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Why You’ll Love My Recipe
Making your own stock at home sounds like it should be difficult or challenging, but it’s surprisingly easy! Just add the right flavorings, plenty of water, and a little time, and you’ll have delicious homemade turkey stock that you can use in all your favourite recipes.
Leftovers from my Deconstructed Turkey and Stuffing With Vegetables in ONE Roaster or Roast Turkey are perfect for making this turkey stock! And once you have a batch ready, why not use it to make some delicious Turkey Noodle Soup?
Karlynn’s Recipe Notes
- Skill Level: This recipe is so easy to make. Just set it and forget it while the stock cooks!
- Total Time: You’ll need about 4 hours and 20 minutes from start to finish, but luckily, most of that is simmering time.
- Variations: Add extra seasonings like paprika, cayenne, garlic powder, or rosemary to boost the flavor of your stock. Then, use it to make Turkey Gravy, some stuffing, my Turkey Ala King, or Turkey Noodle Soup!
- Tools For This Recipe: You will need a large lidded stock pot, a knife for chopping, and a fine-mesh strainer.
What You’ll Need for Ingredients
Turkey Carcass: The turkey carcass is the base of this homemade stock and gives it that rich turkey taste. Use the leftover bones and any bits of meat still clinging to them after your holiday dinner. Karlynn’s Tip: Don’t worry about getting every last bit of meat off the bones – you want those extra bits to add even more flavor to the stock!
Vegetables: You’ll need chopped white or yellow onion, large carrots, and celery to add plenty of depth and a little sweetness to the stock.
Seasonings: Salt, peppercorns, bay leaves, and fresh parsley give the stock its savory, herby taste. Karlynn’s Tip: Add extra seasonings like garlic, thyme, rosemary, paprika, or my Homemade Poultry Seasoning Recipe to enhance it even more!
Water: You don’t need anything fancy here – free tap water works just fine! It gives the ingredients plenty of time to simmer together and turn into a delicious, homemade stock.
How To Make Turkey Stock
This is a quick overview of the recipe. The full list of ingredients & complete step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Break the turkey carcass apart at the joints so it fits in the soup pot. Remove the skin and fatty parts, saving any extra meat for later use.
- Place the turkey pieces in a large stock pot, and add the onion, carrots, and celery stalks.
- Add the seasonings and cover the turkey with water, up to the top of it.
- Simmer for 3-4 hours until the turkey bones start to break down, the meat is falling off the bone, and the broth looks cloudy.
- Carefully remove the carcass from the soup pot and set aside. Strain the broth through a fine mesh strainer and pour it into another pot.
Karlynn’s Tips and Tricks for the Perfect Turkey Stock
- Breaking Down the Carcass: You don’t need to break the turkey carcass into perfectly even pieces, but you’ll probably need to break it apart so it fits into your stock pot. The easiest way is to pull the carcass apart from the inside using your hands, breaking it into two or three large pieces. Since the turkey is already cooked, the bones should separate fairly easily. For a less messy option, break apart the joints and larger sections, like the thighs and breast. This takes a little longer but keeps the carcass in larger, less broken-up pieces!
- Go Easy on the Salt: When shopping for stock at the grocery store, you’ll usually see salted or sodium-free options. The sodium-free versions aren’t just for people watching their sodium intake – they also give you more control over the seasoning in your recipes! The same idea applies to homemade turkey stock. Your stock will need some salt, but you don’t want it as salty as a finished soup since you’ll likely be using it in other recipes. Start with less and add more when needed!
- Use an Instant Pot or Slow Cooker: Want to make your turkey stock in an Instant Pot or slow cooker instead? Check out my Slow Cooker and Instant Pot Turkey Stock recipe for both methods.
Storage Instructions
Refrigerator: Let your turkey stock cool completely, then transfer it to an airtight container and store it in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Freezer: For longer storage, freeze the stock in a freezer-safe container for up to 6 months, following USDA food safety guidelines. Leave a little room at the top of the container for the stock to expand as it freezes. Thaw the stock in the refrigerator before using!
More Delicious Ground Turkey Recipes
Ground turkey is such a versatile protein for making easy, delicious meals, so try one of my favorite Ground Turkey Recipes next:
- Tender, moist, and bursting with flavor, this Turkey Meat Loaf is perfect for an easy weeknight dinner and makes great leftovers for lunch.
- My savory Ground Turkey Chili is so good the kids won’t even know it’s turkey!
- Why stick to beef burgers when you can have these healthy and filling Turkey Burgers instead?
That’s all there is to it! Making your own turkey stock is an easy way to get even more use out of your holiday meal, and the homemade stuff is so much better than anything you can buy at the store.
Save that turkey carcass and make a batch of stock to use in your favorite soups, gravies, risottos, and more! Give this recipe a try and don’t forget to let me know how it turned out in the comments below. I always love hearing about your kitchen adventures.
Happy Cooking!
Karlynn
How to Make Turkey Stock
Ingredients
- 1 turkey carcass , cleaned of skin, fat and meat
- 1 large white or yellow onion, peeled and quartered
- 2 large carrots
- 2 large stalks celery
- 1-2 tablespoons salt
- 5 peppercorns
- 3 bay leaves
- 2-3 sprigs fresh parsley , or 2 tsp dry
- water to top
Instructions
- Break the turkey carcass apart at the joints where you can, in order to be able to fit it into the soup pot. Remove all the skin and fatty parts as well, save any extra meat for later use.
- Place the turkey pieces into a large stock pot. Add the onion, the carrots and the celery stalks ( if you have the leafy tops those are amazing for flavour, add them in!) .
- Add in the salt, peppercorns, bay leaves, fresh parsley, and then cover the turkey with water, just to the top of it.
- Simmer for 3-4 hours until the turkey bones are starting to break down, the meat is falling off the bone and the broth is looking cloudy.
- Remove the carcass from the soup pot carefully and set aside. Strain the broth through a fine mesh strainer then place in another pot.
- Refrigerate for 3-4 days, or freeze in a freezer safe container for up to 6 months.
Notes
- nutritional values will vary on how much fat you put in, etc.
- you don’t want too much fat in a stock, you are using the bones and some of the fat for the richness. Leaving the skin and fat in the recipe makes a really greasy stock. The choice is up to you!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Karlynn Johnston says
Bone broth is usually cooked longer and once you are done the bones are literally dried out and can snap in your hands. You are leeching everything out of the bones moreso than a stock. It’s a fancier name for stock that’s cooked longer.
Rob says
I have found that roasting the carcas in the oven to a toasty brown color before simmering improves the flavor of the stock. Also the fat and skin contribute flavor, and the fat will float on top of the finished stock where it is easy to blot it off with paper towels.
Karlynn Johnston says
You can absolutely roast the carcass, but it gives it a ..toasted flavor and turns the broth a darker brown, and it definitely is a personal taste preference! And maybe it’s the turkeys I get here (we usually get local farm ones) , but there is SO much fat in the stock already ( you can see it swimming on top in the Instant Pot picture) that I find it almost unpalatable if you add in the skin and fat from the turkey. Again, though, it’s super personal preference!
CJaxon says
Is this considered ‘bone broth’? If not what is the difference to make it.