Quick tip if you still have turkey bones lying around.   Whatever you do, don’t throw away those bones.  Locked inside your turkey carcass is the key to the most amazing turkey stock you’ve ever had in your life.   With that stock you can make delicious gravies, soups, stuffings, vegetables…anything you want.  It’s so easy.

So, let’s make

Turkey Stock

Now, the most basic way to make stock is to just put the bones in a pot, add water, and come back in two hours.

There is nothing wrong with that.  It makes good stock, but let’s see if we can’t gild this lily a bit.

Making Turkey Stock

This may sound odd, but pretty much everything in this recipe is optional.  Consider this post a canvas, a template, a starting point for you to make your own amazing turkey stock.  Below are the suggestions for what I do because it develops the flavors I like.  I want you to feel free to take my suggestions, use them, and rock your own turkey stock the way you want!

You will need:

• 1 turkey carcass (okay, this part’s not optional…)
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 carrot, peeled and diced
• 2 stalks celery, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Lots of water or chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons dried basil
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 1 tablespoon pepepr

When assembling this dish, the first thing you need to check is how much meat is left on your turkey bones.  If they are basically bereft of any meat, you should consider roasting them in the oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.   If there is a fair amount of meat on the bones, skip that step.  You’ll just dry out the meat.

In a large soup pot over medium-high heat, add the olive oil and let it get hot.  Then add the onions, carrots, and celery.  Cook for 2 minutes, add the garlic, and then cook for 8 more minutes or until the onions have started to caramelize.

Then add the carcass and fill the pot up so that it is almost full of water or stock (or a combination).  Crank the heat up to high and let the water come to a boil.  Once boiling, turn the heat down to medium and add the rest of the ingredients.

Then, it’s a waiting game.  You can pretty much leave the turkey boiling away for as long as there is water in the pot, but I prefer to remove the bones after about 2 to 2.5 hours.  Then I refrigerate over night to let the fat congeal, which I remove the next day and get out the noodles for some awesome turkey noodle soup.

So, give this recipe a try or try your own, just whatever you do, don’t toss out the bones.  Boil those babies and enjoy!

Thanks to CarbonNYC for the picture.