Turkey Bone Broth
A slow cooker and turkey carcass come together for 48 hours to produce a crystal clear, beautifully flavoured bone broth.
I am a person of good intentions. I am just not always spectacular about executing on those intentions.
I will go to bed early. Okay, just ONE more episode.
I will get in a work out. You know, I whisked that batter pretty hard this morning, I wouldn't want to push it.
I will stick to the diet today. Well, beer is like 90% water isn't it?
It's a bit of the classic Seinfeld line "You can TAKE the reservation, but you just can't HOLD the reservation." It's definitely a personal struggle. I admire so greatly the discipline others around me demonstrate on a day-to-day basis. They commit - seemingly effortlessly although I suspect not - to following through on commitments they make to themselves. Be it mental, physical or emotional. For the most part, I believe I do a good job of committing to others, but for some reason promises to myself are easier to break.
How does that relate to Turkey Bone Broth? (because calling it Turkey Soup is so three years ago) I finally found a way to follow through on a good intention, effortlessly.
Year after year I, and I suspect some of you, throw the leftover turkey carcass in the freezer to make broth at a later date. And then six months later I clean out my freezer and come across a bag of frost covered remains of what was, a beautiful thanksgiving dinner. Times have changed. Enter slow cooker. As soon as the bird is carved, you throw it in your slow cooker, cover it with water and maybe a bay leaf or two for good measure. In my case, I take it out to the garage, set it to low and leave it...for TWO days. Yes, two days. There are several reasons.
First, when I have attempted broth at home on the stove top I find it often comes out murky. Apparently, if you bring the bones up to too high of a boil, the bones disintegrate more and the broth becomes cloudy. The slow cooker keeps it at a perfect bare simmer.
Second, the longer it cooks the more flavour AND the more nutrients will draw out of the actual bones. Of course, the law of diminishing returns still applies and eventually enough is enough. 32 - 48 hours is a perfect time frame.
And finally, the best part of the slow cooker is that you can do it right away, no effort and it is out of sight (a bonus after you have probably spent hours in the kitchen). Two days after Thanksgiving you will either be ready to use up the last few bits of turkey leftovers or you can pop it into a freezer bag and it is good to go. When you feel like soup during the long winter months it is way easier to pull a bag of frozen Turkey Bone Broth out of the freezer than a mutilated turkey carcass.
To the broth I added some long pappardelle noodles, leftover turkey, carrots and fresh dill & thyme. Keep it simple.
So now I have only 73 other good intentions to work on. I can cross "make broth from the turkey" off my list.
Enjoy!
Turkey Bone Broth
Author: Food Well Said
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 48 hours
Total time: 48 hours 5 mins
Serves: 4
A slow cooker and turkey carcass come together for 48 hours to produce a crystal clear, beautifully flavoured bone broth.
Ingredients
- 1 turkey or chicken carcass, cooked with most of the meat removed
- 2 -3 bay leaves
- Optional: onion, garlic, celery (see notes below)
- 1 package dried pappardelle noodles
- 2 carrots, cut into bite size pieces
- Fresh dill and/or thyme
Instructions
- Once the turkey (or chicken) has been carved and most of the meat removed, place into slow cooker. Add bay leaves and cover with water. Set to low and leave on for 32 - 48 hours. Check it after 24 hours and add more water if desired.
- Line a large sieve with cheesecloth and place over large bowl. Use tongs to remove larger pieces of bone and place on cheesecloth. Then begin ladling broth into lined sieve to strain. At this point you can put the bowl into the fridge for about 4 hours to cool and then skim any fat layer off. Alternatively, pour into freezer bags or use right away.Keep the shredded turkey that has come off the bones to add to the soup.
- If using right away, bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil. Add pappardelle and cook according to package instructions. With about 3 minutes left on pasta, drop the carrots into the pasta water. Drain noodles and carrots. Portion out into bowls and ladle broth over top.
- Top with shredded turkey, fresh dill or other herbs.
Notes
If you did not brine your turkey/chicken, you may want to throw a half a raw onion, a couple of celery sticks and/or a few cloves of garlic into the broth for additional flavour.
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