I’d like to make maximum tasty soup from my leftover turkey components. Here’s what I have:
Turkey carcass of bones
Turkey gravy, thickened with flour
Pan drippings not used for gravy – includes fat and a turkey-jello-like substance
Turkey meat
Obviously I’ll add some vegetables, noodles, etc. but am not sure what to add besides the standard carrots and celery.
I’ve not made turkey broth or stock from scratch before, and I’m looking for suggestions.
Take everything you have left over (except the gravy perhaps), put it in a large pot with a chopped up onion, a few carrots and a few stalks of celery (hopped coarsely). Add enough water to cover it all, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let it boil, covered, very slowly for about 3 hours. If any scum rises to the top, skim it off. Add salt and pepper to taste.
When it’s done, run it through colander so you have just the broth. Refrigerate over night and then skim off the fat the next day. If you did it right, the broth will be slightly gelatinous when cool.
Easy peasy. Search past threads-- we’ve done this several times before. Lots of good suggestions.
Thanks, JM. I’m thinking I should probably skim off as much of the fat as I can from the refrigerated pan drippings. Do you agree?
I wouldn’t bother. It’s all going to rise to the top when you refrigerate the final product. It’ll solidify, like lard, and it’s pretty easy to scrape away in that form.
Turkey soup is just sooooo good. I hope your experience produces something you like. The first time I made it, it came out just fine.
I like to re-roast the carcass, maybe spray it first with Pam, for even richer roasted flavor. The basic soup vegetables have already been mentioned. Boil for a really long time, a few hours. A favorite thickener for soups for me is barley.
This! If you want the broth even stronger take the strained liquid and put it in a pot on the lowest temperture for the burner. Reduce it even further. The longer you let it go the more water will be evaporated out. leaving the remaining liquid even more robust in flavor.
The only change I’d make, and I’m not even sure on this one, is that I’d not put all the meat in there. If your carcass isn’t stripped clean (mine wasn’t), there may be enough meat clinging to the bones to give it a rich meaty flavor; then you can save the rest of the meat to dice and add back to the broth once it’s strained.
I was playing with the idea of adding gravy to the soup as a thickener, since it’s made from turkey stuff plus some flour. Bad idea?
This is what I do. After you strain the broth, put the bones and all on a platter to cool, then pick through it and toss all the meat in the soup. There will be more then you expect, it’s usually all you need. Then add a bag of frozen veggie mix of your choice and cook, then add diced potatoes if you want. Fabulous soup.
And I do the same thing when we have one of those supermarket broasted whole chickens.
Dennis
I’ve always found a happy combination of turkey stock, any lentils/peas/beans and pattypan squasheschopped in chunks w/ the peel left on. Turkey’s terribly versatile, IMHO.
Bad idea. It will make the soup cloudy. Save the gravy to pour over leftovers.
I was about to say, if you don’t mind cloudy soup, use it. I do, since I do more of a slightly thick, creamy turkey soup finished with lemon and fresh tarragon (if I can). Also, if clarity is a concern, simmer gently after bringing to a boil. You don’t want it at a boil if you truly desire a clear broth, but that’s mostly an aesthetic concern.
If you decide to make turkey noodle or turkey rice soup, I would highly recommend that you not add the starch to the big pot unless it’s all going to be eaten that day. Rice, in particular, tends to get bloated and overly soft when left in liquid.
Instead, cook the rice or noodles separately in some of the broth, then put some in a bowl and ladle the soup on top.
It seems that most of the above posters neglected to add herbs to the soup. Pretty much anything goes with turkey. I like thyme or herbs de provence, or even some poultry seasoning blend. If you use fresh herbs, put them in your bowl and ladle the hot soup over them. If you cook the herbs in the soup, you’re better off with dried.
Very excellent tips and suggestions! Thanks!
Keep 'em coming!
I just made, and ate, some really delicious left over chicken soup. It was easy and quick. You can use turkey instead.
I made about 2 quarts. First, I sautéed a medium onion in olive oil. Then I added about 2/3 to one cup of leftover brown rice, about 1/2 cup of frozen green beans and about 2/3 cup of California blend frozen veggies. I added chicken broth cubes and poured hot water over all, bringing it to a boil. I put about a rounded teaspoon of cornstarch in 1/2 cup tap water and mixed it, then poured it in the pot. Stirring it all. I added about 1/2 teaspoon of Herbs d’Provence, an herb blend from France. If you don’t have it there, you can Google it and get a recipe for the mix. Also put in some white pepper. I brought it all to boil and simmered it for 15 minutes.
It was quick, easy and really tasty.
Forgot to say I also put in about a cup of cut up leftover chicken.
We’re speaking of the food of the gods, aren’t we? I LOVE this stuff, it’s one of the best reasons to roast a turkey. When you DO roast a turkey, toss in some extra wings and legs to add even more body and savoriness. Simmer the bejesus out of everything with the usual veggies and fresh herbs, thyme and rosemary upfront, save the parsley for the last of the cooking.
Adding cooked rice, barley or small soup-type pasta(orzo, acini de pepe, stars, etc) to bowls of broth does make it look better, but I’m not offended by cloudy soups. It’s the TASTE, people. 
I’m always grateful for donations of turkey soup from friends who make it, but don’t necessarily like it. They know I do, so throughout the cooler months I am serially gifted with plastic containers of turkily goodness. All are different, and all are good AND appreciated.
I remember Thanksgiving dinner at my grandmother’s home. She’d have the soup simmering before people got started on their post-dessert pickings. Good ol’ granny.
Do you have a slow cooker? I prefer to make broth/stock in my crockpot. I find it comes out better if it’s not actually boiled.
Place the carcass (not the meat or pan drippings or gravy, just the carcass) in your slow cooker along with a chopped up onion, a couple of chopped carrots, a couple of chopped celery sticks, maybe some chopped mushrooms if you have them handy, some peppercorns, and a bay leaf or two, and of course a whole bunch of water. Turn your crock pot on low (not high, low, I’m serious) and cook for approximately 24 hours. Yes, 24 hours. After that, let it cool, and strain and discard the solids (bones and veggies). It freezes nicely in Mason jars or tupperware containers for future use.
Which reminds me: if you are including skin in the mix when you make your stock, keep the temperature to a low simmer. This will keep the liquid fat from emulsifying into the broth. I prefer not to put fat in it in the first place, as it adds little in the way of flavor and will just have to be skimmed out later.
No, I don’t have a slow cooker or crockpot. I’ll be using just the ordinary big pot on top of the stove method.
It’s going to be lovely, MLS; turkey soup is hard to ruin and I should know. I’ve made some boneheaded cooking mistakes in my 46 years.
If you choose to freeze some in jars, please remember to fill them to no more than 1.5-2 inches below the top. It’s headspace on the safe side, busted glass in a freezer is one nasty mess to clean up. Other than that, freezing in jars is a fantastic storage method and I like how they defrost faster than when stored in plastic (and no lingering smell in the glass after washing).
