Take Christmas or Thanksgiving Turkey Leftovers and turn them into an incredibly delicious and healthy meal your family will love with this Turkey Tortilla Soup Recipe! Perfect to warm you up on a cool day!
Disclosure: Thank you so much to Canadian Turkey for working with us on this post. As with all articles on Hello Creative Family all thoughts and opinions are 100% our own. We only share things we love and we certainly love Canadian Turkey!
Christmas is less than one week away! Do you know what you’ll be eating for Christmas dinner? We love Canadian Turkey at Hello Creative Family, not just because it makes a festive, delicious and healthy meal for any celebration, but also because there are such delicious things that you can do with the leftovers!
In October we shared with you one of our favorite things to do with Thanksgiving leftovers– our Turkey Shepherd’s Pie Recipe. Today I’m sharing with you one of my favorite things to do with Christmas turkey leftovers– Turkey Tortilla Soup!
Today’s recipe uses the bones from your turkey to make a delicious stock that you add your leftover turkey meat! White meat, dark meat, it doesn’t matter! Throw it on in there for a delicious and flavorful meal!
One of the very first things that I do after cooking a turkey is cut up the leftovers and portion them out. Leftover turkey can be shredded, cubed or sliced, and stored in the freezer to be used as a handy base for a healthy meal, like soups, salads, pastas, casseroles, wraps, sandwiches and our Turkey Shepherds Pie Recipe! With a little planning, there are endless ways to use these protein packed leftovers!
A good rule of thumb when thinking about what size of turkey to buy if you want to have leftover for batch cooking is to calculate 1 1/2 to 2 pounds of turkey per person who will be eating with you!
For today’s recipe I used my favorite White Wine and Garlic Turkey Breast Roast Recipe for the base. You could easily use the same recipe and technique for a full turkey, you would just need to adjust the cooking time.
Ready to learn how to make my delicious Turkey Tortilla Soup recipe? Read on!
Turkey Tortilla Soup Recipe
Ingredients:
-2 tablespoons of your favorite cooking oil, I use avocado oil
-2 ribs of celery, roughly chopped
-2 carrots, roughly chopped
-1 medium onion, roughly chopped
-4 cloves of garlic, peeled and bruised
-1 chilli pepper or jalapeno, roughly chopped
-1 tablespoon ground cumin
-1 tablespoon ground chilli powder
-Turkey bones
-12 cups of water
-1 can of corn niblets
-14 ounces of red enchilada sauce
-6 cups of turkey, cubed (Try our white wine and garlic turkey recipe)
-Salt and pepper to taste
Garnishes, this is where you make the tortilla soup your own! You do you, but some of our favorites are:
Tortilla chips, feta cheese, cheddar cheese, salsa, bell peppers, sour cream, limes, cilantro and avocado.
Directions:
Step 1: Heat two tablespoons of oil in a stockpot over medium heat. To the stockpot add your celery, carrots, onion and garlic. Sautée for 2 minutes.
Add cumin, chilli powder and garlic. Sautée for another 2 minutes.
Add turkey bones and sautée for 2 more minutes. Add 12 cups of water to the stockpot. Bring to a simmer. Once a simmer has been reached reduce heat to low and allow to simmer for a minimum of 30 minutes, I often let mine simmer for a few hours to intensify the flavors.
Step 2: Strain your turkey broth removing the bones and vegetables. To your pot of broth add corn niblets, enchilada sauce and turkey. Bring to a simmer and then serve.
Step 3: Top with garnishes and enjoy!
Turkey Tortilla Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp Cooking Oil We use avocado oil
- 2 ribs of celery, roughly chopped
- 2 carrots, roughly chopped
- 1 medium onion, roughly chopped
- 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and bruised
- 1 chilli pepper or jalapeno, roughly chopped
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- Turkey bones
- 12 cups of water
- 1 can corn niblets
- 14 ounces red enchilada sauce
- 6 cups turkey, cubed
- salt and pepper to taste
Garnish Ideas
- tortilla chips
- feta cheese
- cheddar cheese
- limes
- avocado
- diced bell pepper
- sour cream
- salsa
- cilantro
Instructions
- Step 1: Heat two tablespoons of oil in a stockpot over medium heat. To the stockpot add your celery, carrots, onion and garlic. Sautée for 2 minutes.Add cumin, chilli powder and garlic. Sautée for another 2 minutes.
Add turkey bones and sautée for 2 more minutes. Add 12 cups of water to the stockpot. Bring to a simmer. Once a simmer has been reached reduce heat to low and allow to simmer for a minimum of 30 minutes, I often let mine simmer for a few hours to intensify the flavors. - Strain your turkey broth removing the bones and vegetables. To your pot of broth add corn niblets, enchilada sauce and turkey. Bring to a simmer and then serve.
- Top with garnishes and enjoy!
Need even more reasons besides this delicious recipe to serve turkey this holiday season? Here are 5 reasons:
- Easy Sub-Think turkey and make everyday meals delicious and tasty. It’s packed with tasty flavour and you can easily substitute turkey into any of your family’s favourite meals.
- Lean But Juicy– Did you know that both white and dark cuts are lean? That means that when you think turkey, you can enjoy any cut you prefer, and feel good knowing you are choosing a healthy protein without compromising on flavour, tenderness or juiciness
- So Much To Choose From– Turkey is such a versatile protein, with so many cuts of both dark and white meat to choose from, including ground turkey, legs, drumsticks, breast steaks, breast roasts, thighs, drummettes, wings, sausages, and burgers. With such a wide selection, you can think turkey for breakfast, lunch or dinner, with leftovers that taste delicious the next day.
- Pack A Flavour Punch- Turkey plays well with other flavours. It’s hearty taste and texture marries well with bold profiles, making it a perfect partner for spices and rubs. Think turkey and make recipes your own by using your family’s favourite flavours and change
up your everyday dishes using rubs, marinades and sauces. - Budget Friendly- Turkeys are generally larger than other poultry options and deliver a lot of meat for the price. Think turkey when planning for your larger celebrations and reach for whole birds that can be roasted for pennies per pound, and are a perfect choice for batch cooking meals or freezing leftover meat that can come in handy
as an everyday meal starter. Cuts like drums, breasts and thighs are larger, so you need fewer pieces to feed your family and plan for leftovers to stock your fridge.
Looking for additional tips, recipes, Turkey Basics videos and HOW TOs? Visit canadianturkey.ca for all your cooking inspiration. Canadian Turkey makes your holiday season easy with all the festive recipe suggestions and turkey prep tips you need!
The Year Round Whole Turkey HOW TOs section will help you prepare a whole Canadian turkey for your friends and family for any occasion. And the recipe section is filled with delicious recipes for whole turkey and turkey cuts so you can get tasty, nutritious and versatile turkey on your table every day!
I hope you all have the most wonderful holiday season! Tell me… What will you be eating for Christmas dinner and what are your plans with the leftovers?
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Love turkey like we do? Check out all of our delicious Canadian turkey recipe ideas!
Roxanna Clark says
The Chocolate chip zucchini recipe does not comw up. It comes up as the turkey soup.
Crystal says
Hi Roxanna,
You can find the chocolate chip zucchini bread recipe here: https://hellocreativefamily.com/chocolate-chip-zucchini-bread-recipe/
Best Wishes,
Crystal
Leanne says
This sounds amazing . It would be the perfect way to use up leftover turkey this year . Thanks for the recipe .