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
Tanya Schroeder says
This is such a great way to use up leftover turkey!
John Palecek says
I actully made something everyone liked, thanks for the help
lyuba says
That’s awesome to hear, John! I’m so happy to help!
Jen says
Is it possible to substitute the heavy cream for a healthier option? Thanks
Kristin says
Well mine certainly did not come out looking like that. I did have to substitute and made my own chicken broth using bullion powder, and made my own heavy cream. I also only had can pees (you should absolutely use frozen). Other than that it came out tasting a lot like a pot pie. So still good.
Ellen piety says
Came out tasty
LyubaB says
Hi, Ellen! So glad you liked it!
Helen says
An easy to make, great use for leftover turkey. I subbed bow tie pasta for the noodles and used smoked turkey which gave a great flavor to the dish. I think next time I’ll add fresh mushrooms, too. My husband loved it – Win!
LyubaB says
Hi, Helen! I’m so glad you liked it and I think adding mushrooms will be delicious!
Teresa says
I made this recipe exactly as instructed. I found that the carrots were not done enough and it wasn’t as soupy as I would’ve liked so I then added another cup of chicken broth. It didn’t really have much flavor to me I felt like it needed a zing of some sort
LyubaB says
This technically is not a soup so it shouldn’t be soupy, but if you like it that way and added more liquid that is probably why it isn’t as flavorful because it is diluted. Next time you would need to increase the amount of spices to give it the same flavor.
Brenda Cofell says
This was delicious. Great way to get veggies into children. Can you freeze the leftovers? Best way to reheat?
Pat says
You have the best, simple to make recipes on the internet!!!I have a granddaughter who is a vegetarian, no milk products! It’s difficult to cook for her. Mostly I can do adjustments to your recipes, adding items to parts of items later.
These are like I cooked when my family was still home. Going to freeze some in portions.
LyubaB says
Thank you for the sweet compliment, Pat! I am so happy my recipes work so well for you!
Penny says
I made this recipe and I had to tweak it a little. I didn’t have fresh carrots so I used canned. I didn’t have any heavy cream so I used cream of chicken soup with a little 2%milk,no chicken broth,used chicken bouillon. It turned out delicious, my family loved it. Thanks for the recipe
Penny says
Delicious 😋
Jim Hartman says
I’m going to try it; I’ll let you know .
The recipe mentions putting the cream into cups, but doesn’t mention any cups. Please clarify this.