Looking for something delicious to make with leftover Thanksgiving turkey? This Crockpot Turkey Tetrazzini is a creamy, flavorful, easy to make dinner the whole family will love!
Thanksgiving is such a wonderful meal to share with friends and family. We always make a spatchcock turkey, green beans with bacon, mini pecan pies or chocolate bourbon pecan pie.
And then, we usually have a lot of turkey leftovers.
Go beyond the basic leftover turkey sandwich and make this easy, hearty, oh so flavorful Crockpot Turkey Tetrazzini!
Below you will find helpful tips regarding ingredients, as well as step-by-step photos and instructions to help you make this dish. Read these sections carefully before you start.
The printable recipe card at the bottom of the post has the full recipe with ingredient measurements and cooking instructions.
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✨ 5 things to love about this dish
I love this dish for so many reasons, but here are the top five reasons I think YOU will love this dish too:
- The recipe calls for simple, wholesome ingredients. A lot of turkey tetrazzini recipes call for canned cream of mushroom soup, which gives the dish an artificial flavor. This recipe uses real heavy cream and cream cheese (sub your fave dairy-free alternatives if you are dairy-free), making it richer and much more flavorful.
- You can use fresh or frozen vegetables. I use fresh mushrooms and frozen peas, because we always have frozen peas in the house. But you can also use frozen mushrooms.
- It cooks in one pot. One pot meals are amazing for easy clean up!
- No waste. This recipe makes the most of those turkey leftovers and transforms them into a whole delicious new dish!
- It's a great freezer meal. You can make the entire dish, cool, and then freeze to reheat for a future dinner.
🦃 Ingredients for slow cooker turkey tetrazzini
Turkey - You'll need about 2 to 2-½ cups of cubed turkey meat. You can use dark meat and light meat - whatever you have leftover. You can use less than 2 cups but you may need to lower the amount of chicken broth a bit so that it doesn't end up too watery.
Mushrooms - Use baby bella (also known as cremini) mushrooms. They add the best flavor. But you can also use white mushrooms instead.
Onions and garlic - You'll need a half cup of finely chopped yellow onion and two cloves of minced garlic. Feel free to adjust these amounts according to your tastebuds.
Chicken broth - use homemade chicken stock or canned chicken broth. You can also use beef broth for a richer flavor, or vegetable broth for a lighter flavor.
Herbs - Dried or fresh thyme, basil, and oregano make this dish full of flavor throughout. You can also use 1-½ teaspoons of Italian Seasoning instead of the individual herbs.
Salt and pepper - Use kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper if you can. I usually also add a bit more of one or the other, or both, after the dish is fully cooked. Adjust your seasoning according to taste.
Spaghetti - You'll need to break the spaghetti in half before adding it to the Crockpot. This helps it cook a bit faster.
Cream - Use heavy cream or half and half.
Cream cheese - Be sure to cut the cream cheese into 1-inch cubes and distribute all around the Crockpot when you add it. This helps it cook faster and evenly, and also distributes the cream cheese better throughout the whole dish.
Peas - You can use fresh peas but I always use frozen peas. You can toss them in directly from the freezer, since they cook up quickly.
✅ Step-by-step instructions
Before beginning, make sure you chop up all of your ingredients and have everything ready to go.
- To your Crockpot or other slow cooker, add the turkey meat, mushrooms, onions, garlic, thyme, oregano, basil, salt and pepper.
2. Then pour in the chicken broth and stir the ingredients so they are mostly submerged in the broth. Cover with the Crockpot lid.
3. Set your Crockpot on HIGH and cook for 2 hours.
4. After 2 hours, add the broken spaghetti and heavy cream. Stir ingredients together to submerge as much of the pasta under the liquid as possible. Some will stick up, and that's fine.
5. Add the cubed cream cheese on top, placed throughout the Crockpot. This helps it cook evenly. Cover.
6. Lower the heat level to LOW and set the timer for 30 minutes.
7. After 30 minutes, remove the cover, and stir the ingredients together. The pasta should be cooked al dente at this point. If it is not cooked enough to your liking: return the lid and cook for another 5 or 10 minutes.
Add the frozen peas, stir, and allow the ingredients to sit uncovered on LOW for 5 minutes, just until the peas have cooked through. Turn off the Crockpot and serve.
How to make it a freezer reheat meal
Turkey tetrazzini freezes and reheats beautifully!
To freeze: first allow the dish to cool completely. Then vacuum seal using your FoodSaver Multi-Use Food Preservation System, either into FoodSaver bags or, my favorite option: FoodSaver Preserve and Marinate Containers. These vacuum seal and stack neatly in the freezer.
Freeze turkey tetrazzini for up to one month in the freezer. Transfer to the refrigerator a day or two before you plan to reheat it.
To reheat: place turkey tetrazzini in an oven safe baking dish and cover with aluminum foil. Bake at 300°F for 30 minutes. Then remove the foil and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes, or until the dish is warmed up the whole way through.
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👩🏻🍳 Recipe FAQs
Absolutely! Either follow the cook, freeze, and reheat instructions above. Or, store in the refrigerator for up to two days and then reheat following the reheating instructions above.
This recipe is also GREAT with rotisserie chicken instead of turkey.
🍽 Serving ideas
This crockpot turkey tetrazzini is absolutely delicious with any of these side dishes:
🥂 Best wine pairings
This dish is rich and creamy, and packed with umami flavors. Pair with a medium-boded white wine, like a sultry Viognier or lightly oaked Chardonnay, to match the richness of the dish.
You can also enjoy this with a Gamay or Oregon Pinot Noir, to match the umami from the mushrooms.
🍳 Kitchen tools and equipment
For this recipe, you just need a few basic kitchen tools:
Slow cooker - I use my 6-Quart MyTime Crockpot. This dish requires a 6-quart or larger slow cooker.
Knife and cutting board - to prep the ingredients.
Did you make this recipe? Don't forget to leave a 5-Star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card, and if you really loved it, please leave a comment further down on the page. Thank you!
Crockpot Turkey Tetrazzini
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2½ cups leftover turkey meat, cooked and cooled
- 1 (8-ounce) package of mushrooms, sliced
- ½ cup chopped yellow onions
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 cups chicken broth
- ½ pound uncooked spaghetti, cut in half
- ½ cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese cut into 1-inch cubes
- ½ cup frozen peas
Instructions
- Spray the inside of your crockpot or slow cooker with cooking spray.
- To your crockpot, add the turkey, mushrooms, onions, garlic, thyme, oregano, basil, salt, and pepper. Pour in the chicken broth. Stir, then cover. Set the crockpot on high and cook for 2 hours.
- After 2 hours, remove the lid and stir in the spaghetti, heavy cream, and cream cheese. Cover, lower the temp to low and cook for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, remove the lid and stir in the frozen peas. Cover and cook on low for 5 more minutes. Then turn off the crockpot and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is a general estimate. Actual nutrition details may vary depending on the exact foods & brands you use to make this recipe. It does not take into account any substitutions, toppings, or optional ingredients.
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This post is sponsored by FoodSaver. All opinions, recipes, and photos are my own.
Amy says
This turned out excellent! Had to make some substitutions based on what I had but loved the creaminess without using high sodium processed canned soup. I added a head of fresh chopped cauliflower and used fresh green beans instead of peas. Also didn’t have heavy cream so put in another 4oz of cream cheese and extra turkey broth. So easy, too!
Marlynn Jayme Schotland says
Yay! So glad to hear you loved it, Amy! Thanks for sharing your substitutions -- those are always helpful!
Suzanne Cipriani says
Can I use uncooked turkey for this recipe?
Marlynn Jayme Schotland says
I developed this recipe specifically for using up leftover cooked turkey meat. However, you could quickly sauté some turkey meat in a pan first and then add it and follow the recipe. Some might suggest you simply add more cooking time if using uncooked meat, however, the rest of the ingredients would potentially be soggy/overcooked.
Lauren Michael Harris says
Turkey tetrazzini is such a classic comfort food! I am expecting a ton of leftover turkey this year (we're making 2 turkeys just in case haha!) and I need all the leftover turkey recipes! This one is most definitely on the list!
Claudia Lamascolo says
We love slow cooking easy recipes! What a great idea I love new recipes to try and this sounds delicious!
Heather Johnson says
this is so delicious! i made a practice turkey last week and needed to use the leftovers and i loved it! definitely love all the mushrooms! so good!
Maria San Juan says
Love this recipe! Excited to make this one for the holidays!
Jenn says
Love this cozy recipe around the holidays! Thanks for sharing!