Thanksgiving is almost upon us! In just a few days, we will celebrate Thanksgiving here in the States… tons of food, and tons of leftovers. Many people enjoy having leftovers since it allows them to not have to think about making meals over the next few days, especially if they just finished hosting a group of people. There are some leftovers, however, that usually just get tossed. Salads with dressing already added rarely last very long, and then there is that dang bird. You know the one- that giant turkey that took a few days to thaw, brine and so many hours to cook. It turned out well and everyone loved it. Maybe they took some home for sandwiches and other post-Thanksgiving meals. Now it’s just taking up valuable fridge space until you toss it. But wait!
Don’t toss it yet! You can use it!
My sister-in-law would always grab the Thanksgiving turkey after we were all finished with our festivities for the day and make her own turkey stock. I didn’t understand her frugality over this for years. Well, I’ll tell ya. It tastes so much better than boxed stock. I had to drink the boxed stuff when I had surgery one year, and it was just awful. Once I tasted homemade stock, I knew there was no going back.
For this post, we will use chicken carcasses and not turkey, since we have yet to eat ours. I use my roaster to make this stock and it can hold 2 chickens. You basically want to use the largest pot/container you have. You can use an Instant Pot without the lid, a stockpot (of course), a crock pot or a dutch oven. Basically, any large pot will work. If you make this in a smaller pot than a roaster or crock pot, you will only have space for 1 chicken carcass. We just used the chicken for meals, excluding the dark meat since I’m not a fan, and then froze the rest to use for stock.
This recipe also calls for various vegetables, like celery and carrots. When I prep these to be stored in the fridge and eaten as snacks, instead of throwing away the carrot peelings and leafy bits from the celery, I save them in the freezer to be used in this stock. Nothing wasted! You can, of course, use fresh celery stalks and carrots. Just cut the ends off the celery. They are bitter in flavor.
Homemade Turkey/Chicken Stock
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1-2 chicken carcasses
- 3-4 celery stalks, per carcass
- 3-4 large carrots, per carcass
- 1 onion, per carcass, skin included
- 1 garlic head, 1 head of garlic has around 10-15 cloves
- 2 T. black peppercorns
- rosemary, a few sprigs, optional
- 1 c. leeks, optional
- salt, to taste, optional
- 2 T. allspice berries, whole
- 2 T. cloves, whole
- ¼ c. apple cider vinegar
- water, enough to fill whatever pot you are using
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to your pot and bring to a boil, if possible.*See note below
- Once the stock has been at its highest possible temperature for about an hour, boiling if you can get it there, reduce heat to simmer for an additional 8-10 hours, or if using a crock pot or roaster, low setting or lower temp. I often leave it in the roaster overnight to continue cooking.
- Use a mesh strainer to separate the liquid from the other ingredients used to make the stock. I recommend straining a second time with a fine-mesh strainer to further filter out any remaining particles that went through the first strain.
- Allow the stock to cool completely before storing.
Notes
Nutrition
Use This Homemade Stock in Any of These Recipes
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