Easy Leftover Turkey Noodle pasta dinner. This easy pasta dish features leftover turkey, sautéed vegetables, and egg noodles, all cooked in creamy sauce. Great way to use up leftover turkey and vegetables from the holiday dinner.
Leftover Turkey Dinner
I can’t be the only one who has a ton of turkey left after the holidays. Turkey seems to be the most leftover dish from the whole holiday dinner (besides cranberry sauce). It’s partly because all the sides and desserts are so filling and delicious, so people eat more of it them than turkey.
I also do tend to get an extra large bird just so that we have a good amount of it leftover. I love turkey leftovers. It’s great in sandwiches, in soups, enchiladas, and quesadillas. Turkey salad is a great way to transform the leftover meat, as well as this creamy turkey noodle dish.
These noodles are done in less than 30 minutes and they make the perfect comforting dinner for the weekend after the holidays. Especially when Black Friday shopping is involved.
Tips for Making the Best Turkey Noodle Dinner:
If available, use both dark meat and breast meat from the turkey. Dark meat is a lot more flavorful so it will add more taste to the dish.
When cooking onions, get them nicely browned. So much more flavor comes from the caramelization than just slightly cooked onions.
Leftover carrots can be used here, even if the carrots were glazed. If using cooked carrots, add them to the pan last, right before adding flour.
The best way to get the most flavor out of garlic is to smash it before adding to the cooking pan. Smashing garlic releases its oil and makes it more potent and flavorful.
To smash garlic, I recommend people use a metal spatula if available. To avoid injuring yourself with a knife, I don’t tell people to use a knife unless they know how.
Peel garlic cloves and lay them on the cutting board. Place spatula flat over the garlic clove and hit the spatula hard with your hand, smashing the garlic below.
Quickly dice smashed garlic and add it to the cooking pan.
More Recipes For Leftover Turkey:
Main dishes: Turkey Enchiladas or Turkey Pot Pie.
Sandwiches: Turkey Cranberry Brie Grilled Cheese or Asiago Turkey Sliders
Soups: Creamy Turkey Potato Soup or Turkey Tortellini Soup
Breakfast: Thanksgiving Leftovers Tart or Turkey and Stuffing Waffles
Leftover Turkey Noodles
Ingredients
- 12 oz egg noodles
- 2 tbsp canola oil for cooking
- 1 medium yellow onion
- 2 medium carrots
- 4 garlic cloves
- 10 oz frozen peas thawed
- 2 cups turkey meat diced or shredded
- 3 tbsp flour
- 1 cup chicken broth warmed
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- Salt
- Fresh cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Dice carrots and slice onions thinly. Pour broth and heavy cream into the cups so it’s ready to use.
- Cook noodles according to the package instructions. You can save some time by cooking noodles at the same time as preparing veggies and sauce.
Once noodles are al dente, strain off water and set noodles aside. - Preheat a large cooking pan over medium heat. Add oil to saute veggies.
- Add onion to the pan and cook until transparent. Add carrots and cook both, stirring once in a while, until onions are golden brown.
- Smash garlic and add it to the pan. Cook until garlic is fragrant.
- Add peas and cook for a couple of minutes.
- Sprinkle flour over the veggies, mix well and cook for a minute or so, while constantly stirring.
- Keep stirring and slowly pour in broth. Keep stirring to make sure the sauce is smooth.
- Pour in heavy cream while still stirring. Stir slowly as the mixture begins to thicken. Season with salt and pepper.
- Add turkey and cook for a couple of minutes.
- Add pasta and carefully mix until pasta, sauce, veggies, and turkey are all evenly combined.
- Take off heat and serve.
Nutrition
Caroline says
So good! And best part was, after weeks of baking and cooking over the holidays, it was such a simple recipe that took 20 mins.
Marilynn Toye says
I made this for dinner tonight. It was delicious. I changed it a little but and put it in a casserole dish and sprinkled grated cheese on top and baked it at 350 until the
cheese was melted.
LyubaB says
So glad you enjoyed it!
Tammy says
Super easy and crazy delicious.
LyubaB says
Thank you, Tammy! I am so glad you liked it!
DeDe Hultberg says
This is my 2nd year making this. Didn’t have much left over turkey this year and was still wanting to make this so I used rotisserie chicken instead and it was good too. Also, last year I used leftover gravy as the broth. Great recipe, thank you!!
LyubaB says
Yum! Glad you liked it!
Kelsi says
Ive made this multiple times and every time ive made it differently. Ive used chicken instead of turkey, added mushrooms, and one time I added a bell pepper but no matter how i make it i always gotta add an onion. Highly recommend!
LyubaB says
Thank you, Kelsi! I am so glad you like the recipe!
Mel says
I made this and my family loves it! Thank you so much!! ♥
LyubaB says
I am so happy to hear that!
Kelli says
I just made this for my family and it was a hit even with the kids!! I am going to add a bit more broth to it before I put the leftovers away just because the leftover turkey that I used was kinda dry and I don’t want it to soak up everything. Will definitely be saving and making again!! Thanks for sharing!
LyubaB says
I am so glad they liked it, Kelli!