couple of bay leaves. The spices are very flexible. You can just use salt and pepper, but I think that the poultry seasoning adds a lot.

Add anywhere from 4-8 cups of chicken or turkey broth. You could also use water or water + bouillon. Base the water on the size of your pot and the turkey carcass. I added seven cups, but six would have worked for this batch, too.

Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Minimum time is around 30 minutes, but I usually simmer the soup for a couple of hours.

I make the initial part of the soup on Thanksgiving evening while we are watching a movie. I then cover it and place it in the garage (I’m in the upper Midwest, so the garage is like a fridge in November). The next day, I separate the vegetables/broth from the bones, and I separate the bones from the meat. Look how much meat was left on the turkey!

I place the broth/vegetables back on the stove, and I add around 1 cup of sour cream, stirring constantly. The amount of sour cream is absolutely an estimate.

I’ll also add some half-and-half, 1/2 cup to 1 cup. Again, an estimate.

I add a couple of shots of hot sauce. The amount I add doesn’t make the soup “hot,” it just adds something.

This is optional: Take a heaping tablespoon or more of flour and mix it into around 1/2 cup of cold water. Drizzle this into the boiling broth while stirring to thicken the soup.

Return the meat to the pot.

I adjusted the spices to my taste. I added more salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning.

Here is my secret ingredient, around 1-2 tablespoons of vinegar!

You can use any starch you have on hand. I had about 1/2 of a bag of noodles, so I cooked them and added them to the soup.

Here it is with some oyster crackers and some of my homemade cheddar cheese bread. The kids loved it, and I utilized every part of our turkey. There is plenty for leftovers, and I’ll likely freeze some too.

Many throw out the turkey carcass, but it is not only full of flavor, but it is also full of meat. This day after Thanksgiving, turkey soup is a great way to stretch your dollar!

Peace

Mike