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I used to work in a little Southern hole-in-the-wall restaurant as a waitress (way back in the day…), and one of our cooks, “Miss Helen” we called her, made soup during the winter using leftovers from the kitchen. The restaurant was drafty and usually a little on the chilly side, so soup was a popular item among the customers and employees alike. One week Miss Helen made something she called pot pie soup – a creamy soup filled with chicken and vegetables – and this Turkey Pot Pie Chowder is my spin on it. I made it using leftover turkey from Thanksgiving this year, but leftover Christmas turkey works equally well. 😉
As always, feel free to adapt the soup according to what you have on hand. If you prefer other non-starchy veggies in place of the ones I used, go for it! I happen to love the combination of vegetables listed here, especially the green beans. I know that green beans in soup are a little nontraditional, but in this recipe they really work.
My mom makes deviled turkey for Thanksgiving, and it’s amazing! In case you don’t know what deviled turkey is – don’t worry – it’s much better than it sounds! I don’t know how it got the name (if you know, please comment below and tell me!), but it’s just a turkey that has been rubbed and stuffed with all kinds of spices before baking. Click here to see my recipe! Since I was using leftover deviled turkey juice and meat, all those great spices helped add flavor to my soup. If you’re using plain ol’ turkey, you may need to add some extra spices (check this link for ideas).
As always, check out the Notes section of the recipe for extra info. Check out the links in and below the recipe to see the products I use and recommend. Some of the links included in the recipe and blog post are affiliate links, which means that if you make purchases through these links, I make a small commission to help defray the costs of running this blog (at no extra charge to you). Thanks for your help!
You may also enjoy:
- Starting THM
- my recipe index
- my recipes grouped by fuel type, allergy info, and theme
- all my soup recipes
- this Leftover Turkey Fried Wrap recipe
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- 2 T. turkey fat or butter
- 1 lg. onion, chopped
- 3 med. carrots, peeled and coined
- 1-2 c. frozen green peas
- 1 lb. frozen green beans
- 2 c. strong turkey juice*
- -
- 4 c. water
- 1 c. cottage cheese
- 1 c. grated parmesan cheese (the green can kind)
- 1 c. heavy whipping cream
- ¼ c. oat fiber (use gluten free if necessary)
- 2 tsp. parsley flakes
- 2 tsp. turkey or chicken bouillon
- ½ tsp. xanthan gum
- ½ tsp. each garlic powder, black pepper
- -
- 2 c. water
- -
- 8 c. leftover chopped turkey (white and/or dark meat)
- Salt (if needed)
- In a large soup kettle, cook the first section of ingredients together until the vegetables are tender.
- Blend the second section of ingredients together until smooth. Add the blended mixture to the cooked vegetables in the soup kettle.
- Use the additional 2 cups of water to clean out the blender; add this water to the soup kettle as well.
- Add the turkey to the soup and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Taste and add salt and additional seasonings if desired.
Feel free to adjust the turkey juice, water, and turkey bouillon according to what you have on hand. In other words, if you have more than 2 cups of turkey juice, feel free to use it in place of some of the water and bouillon.
I bet a ham version of this would be great, too!
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I had left over turkey to use and decided to throw this soup together for a quick lunch. I replaced some of the water with chicken broth and also added chopped celery And Beau Monde seasoning. It was a hearty comforting soup that my family enjoyed.
Made this tonight and it was delicious! I would consider this to be a comfort food! Only thing I did differently was to omit the green beans.
So good! Easy and great for Thanksgiving leftovers!
Briana, I was wondering if you wud have any kind of drink concoction that would taste similar to diet Mountain Dew? My husband wud like to try getting off of that habit
No, I’m afraid I don’t! Maybe you could try making him some of the Good Girl Moonshine drinks or getting some Zevia or another stevia-sweetened soda. My personal favorite fizzy drink is komboucha!
I am so glad your recipe comes up on a new tab when I click “print.” Because of low vision, I need to be able to copy and print, so I can enlarge the font to 16 or 18 . That enables me to read the recipe so much more easily. Most cookbooks are hard to read these days. Finding nutritious recipes that I can enlarge and print is very helpful. Thanks.
I believe something is called deviled when it is spicy, especially hot spices. 🙂
It was delicious! I added a brick of low fat cream cheese because, why not? Even my turkey hating son enjoyed it!
I was wondering what amounts/proportions of the spices in the linked recipe you would use to make your own turkey juice. Thanks!
The recipe I linked to is for seasoning an entire turkey. If I wasn’t planning on deviling a whole turkey and using the juice from that, I would just make a very strong turkey stock with turkey bouillon, than add small amounts of the spices listed to the soup itself, tasting and adjusting as I go. 🙂 Start with a dash of each (or a few – depending on what’s in your pantry), then work your way up until it tastes about right. Soup isn’t a very exact science – at least not when I make it. 😛
Briana – Have you ever frozen the leftovers? I have two pints left that I am not ready to eat.
I haven’t frozen leftovers of this particular soup, but I’ve found that most soups freeze and reheat just fine. 🙂 Just make sure that you reheat it slowly and don’t let it come to a boil or the dairy in the soup might get grainy/lumpy.
Any non – dairy sub ideas for the cottage cheese and cream? I can handle parmesan, but not the other two 🙂
I’m afraid I don’t have any direct substitution ideas. Coconut cream can be a good dairy sub, but I don’t think I’d be a fan of how it would taste in a soup like this. You could try pureeing some cooked cauliflower to add creaminess to the base.
I have everything needed to make this except oat fiber, what can I sub for it? This sounds wonderful. I can’t wait to try it.
Oat fiber is a really fine flour, so I like to use it for thickening things like gravies and soups. I think some people substitute psyllium husk in its place, but I haven’t tried that. If you don’t have it, you could try just leaving it out and expect the soup not to be quite as thick. You could also try adding more cheese. It won’t thicken the soup like oat fiber, but it will help add more body.
I tried the psyllium husk and got WAY to much and my soup turned out super SLIMY! So, just a warning because I was not good at using it as a substitute. The flavor of the soup was still good but the consistency was so yuck that no one wanted to eat it. I’m going to try to fix it today…if that’s posdible, lol!
Thanks for the heads-up!
Will chicken stock work for the turkey juice?
Yes, but as I mentioned in the recipe, since I used deviled turkey juice you may want to add some of the spices traditionally used in deviled turkey recipes to add extra flavor. 🙂 Also, depending how strong your chicken stock is, you may need to add some extra chicken bouillon to amp up the flavor.
We really enjoyed this. I’ll definitely make this again. Thank you Briana!
I just made this … It is the best turkey soup I have ever tasted!!! Made 99.9% as written. I don’t like green beans in soup. This is a great recipe!!! Thank you.
This soup sounds amazing, especially with the flavors of a deviled turkey! Deviled turkey is one of my favorites!!