The holidays are over and you are left with a pile of picked-over bones that would do a vulture proud. You’ve carefully salvaged all the meat possible for a turkey pot pie or hearty turkey stew, you’ve really made the most of that bird! But let’s take it one step further for a zero-waste roast and boil up those bones for a silky, golden turkey stock.
Turkey stock recipe
My turkey stock recipe is a simple and comparatively quick one! All it takes is a handful of ingredients and a few hours of unattended stovetop time and you have a deeply flavoured, nutritious stock to play with. The fundamentals of stock are; bones, onion, carrot, celery, bay leaves and peppercorns. You can use aromatics to add hints of flavour, many recipes do, but I keep mine as neutral as possible. This means I can use it in any recipe that requires stock without worrying about conflicting flavours. While you can request the raw bones from a butcher and make it with those, I firmly believe in making the most of your roast and putting the leftover turkey or chicken carcass to good use.
How to use turkey stock
Pull any saucy recipe from my blog and it will call for an amount of stock. It really is the unsung hero in all your favourite dishes. But it says ‘chicken stock’? No problem, you can use the two stocks interchangeably. Both are the concentrated result of slowly simmering poultry bones and aromatics and will add flavour, dimension, and bonus nutrition to any dish. Turkey stock can be used in the obvious; soups like homemade chicken noodle soup or Thai chicken soup with rice; stews like classic coq au vin; mouthwatering chicken marsala; or sophisticated chicken in wine and mustard sauce. And in the less obvious; prawn risotto with tomatoes and peas; white chicken lasagne; and creamy white chicken chili. Just don’t go substituting turkey stock for vegetable stock if you’re having meat-free dinner guests over!
Storage and leftovers
Turkey stock can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days or in the freezer for 3-4 months. However, the stock will be at its best, and most flavoursome, in the first month. When freezing any stock, I like to pour the cooled liquid into ice cube trays. These are ready-made portions that you can pop out when needed. Trust me, it’s incredibly hard to hack a portion off a frozen stock block!
More turkey leftover recipes
Leftover Turkey Soup Hearty Mulligatawny Soup Chicken and Dumpling Soup Turkey á la King
