Turkey Carcass Soup Recipe

This is a great soup made from bones that most cooks discard. Like others for years I've used the carcass for soup. After our turkey dinner is over, my husband immediately takes most all the meat off the carcass (putting aside any small scraps to be used in the soup) and cuts the carcass in manageable pieces. Then I put the carcass in my largest crock pot along with a large onion, some cut up carrots and celery, and salt and pepper. I cook it all night on low and the next morning after discarding the carcass and vegetables, I have the most wonderful stock. I can then freeze the stock and turkey scraps until a couple weeks later when the family is again yearning for turkey.

My grandmother (born 1893) learned this from her grandmother (an Irish immigrant in the 1860's), but they added a Tblsp of cider vinegar to the water with the carcass and cooked it slowly overnight on the back of the wood stove (my crock pot today) to draw the calcium from the bones. Doing this turns the broth just slightly milky and gives the soup a unique flavor.

WOW!! This has to be the one of the best soups I've ever made. Here's what I did: Using 4 quarts of chicken broth, 1 whole head of garlic gently crushed, 3 cut up carrots, 3 stalks of cut up celery and one onion diced. I simmered the carcass for almost 7 hours and then strained the broth twice and tossed out the solids. Instead of shredding a whole cabbage I used a bag of pre-shredded cole slaw. I didn't use potatoes but with 10 mins left to simmer I put in a bag of medium egg noodles. I had at least a full 1 1/2 lbs of turkey meat trimmed from the carcass that was also diced up and put in the pot. Everything else was exactly as written in the recipe. This was an incredible soup that we'll be eating for the better part of this week since it made so much. Highly recommend using this recipe when needing to use up the holiday turkey. So GOOD!!

Great basic recipe. My tweaks: Step 1: added 2 onions (skins and all), quartered to turkey carcass. Simmered 1 hour. Removed turkey from bones, chopped, and set asided. Returned bones to pot and continued to simmer another hour. Step 2: removed bones and onions. Strained broth and set aside. (Makes ~4 qts of broth). Step 3: in a large soup pot sauted diced celery, onions, and carrots in 1/4 c butter plus some olive oil until slightly tender. Added barley, herbs and spices, salt and pepper; sauted a few minutes more until fragrant. Step 4: Added broth back into pot along with tomatoes, Worcesterchire sauce, potatoes (did not use cabbage), and bay leaf. Simmered for ~30 minutes, then added chopped turkey and simmered another 30 minutes. Adjustments to seasonings: - increased Worcestershire sauce to 2T - approximately doubled amounts of basil, paprika, and poultry seasoning - increased thyme to ~1/2 tsp - added ~1/2 tsp ground sage - added ~1/4 tsp nutmeg

This is a delicious soup! Because I had such a big carcass (>20lb bird), I doubled the water and simmered the carcass for 2 hours on low. I removed half of the broth before adding the remaining ingredients for soup, following the directions precisely. Next time I will add more barley, 1/2 c isn't enough. At least double, if not more. After trimming off all the meat for the soup, I placed the bones in another pot with the extra broth that I removed. I added a quartered large onion, large carrot chopped in big chunks, and 2 celery stalks halved with salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning (+ 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar as noted in another post to pull the nutrients from the marrow) and let it simmer on low for another 3 hours. I then strained and pressure canned it for 25 min. The broth was wonderful too. This is a keeper!

Carcass soup is a Keeper!! Admittedly I Only cooked a bone in Turkey Breast this year, but after carving the leftover breast meat, I put it in the crockpot. For 2 days I cooked it with 1/4c apple cider vinegar, to pull the minerals out!! On the second day, I did what I do to my fryer chicken carcass when I make chicken broth, I mash it a bit with my bean masher. I strained it after 2 days, and it made 1/2 gallon of broth. I fried a sweet onion in oil and then added the broth, potatoes, carrots, and cabbage, I didn't feel like celery. I didn't have stewed tomatoes but did have a can of Organic 24oz can of tomato basil soup so, I omitted the extra Basil but added Everything else!! I used Organic sprouted rice, instead of Barley, since I don't usually keep Barley. I'm into varying my grains so, lll probably try it sometime with Organic Barley.

Great easy recipe for a first-time soup maker. After reading the reviews I made the following change: - I simmered the carcass overnight in a slow cooker with 3.5 quarts of turkey broth (couldn't fit any more in my crock pot) and 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. - I omitted the canned tomatoes - I added minced garlic - I cooked the barley separately and added at the last minute to conserve the turkey broth. Made a ton of soup, we'll be eating this all winter. :)

The only thing I did differently is that I made a real stock by putting the carcass and bones in water with onion, celery, carrots, peppercorns, and salt and simmered for 4 hours until the liquid was reduced by half, so that I had a real stock to use. Otherwise, I followed the recipe and it was DELICIOUS! In a pinch, I've substituted farro for the barley, when I couldn't find barley at Trader Joe's. The farro was fantastic too.

Did not strain, would have taken to much goodness out! I used 1 cup of barley (cooked separately and then added 45 min. into final simmer) and no potatoes. Pulled 4 cups of broth into clear glass container with a baster and then skimmed fat layer off and added broth back. Added two cloves of garlic.

I grew up poor so nothing got wasted as far as food in our home. My mom made many different recipes using the turkey carcass, depending on what she had available in the pantry/freezer to use. Turkey Hash, Turkey & Rice, Turkey Veggie Soup, the ideas are almost endless. I made a recipe similar to this one several years ago when I wanted something DIFFERENT. I boiled my carcass, strained the broth, removed the meat, chopped & set aside. I added the left over broth from baking the turkey that wasn't used to make my dressing, for more added flavor. I don't measure my ingredients/spices but go by taste so I can't give exact amounts I used of the following: Onions, celery, Garlic, Italian Seasoning, Worcestershire sauce, 2 Bay Leaves, S/P, a bag of frozen mixed veggies (peas/carrots/green beans) and a handful of finely chopped dehydrated lale or mixed greens and diced tomatoes, juice & all. I let this boil til veggies are tender. Instead of adding potatoes, I added Gnocchi (Potato Dumplings cut in half or quartered) but can be left whole if you prefer larger pieces-got at Dollar Tree for $1 a pack). At the end I added a bottle/can of V8 juice which really gave it a kick of flavor. Sometimes I omit the V8 juice if I don't have it on hand. What a DELICIOUS SOUP and so simple to make. This will make a LOT of soup so if there are leftovers and I being very frugal not to waste anything, I will either freeze single servings or pressure can to have shelf stable soup on hand. By cutting the Gnocchi into smaller pieces this allows me to be able to pressure can and the Gnocchi dumplings don't thicken the soup where it can't be heated thru which is needed when pressure canning. To be even more frugal, you could use any leftover veggies from your Thanksgiving/Christmas meal (corn/peas/butterbeans/greens, squash, Brussel sprouts, broccoli, etc.). Add these last as they are already cooked and just need to be heated thru). I generally have a bag of bits of leftover veggies from previous meals in the freezer to use in soups & use those. In my house, WASTE NOT WANT NOT!

TURKEY CARCASS SOUP Amazing! I had made my turkey stock from our Thanksgiving turkey as I usally do, then... BAM! I happened to see this recipe! Great use of the remainder of our turkey. After eating it for three days with stuffing, potatoes, and gravy, we were ready for something different. (And definitely lighter!) Love all the veggies in it! I had a can of big diced organic tomatoes on hand - make sure you don't leave the tomatoes out! It kicks up the flavor of the delicious broth (plus, my son and I absolutely LOVE tomatoes!). I added mushrooms just because I happened to have some on hand and I saw another reviewer subbed them for tomatoes (again - do NOT leave the tomatoes out!). The only thing I will change is to not shred the cabbage next time: I will make it larger chunks like one of the pictures, as cabbage and tomatoes make a great soup. And I'll up the barley another 1/2 cup or so. I look forward to making this soup again, and maybe even with my Sunday dinner roasted chickens! **NOTE: to those who say their soup was bland, look at Susan Seals' review for making STOCK (not just a broth). Don't just put water over the carcass for one hour and expect magic to happen. Throw in the giblets from the turkey too. You'll have the best soup every time by letting it boil, covered & vented, for at least 3-4 hours til the broth becomes opaque and it tastes yummy!

Currently unable to save my own recipe so I modified this one. Used a rotisserie chicken, removed the meat then boiled the carcass with the tips of celery, carrots and onion for 1 hour. Poured the liquid through a strainer and disposed of everything else. Sliced the chicken that was pulled and cooked in the broth until boiled. Added the remainder of the veggies (5 celery stalks, 3 carrots and the onion) except potatoe and cabbage, left off poultry seasoning and used rice instead of barley. Really good flavor and I think it will be even better tomorrow.

It was good. Next time I'll make it with a kick. I used kale instead of cabbage and wild rice instead of potatoes. Very good on a cold winters' night!

The balance of flavors is insane.

We loved it. I used this recipe and a combination from another. I added garlic salt and stuffing (dressing) to the pot. It was delicious!!!

Amazing soup. I add extra vegetables but no cabbage. Make sure to add enough salt - the soup usually needs more than what the recipe calls for!

I grew up with very blah tasting turkey soup so I never thought I liked it until I had this recipe. It is very good.

I make this every year. it has such great flavor and it makes use of every part of the turkey and the stuffing you just can't "unStuff"

One of my new favorite soups.

I make it every year, and the family loves it. I do leave out the potatoes because we like to add egg noodles instead. But still delicious!