Description
Turn those Thanksgiving leftovers into delicious homemade turkey stock with this easy recipe!
Ingredients
Scale
- Bones and a little meat of 1 turkey: Mine was about 12 lbs…if you have a giant turkey, you can split it up between two batches or double the recipe. You can use plain bones if you want, but I like to leave a few meat scraps in there because it adds deeper, roasted-turkey-ish flavor.
- 3 large carrots, roughly chopped
- 1/2 yellow onion, roughly chopped
- 3 stalks celery, roughly chopped
- 2 bay leaves
- handful of fresh parsley – about 6 sprigs or so
- handful of fresh thyme – about 8 sprigs or so
- 1 tsp salt (add more if you want it!)
- 4 quarts (16 cups) water
Instructions
- Take any meat you want to save off the turkey bones. Chop the rest up into pieces that will fit in a large pot. Throw those in the pot.
- Add chopped carrots, onion, and celery to the pot.
- Tie bay leaves, parsley, and thyme together with kitchen twine to make a bouquet garni. Throw that in the pot.
- Sprinkle salt over stock ingredients.
- Add the water to the pot and bring to a boil. When mixture boils, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, partially covered, for at least two hours (I usually simmer mine for four or more). Stir every 45 minutes or so – this can sit on the stove largely unattended. If any fat has risen to the top as you stir, skim it off with a spoon and discard. When stock is done, remove from heat and let cool for 20 minutes before you strain it.
- Pour stock, turkey, and veggies through a mesh strainer (the small openings help catch all the stuff you threw in the stock). Make sure you have a big bowl under the strainer to catch all the stock!
- Stock will keep in the fridge for 4-5 days (longer if you take it out every 3rd day and boil it again, which will keep it from spoiling, but that’s a lot of work) or in the freezer for a few months.
Keywords: stock, thanksgiving, turkey