Turn Your Thanksgiving Turkey Carcass Into Killer Soup Overnight.
This is the end of the Thanksgiving meal. A turkey carcass looms over the kitchen cleaning crew as “helpful” dinner guests carry stacks of plates, as well as serving utensils, glasses and day-old dinnerware, to the counters. At this point in the meal, you usually want to throw everything at the wall, but you need to hold everything together long enough to get rid of the leftovers and start rolling the dishes. Let me make your life easier by quickly solving one problem: We’re going to make turkey noodle soup that will be so delicious, you’ll be making it again next month, and it will actually save you work.
How to make delicious turkey soup
At the end of the meal, have one person remove the remaining turkey from the carcass. The goal is not to cut into pieces; just remove it from the bird as best you can—the larger the pieces, the better—and toss it into a resealable plastic bag for storage. Place a large empty pan on the stove and throw in the carcass, as well as any bones that came back from the table. It’s okay if there is some leftover meat on the bones; this will also help flavor the broth. If there are leftover vegetables (raw or cooked carrots, onions, garlic, celery, fennel or mushrooms) among appetizers or prepared meals, add those too. In fact, you can save carrot peels, garlic peels, onion trimmings, and other vegetable scraps during meal prep to toss at the end of the evening. Fill the pan with enough cold water to cover the carcass, then place the pan in the oven and turn it on the lowest setting, usually 180-200°F, and ignore it until the next morning.
In the morning, remove the pan and let it cool enough to pour through a colander so the soup ends up in a smaller pan, then discard anything left in the colander; you should have a beautiful, clear, golden broth. Turkey has very little fat, so there is no need to strain it again.
Then chop the celery, carrots and mushrooms, throw them into the pan and heat over medium heat until boiling. Let it simmer for thirty minutes, taste, add salt and pepper, then add the egg noodles. Let them simmer for five to ten minutes and add some chopped parsley if you like. It’s already great, but you might want to toss in some leftover shredded turkey a minute or so before serving it, just long enough to warm through.
This soup brings out the best in poultry that is often so-so. The bones are roasted so they add depth to the broth. It turns out that turkey broth is much tastier than the turkey itself. Most of the time, however, you were able to put off handling the corpse until the next day and ended up with an entirely separate meal that was fantastically easy to reheat.
Post-Thanksgiving Turkey Noodle Soup
Ingredients:
-
1 turkey carcass
-
Cold water to cover
-
16 ounces chopped carrots
-
1 whole stalk of celery, chopped
-
8 ounces mushrooms, chopped
-
12 ounces egg noodles
-
2-3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (optional)
-
Leftover shredded turkey (optional)
-
Add the carcass and remaining vegetables to the pan, cover with cold water and place in the oven. Turn the oven to low and leave overnight.
-
Remove the pan, let it cool and pour the entire contents through a colander into a smaller pan. Discard everything in the colander; the broth should become golden and transparent.
-
Place the pan over medium heat and add the chopped celery, carrots and mushrooms. Let sit for thirty minutes, season to taste and add the egg noodles. Simmer for five to ten minutes until the noodles are done. Add back the shredded turkey if desired.
-
If desired, garnish with chopped parsley and serve.