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Turkey Pot Pie Soup is creamy, herbaceous, and loaded with vegetables and tender turkey. It’s an easy and lightened up way to enjoy all of the flavors and textures of a classic turkey pot pie.
Think of what you typically have left in your refrigerator and pantry the day after Thanksgiving. If you’re like me you have carrots and celery that didn’t make it to a vegetable platter; potatoes that didn’t get mashed; extra onions, bought ‘just in case’; plenty of leftover turkey, and a picked clean carcass, the perfect base for homemade stock. That’s all you need to make a delicious Turkey Pot Pie soup.
Table of Contents
Ingredients for Turkey Pot Pie Soup
- Olive Oil: good quality extra-virgin olive oil
- Onion: yellow onion, white onion or sweet onion
- Carrots: fresh carrots with or without the peel
- Celery: ideally the crunchy, tender ribs from the celery heart
- Potatoes: Yukon Gold potatoes or other semi-waxy or waxy potatoes hold their shape better in soup. That said, starchy russet potatoes work fine too if that’s what you have on hand.
- Turkey Stock: or chicken stock
- Fresh sage: or dry sage or fresh or dry thyme
- Butter: salted butter or unsalted butter
- Flour: white all-purpose flour
- Cooked Turkey Meat: Leftover turkey (like my Dry Brine Turkey) is ideal for this recipe, white meat, dark meat or a combination.
- Frozen Peas: Pick a bag where you can feel individual peas, not a brick of peas. A few big clumps that you can easily break apart are fine.
- Half and Half: or heavy cream for a richer soup
- Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper
How to Make Turkey Pot Pie Soup
In a medium saucepan, cook and stir onion in olive oil over medium heat until softened. Add potatoes, carrots and celery. Cook and stir 2 minutes more. Add broth and sage; simmer until vegetables are nearly tender.
Meanwhile, to thicken soup, melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in flour all at once and continue whisking 1-2 minutes more. Stir into soup.
Add cooked turkey and peas to soup. Simmer until thickened, about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in half and half and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve.
How to Make Turkey Stock
Making stock from scratch is an optional step for this recipe, but it’s well worth the minimal effort. Just place your turkey carcass, and enough water to cover it, in a large pot along with a quartered onion, a couple of carrots and celery ribs that you’ve coarsely chopped, a teaspoonful of peppercorns and a big handful of fresh parsley.
Bring the pot to boil and then reduce the heat. Let it simmer away until about half of the liquid has evaporated. Then strain out the solids, salt to taste, and you’re left with wonderfully flavorful stock.
Pair With
I love to pair this soup with either Pie Crust Crackers (often made with Lard Pie Crust scraps) or biscuit crackers, made from leftover Homemade Biscuits. (If you’ve never made these you must. You’ll find the recipe on the biscuit post.)
More Ways to Enjoy Leftover Turkey
Turkey Pot Pie Soup
Video
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 2 carrots diced, peeled if you like
- 2 ribs celery diced
- 1 pound Yukon Gold potatoes diced
- 4 cups turkey stock or chicken stock
- 2 teaspoons minced fresh sage or 1 teaspoon dry sage
- 4 Tablespoons butter
- 4 Tablespoons flour
- 3 cups cooked turkey meat cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1/2 cup half and half
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Heat olive oil over medium heat in a medium saucepan. Add onion, lightly sprinkle with salt to sweat liquid and keep from browning; cook and stir 2 to 3 minutes until softened and translucent. Add carrots, celery, and potato; cook and stir 2 minutes more. Add broth and sage; bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 6 minutes or until vegetables are nearly tender.
- Meanwhile, make a roux: melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Once butter melts, add flour all at once. Whisk constantly for a minute or two, just to cook out the raw flour taste. Add mixture to broth mixture all at once and stir until smooth.
- Add cooked turkey and peas and stir to combine; bring to simmer. Cook and stir until thickened, about 3 minutes. Stir in half and half and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Serve.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Can I thicken with a flour/water mix instead of half and half??
Hi Christine! The half and half isn’t what thickens the soup – the flour and butter roux does that. The half and half is added at the end for creaminess. If you want to skip the half and half, you can just leave it out or substitute milk. The soup will still be thick from the roux, just less creamy. Hope that helps!
Hi there. I plan to make this soup. Would this work if the potatoes and carrots are already cooked? thanks
Hi Leanne! Yes, absolutely. I’d just stir them in at the end so they get hot, but not overcooked.
This was so good! Not so creamy that it’s thick but definitely stick-to-your-ribs soup. You can taste the butter…Yum!
I’m so glad you enjoyed this, Sarah!