Description

This turkey and wild rice soup is a perfect way to use up leftover turkey meat and bones from your holiday birds. But it’s so delicious you can and should make it any time of year (not just when there’s a whole turkey carcass left over from the holidays). Deeply flavored with homemade turkey stock, butter, sweet heavy cream, turkey, carrots, shallots, leeks, celery, white and wild rice, plus a pinch of fresh herbs — this is my take on Maggie’s famous turkey soup (which is the best turkey and rice soup I’ve ever eaten).

Ingredients

Scale

two turkey legs or other bone-in turkey pieces washed and patted dry *
2 to 2 1/2 quarts homemade turkey or chicken stock (or store-bought) (2 to 2.35L)
1 cup heavy cream (240g)
2 cups cooked black or wild rice (340g)
1 cup cooked white rice (170g)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (30g)
2 tablespoons butter (30g)
1/4 cup leeks, diced (white and light green part only) (30g)
3/4 cup shallots or onion, diced (100g)
3/4 cup carrots, diced (100g)
2/3 cup celery, diced (85g)
2 garlic cloves, smashed
parsley, finely chopped, to taste
1/8 teaspoon poultry seasoning (optional)
3 leaves of fresh sage (optional)
15 individual leaves of fresh rosemary removed from the stem (optional)
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, or to taste
freshly cracked black pepper, to taste

*You may use about 3 cups of leftover cooked turkey to speed up this recipe. If you don’t have a cooked turkey, using two medium-sized turkey legs (or other equivalent-sized bone-in turkey meat) should yield about 3 cups of cooked turkey meat. From two turkey legs, I ended up with 14 ounces (400g) of cooked meat which was just over 3 cups.

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Instructions

Make the turkey stock and cook the turkey legs (Skip to step #2 if you’re using leftover cooked turkey or store-bought broth). Heat a 5 to 6-quart pressure cooker (or Instapot, or large stock pot) over medium-high heat, and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. When the oil is hot, but not smoking, add the turkey legs and sear them on all sides until golden brown. Add leftover roasted turkey (or chicken) bones and 2 to 3 cups of leftover vegetable ends and peels (like carrots, onions, celery, and leeks). *I save all of my leftover vegetable peels and pieces in a bag in the freezer for making homemade stock, but you may sub 1/2 carrot, 3/4 onion, and 1/2 celery rib. Cover the turkey, bones, and vegetables with 4 quarts of water and add 1 teaspoon of salt, bring to high pressure, cook for 30 minutes and allow it to release naturally. When the pressure cooker has released, remove the turkey legs to a bowl to cool and strain the stock through a fine mesh sieve to remove the bones and vegetables. Skim the desired amount of fat from the stock and set aside. When the turkey legs are cool enough to handle, debone the meat and chop or shred into bite-sized pieces and set aside while you prepare the soup.
Sauté the vegetables. Add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil and butter to a large pot set over medium heat. Add the shallots, leeks, carrots, smashed garlic cloves, poultry seasoning, herbs, a sprinkle of salt, and sauté for 7 to 8 minutes or until the vegetables are tender and the onions are translucent.
Add the turkey stock and diced turkey meat. Add the turkey stock and meat to the pot and season with salt and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil and immediately reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes to allow the flavors to meld together. Remove the garlic cloves from the soup and discard.
Add the rice and the heavy cream. Add the cooked rice and heavy cream and simmer for 10 more minutes, or until everything is warmed through. Garnish with parsley if desired and Enjoy!

Notes

Substitute white or yellow onions for some or all of the leeks and shallots. Just be sure to end up with about 1 cup (125g) of chopped onions.
Substitute white rice for the wild rice if you’d like.
Substitute homemade turkey stock with chicken stock or store-bought broth.
If you want a slightly thicker turkey soup, you can achieve this by doing one of the following things:
- Create a roux by adding 1 tablespoon of flour to the sautéed vegetables and cook for 4 to 5 minutes stirring constantly before adding the turkey stock and proceeding with the remaining instructions…OR
- Cook the rice directly in the turkey stock. Toast 1 1/2 cups of uncooked rice directly in the butter and olive oil until fragrant and slightly opaque. Add the vegetables to sauté and continue with the instructions being sure to cook the rice until tender before adding the turkey meat and remaining ingredients.
Increase the amount of rice by up to one cup if you’d like.
Increase the amount of heavy cream to make this soup even more luxurious. I kept it on the lighter side because when I made this, it was summertime (bikini weather), but Maggie’s soup does not skimp on real butter or heavy cream, so use as much or as little as you’d like.

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Category: Soups & Stews
Method: Stovetop
Cuisine: American

Nutrition

Serving Size: 2 Cups