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Easy Turkey Stock
“Ya gonna make soup with that?” people would ask for years as I trimmed the last remnants of meat from a roasted turkey, leaving bones and bits of meat that could not be removed. And for years I answered “No,” and I simply threw the carcass out. Keeping it just seemed like a lot of trouble and I really didn’t believe you could extract much more from the carcass. Plus, it just seemed kind of barbarian — throwing an animal skeleton in water and boiling it up.
But, I finally did and the result was amazing on many levels: taste, cost and ease. Yeah, it was weird boiling a carcass but the flavor was delicious, and I made a great turkey soup with it. It’s easy, and hardly a recipe. The same steps could be used with a chicken.
- Turkey carcass - leftover from a cooked turkey. I remove as much of the meat as possible and put the good pieces of meat into one pile, and the other pieces (including fat and skin) into a bag for my dog Charlie. Cats usually like turkey too.
- Turkey gizzards - add these if you have them.
- Celery - 4-5 leafy stalks
- Onions - 1 medium, chopped medium to large
- Carrots - 2-3, shredded
- Garlic - 2-5 cloves, chopped medium
- Salt, pepper, to taste
- Place the carcass in a large pot and cover with water (you may need to cut or pull it apart into 2 pieces to fit).
- Add everything else and bring to a boil.
- Simmer for 1 1/2 - 3 hours under low heat.
- Turn off heat and let cool.
- Strain through a sieve and continue cooling. If fat forms on top remove it. Otherwise, that’s it - you have a flavorful stock that can be used immediately for soup, or frozen for later use.
- Throw out everything else (give any edible meat pieces to your faithful dog.)
Tags: Basic How-To, soup, turkey
