Homemade turkey and dumplings is the ultimate comfort meal! This easy recipe puts leftover turkey to deliciously good use.
What Makes This Recipe So Good
- It’s a warm and wholesome meal, perfect for a cozy meal in! Take dinner up a notch with this restaurant-quality dish. Kids, friends, family – everyone will love this meal!
- It’s the perfect recipe to use up leftover turkey! Every year around the holidays I’m searching to creative ways to use up my leftover turkey. This recipe is hands-down one of my favorites!
- It’s quick and easy! The instructions walk you through how to simply make your own dumplings, then cook them in the soup. From beginning to end, this meal takes no more than 30 minutes to make.
Key Ingredients
Chicken or Turkey Broth – Homemade broth is always best, so I use this Instant Pot recipe to make my own broth and store it in the freezer for future use. Though store-bought broth works just as well in this turkey and dumplings recipe! We up the flavor in the broth with a variety of added herbs and veggies – making it that much more delicious.
Cooked Turkey – Here’s where leftover turkey comes in super handy! Either diced or shredded turkey will work here, just as long as it’s cooked through. Additionally, you could sub the turkey for pre-cooked chicken if you’d like.
Baking Powder – Baking powder causes the dumplings to puff up once cooked. This gives them their signature light and fluffy texture we all love!
Chef’s Tips
- Don’t worry too much about the size and shape of your dumplings. I actually find the imperfect shapes give them that pleasant homemade, rustic look. The only special attention needed here is in ensuring the dumpling dough is rolled out into an even 1/4-inch thickness.
- Drop the dumplings into the boiling soup one at a time. Avoid adding them to the pot all together which could cause them to stick and form large clumps. Therefore, simply add them in one-by-one until all have been transferred to the pot.
- For a thicker base, add a cornstarch slurry to your turkey and dumplings in the last few minutes of cooking! Make the slurry by whisking one tablespoon of cornstarch in with 3 tablespoons of water. Once combined, pour the slurry into the hot broth and stir until thick.
More Cozy Soup Recipes You’ll Love
- Smoked Turkey and White Bean Soup
- Chicken Florentine Soup
- Instant Pot Chicken and Rice Soup
- Instant Pot Clam Chowder
- Cream of Celery Soup
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Turkey and Dumplings
Equipment
- Large pot
- Large bowl
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter
- ½ onion chopped
- 2 celery stalks chopped
- 1 carrot chopped
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 2 quarts chicken or turkey broth
- 1 bay leaf
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 cups cooked turkey chopped
For the dumplings:
- 1 cup all purpose flour see Notes
- ¼ cup yellow cornmeal
- ½ tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup half and half see Notes
Instructions
- Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat, then add in the onion, celery, carrot, and garlic. Sauté for 3-5 minutes or until tender.
- Pour in the chicken broth and add in the bayleaf and dried thyme. Stir then reduce heat to low and leave to simmer while you prepare the dumplings.
- Sift the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Mix together before pouring in the half-and-half then mixing until a dough forms.
- Roll the dough out onto a floured surface into a ¼-inch thick sheet. Slice the dough into small even-sized squared to create the dumplings.
- Gently drop dumplings into the simmering broth, a few at a time, and cook until tender – about 8 minutes. Add in the cooked turkey, give everything a stir then remove from heat and serve immediately.
Notes
- Make it Gluten-Free: Use all purpose gluten-free flour in place of the all purpose flour to make these dumplings gluten-free.
- Make it Dairy-Free: Replace the half-and-half in this recipe with an equal amount of full-fat coconut for a non-dairy option.
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