Turkey Carcass Soup

Photo by Erin Grant. This is the biggest bird I’ve ever prepared. We ate our fill and were still able to make other meals for the future.

Before I delve into the recipe I have to issue a caution: Reader beware! This recipe will make a TON of soup. I’m not kidding. You’ll have so much, but that is one of the things I love the most about this soup. It fills my freezer with delicious soup for many months to come. There are a lot of variations I use to mix it up a little (I’ll talk about those at the end), but it does seem like a never-ending pot of soup at first.

Another caution, I actually don’t have a recipe for this. It’s different every year. My kids have affectionately nicknamed this “Garbage Soup,” because I really will throw anything in it that needs to be used. But I always use my my large canning pot, and it fills it to the very top. Use a large pot! Out of all my Thanksgiving leftover recipes, this is the one that is most useful. And that is saying a lot considering the usefulness of all the other recipes I’ve posted. If I didn’t make Turkey Carcass Soup, I wouldn’t be able to use up many of the leftovers.

It’s pretty easy. After Thanksgiving dinner, I wrap the turkey bones in tinfoil or plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge. (I don’t usually feel like starting the soup on Thanksgiving day. My mind is on a nap and some pie) A few mornings later, I put the bones and the drippings in a VERY large stock pot and cover it completely with water.

Put the entire carcass into a very large stock pot and fill it with water.

Turn it on medium heat and let it simmer, covered, until it comes to a boil, then turn down the heat and let it lightly boil for a few hours or so. When the meat falls off the bones, use a strainer to get the bones out. I get some meat in the strainer, too, so when it cools down, I take some time to sift through it and toss the meat back in the pot. Fat, cartilage, and bone can be thrown away. Make extra sure that there are NO bones in the broth!

Turkeys have a lot of small bones, so make sure you strain it completely. There is a lot of good meat still on the bones, so when it cools, go through and separate the meat from everything else and put the meat back in the broth.
After the turkey simmers in the water for a few hours, it makes this rich, beautiful golden, delicious, nutritious broth!

Now, it’s the fun part! Get into your fridge and start pulling out the Thanksgiving leftovers. What needs to be used? I usually pull out all veggies from the veggie tray, any bowls of corn or peas or green beans, and the mashed potatoes and gravy. I also pull out a couple onions, a bag of carrots, and a bunch of celery. Also, I consider my herbs and if there are any leftover, I pull those out, too. Rosemary, oregano, sage, thyme, or parsley are all great.

What’s in your fridge? Any vegetables will do. I used up leftover celery and carrots from the veggie tray, the leftover turkey, and the leftover mashed potatoes and gravy.

There are two methods now to choose from. If I am in a hurry or feeling lazy, I just dump all the vegetables in the broth and boil them until they’re soft. That’s good, but I find it makes my broth a little thinner than I like, (I’m more of a stew kinda girl) so I usually do method two: saute all the vegetables in a separate pan (cooked from hardest to softest) until they are all soft. Then I add the chopped herbs and cook until they are fragrant. Then I stir in about 2/3 cup of flour to coat the vegetables. Once they are all coated, add them to the broth. The flour will help thicken the broth so it is more like gravy.

Dice up all the vegetables and saute in a pan. Saute in order from hardest (longest to cook) to softest (shorter to cook:)
Add flour to the sauteed vegetables and stir until coated. Then add it to the broth. The flour will help thicken the broth.

THEN, here’s the best part: I dump in all the leftover mashed potatoes and gravy in the broth. The mashed potatoes disappear in there, and the gravy flavors the broth AND THEN I don’t have to try to find another recipe to use them in! Ha ha! Genius!

Put all the leftover mashed potatoes and gravy into your soup. It will disintegrate in there, thicken and season the soup, and no one will ever know!

Some other things to add: diced tomatoes, black beans or kidney beans, any kind of canned vegetables (If there aren’t enough fresh), canned green chilies, sausage, bacon, or other kinds of meat, cheese (sauce or fresh), sour cream, veggie dip, or cottage cheese (especially if you’re going for more of a cheesy, creamy soup). Once everything is in the pot and simmering, I start to taste test the broth. It usually needs more salt and pepper, for sure, but basil, parsley, oregano, rosemary, and sage are all good too. I usually add a little apple cider vinegar (not too much), some worchestershire sauce, or some bouillon cubes You could add some heat, too, like cayenne pepper, if you like it. Adding grains makes this a really hearty soup, but I wouldn’t recommend it now, and here’s why: Grains like rice or quinoa, or barley, or pasta get too saturated sitting in the broth for a long time. By the time I make the soup, freeze it, then thaw it, and boil it again, the grain is mushy. So I leave the grains out until I thaw it. Then I can add in whatever grain I want. Wild rice is my favorite.

Once the soup is done, I let it cool down completely, then package it in gallon freezer bags. I freeze them lying down, then stand them up to save room. Throughout the year, if a friend or neighbor is sick or hurt or has a baby or needs a meal in any way, I can pull out a bag of soup and some bread and its an instant meal, ready to go.

Some other ideas: Thaw a bag of soup and thicken it to make a sauce for casseroles, or serve it with dumplings, as a filling for pot pie, or, for a super quick dinner, serve over baked potatoes, or rice, or pasta, or toast.

So much soup! So many possibilities!