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If you have leftover turkey from Thanksgiving (or any feast), this Turkey Wild Rice Soup is one of my absolute favorite ways to turn scraps into something cozy, nourishing, and totally soul-warming. It’s hearty, veggie-packed, and full of texture!
It comes together in one pot and uses mostly leftovers. This soup is also gluten-free, dairy-free, and so comforting for those colder late fall or winter days.
Easy Wild Rice Soup with Turkey
Do you have leftover turkey after the holidays? Well, thanks to this Turkey Wild Rice Soup recipe, you’ll know just how to use them up! I make this every single year without fail!
After I cut my turkey, I put the carcass right into the Instant Pot. This soup is next level with fresh bone broth.
This soup is packed full of tender wild rice, the perfect leftover turkey, and whatever veggies you have on hand, leftover or fresh. We love the heartiness, flavors, and textures of this soup.
Plus, it aligns perfectly with making the most of your turkey by turning the carcass into turkey bone broth/stock. It takes the soup to another level, both in flavor and healthiness. As they say, the better the broth, the better the soup!
No turkey? No problem! You can totally use leftover shredded chicken, too!
Why We Love This Soup So Much:
- Zero waste & resourceful: Use up every bit of turkey. Making your own turkey stock with the bones gives this soup a deep, rich flavor that elevates everything.
- Comforting + healthy: With tender wild rice, savory broth, turkey, and a fragrant mix of vegetables, it hits all the comfort-food notes without feeling heavy.
- Flexible & adaptable: Don’t have mushrooms or carrots? Swap in other vegetables. No turkey on hand? Use shredded chicken. You can really customize to your desire here, it’s one of the beautiful parts of this recipe.
Ingredients Needed:
*Scroll down to the recipe card for quantities and the complete recipe.
- Butter – To sauté the veggies (can sub oil for dairy-free).
- Veggies – A mix of onion, carrot, celery, and baby bella mushrooms (add the umami depth), but feel free to use whatever veggies you have on hand (think holiday leftovers!)
- Garlic – Use fresh garlic for the best flavor.
- Seasonings: A simple blend of salt, pepper, and dried herbs like thyme and parsley.
- Turkey Stock – Or chicken broth. Make homemade turkey broth from the leftover turkey carcass, or buy a high-quality store-bought version.
- Fish Sauce – Just a splash gives the soup extra umami, without making it taste “fishy.” It just rounds out the savory flavors.
- Wild Rice – You’ll need 1 cup of dry wild rice. It cooks right in the soup. Wild rice holds up well in a soup without turning mushy, though it takes longer than regular rice.
- Turkey – Any leftover turkey will work, shredded or chopped. You could also use leftover or rotisserie chicken!
How to Make My Turkey and Wild Rice Soup
You’ll want to pick off as much of the turkey meat as possible after it’s been carved. If you can, pick all the meat from the turkey while it’s still warm, because it is much easier to do!
Our recipe calls for about 2-3 cups of leftover turkey meat. Once you’ve picked the meat off the turkey, make bone broth from it to use in your soup, or freeze it for future soups!
- Prep your pot: In a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat, melt the butter (or warm your oil). Add the onion, carrot, celery, salt, and pepper, and sauté until the vegetables soften, about 5 minutes.
- Add the mushrooms + garlic: Stir in the mushrooms and garlic and cook for another 5 minutes, until they’re fragrant and the mushrooms are starting to release their moisture.
- Build the soup: Add the dried thyme and parsley, then pour in your turkey stock (or chicken broth) and the wild rice mixture. Bring everything to a gentle simmer.
- Simmer: Cover the pot and cook for about 30 minutes — this gives the wild rice time to cook through and absorb flavor.
- Add the turkey: Stir in your leftover turkey, then simmer uncovered for another 30 minutes or so, until the rice is fully cooked and the turkey is warmed through. Taste and adjust seasoning — you can add more broth if it feels too thick or concentrated.
- Finish & serve: Once the rice is tender and the flavors have melded, ladle the soup into bowls. It’s perfect on its own, or paired with a side of crusty bread or crackers.
How to Make Homemade Turkey Broth
Making turkey stock from the leftover carcass is so simple and a great way to use up all the turkey. No waste win! I usually use the instant pot, but you can also do it on the stovetop!
- Place the whole carcass, a few aromatics, spices, and water into the instant pot.
- Cook on high pressure for 50 minutes.
If you’d rather not make your own, you can use a good-quality bone broth or stock from the store instead.
Tips + Notes from My Kitchen
- Bone Broth Boost: If possible, make your own turkey stock with the carcass. It’s surprisingly easy (in the Instant Pot or on the stovetop), and the more decadent broth makes a big difference.
- Veggie Flexibility: Use what you’ve got. Mushrooms, carrots, and celery are my go-tos, but feel free to toss in green beans, peas, or any other leftover veggies toward the end of cooking.
- Adjust the Texture: If your soup gets too thick, thin it with more broth or even water. If it’s too thin, let it simmer a little longer, uncovered, until it concentrates.
- Fish Sauce Hack: That splash of fish sauce is totally optional, but I think it’s a game-changer for depth. Try it — your soup will taste richer.
- Make-Ahead: This soup reheats beautifully. Store leftovers in the fridge for 3–4 days or freeze in meal-sized portions for later.
Kitchen Tools I Use
Serving Suggestions
Wild rice soup with turkey is a complete meal all on its own, thanks to the veggies, grain, and chicken. However, it’s delicious served with a couple of side dishes too, especially if you have other holiday leftovers. It’s also great with Crackers and crusty bread!
FAQ’s
Yes! In fact, you should put uncooked rice in this soup. It cooks perfectly right in the broth. If you put already-cooked rice in it, you’ll end up with over-cooked rice.
We choose to include a classic blend of onions, carrots, celery, and mushrooms! But if you have other leftover veggies like green beans, you can add those in at the very end of the cooking time to reheat!
Refrigerator: Store leftover wild rice soup in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days or in the freezer for 2-3 months.
Freezing Instructions:
– Let your soup cool completely before transferring it into a freezer-safe gallon-size bag or container.
– Seal and then place in the freezer.
– It will last for up to 3 months.
– When you’re ready to serve again, thaw in the fridge if frozen, then warm on low on the stove, or even the crockpot, until heated all the way through.
Other Ways To Use Leftover Turkey
- Thanksgiving Leftover Breakfast Hash
- Turkey Kale Soup
- How to Make Turkey Stock
- Cranberry Walnut Chicken Salad (use turkey)
- Thanksgiving Stuffed Acorn Squash (Thanksgiving Leftovers Recipe)
Watch The Video:
Turkey Wild Rice Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter or avocado oil
- 1 large onion diced
- 3 large carrots sliced to 1/4″
- 3 celery stalks diced
- 1 cup baby bella mushrooms diced
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 5 cups turkey stock or chicken broth
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce
- 1 cup wild rice
- 2-3 cups shredded cooked turkey breast leftover thanksgiving turkey works great for this, or shredded chicken works as well
Instructions
- In a large dutch oven or stock pot, over medium heat and add butter/oil.
- When hot add onions, carrots, celery and salt and pepper to the pot and cook until beginning to soften, about 5 minutes.
- Add the mushrooms and garlic and cook another 5 minutes.
- Add thyme, parsley and 4 cups of the turkey stock, fish sauce, and rice.
- Bring to a simmer and then cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
- Add the turkey and simmer, uncovered, another 30-50 minutes, until the rice is cooked.
- Taste and adjust seasoning and add more broth if needed.
Notes
- This recipe was developed for thanksgiving leftovers, but it will work great with leftover chicken as well.
- If the rice isn’t done, simmer for longer as desired.
- Add more broth if needed. If needed, then adust/increase spices as well.
It is delicious but either the amount of rice or broth is in error. I used 1 cup of rice per the recipe but had to use 8 cups of broth & may have to use more when reheating to keep liquid in the soup. I followed the recipe exactly. Where is the error?
Did you use wild rice? Anyway- some may simmer out, so always fine to adjust the broth and spice needs!
Lexi, I’m enjoying your recipes. I grew up
with fairly healthy Southern food and great cooks. I lost those folks as well as my husband of many decades in the past couple of years. Kind of made me lose my love of cooking and recipe-collecting as well (something my mom and I had in common and talked about every day). I made your turkey and wild rice soup tonight. The seasoning was spot on. Thank you!
Amazing and so easy to put together. Perfect use for our leftover turkey and homemade broth. Definitely will be making this again!
Because I had on hand, I added some dried mushrooms, some fresh spinach, a little white wine and some fresh squeezed lemon. It was so good!
Made the Turkey broth and the soup and will definitely be my day after thanksgiving tradition now, yum!
This is a delicious soup! I used my homemade turkey broth. We were at the cottage and had no celery, but I used lots of fresh parsley and added some cauliflower too. It was a hit with everyone!
Made this soup today ’cause it’s snowing outside, and we know this recipe is a big favorite at our house!
Can’t post picture as it is all one!! It was delicious and so easy. I wanted to use up all my turkey so it was quite thick, even after I added more broth. Husband ate most of it so that is a good indication of just how good it was.
I just made this tonight with our leftovers and it was delicious! Even my kids that don’t like soup enjoyed it. Thank you!
It’s a hit here too! So glad everyonde loved it.
Used about 5 qts of turkey frame broth and just added extra veggies and turkey. Delicious!
This was the most amazing soup I have ever made! I left the fish sauce out because I didn’t have it but that’s the only change I made.
Do you pre-cook the wild rice before adding it to the soup, or let it cook in the broth?
No, it’s added and cooked in the broth.
Very nice- tasting soup! My husband and I enjoyed it a lot! Will make again! Thanks so much for another good recipe!
I just wanted to second the comment about the instant pot timing, perhaps it should be adjusted? 50 minutes on high is way too long for already cooked poultry, no? It seemed long when I read it, so I put it in for just 30 thinking I’d check at that point, and it was already tough as shoe leather when it came out. Sadly, I had to toss the whole pot as my family wouldn’t eat it :(. Not going to leave a rating since it seems like all the ingredients would make a delicious soup other than this weird timing issue.
Sarah–Sorry you misunderstood and wasted ingredients but we DO NOT offer directions for making this soup in the Instant Pot in this recipe. We have directions for making the stock / bone broth in the Instant Pot, in case you want to make your own. But no where in the recipe do we offer directions for cooking the soup in the Instant Pot. That is cooked on the stove top. -Kelli
Hi! Did you use wild rice only or a wild rice blend?
You can use either!
Thank you for your effort to make this delicious item.
Our family loves soup! Can’t wait to make this!
I did the same thing! Often InstantPot directions are below the rest of the recipe, so I just kept on scrolling! Oops!
I did think it turned out, but when I make this in the Instant Pot again, I’ll be sure to use raw chicken. Since mine had already been cooked, it ended up way overcooked with another 50 minutes in the IP. It was still delicious, and even my soup-averse husband liked it!
Gave this one a shot with leftover thanksgiving turkey and it was SO GOOD. I accidentally followed the bone broth instructions to make the soup in my Instant Pot and it turned out great! Will definitely have to try the bone broth recipe asap!
Such a cozy way to use up those turkey leftovers!