Day-After-Thanksgiving Turkey Carcass Soup
This-day-after-Thanksgiving turkey carcass soup recipe transforms your leftover turkey carcass, a little stuffing, and vegetables into a rich, hearty broth with rice and peas. It’s an easy, comforting way to enjoy one more round of holiday flavor the next day.
Ingredients
- 1 picked-over turkey carcass
- 1 ½ cups leftover stuffing
- 1 onion peeled and diced
- 2 carrots peeled and sliced
- 2 celery stalks chopped
- 1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
- 1 teaspoon ground sage
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 ½ quarts chicken broth
- 1 cup water or as needed (Optional)
- ½ teaspoon garlic salt or to taste
- ground black pepper to taste
- 2 cups uncooked regular long-grain white rice
- 16 ounce package frozen peas
Instructions
- Place carcass in a large pot. Add stuffing, onion, carrots, celery, poultry seasoning, sage, and bay leaves.
- Pour in chicken broth; add additional water to cover, if needed. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium; simmer, skimming off and discarding any foam, about 1 hour.
- Remove carcass and any bones; pick off any meat. Return meat to the pot and discard bones and skin.
- Add garlic salt and pepper. Stir in rice and return to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Stir in peas; continue to simmer until rice is tender, about 10 minutes more.
- Adjust seasonings to taste before serving.
Notes
Cook’s Note
You can swap the rice for 2 cups of egg noodles and simmer until tender. I usually make cornbread muffins to serve with this soup.