Years ago, back when I more regularly read actual magazines, rather than perused the occasional interesting article online, I clipped a recipe for “Wild Turkey Soup” from Field and Stream Magazine, an old favorite of my father’s (and probably who I stole this particular issue from). I’m not sure why I originally clipped this, as I had never before made a real soup from scratch, and while I’d love to go turkey hunting someday, the closest I’ve gotten to a wild turkey is this. But I had smoked a few turkeys, and they were outstanding, and I knew it was a crime in some families (including my future wife Colleen’s, though I didn’t know that yet) to throw out a perfectly good and tasty turkey carcass, when there was still good soup to be made from it!
After marrying Colleen and finding her enthusiasm for both my smoked turkey and for soups, I found the recipe in one of my old recipe binders and decided to try it (with a few minor adjustments, naturally). It was quite easy, turned out really well, and we’ve made it every time we’ve had a turkey carcass to use since.
Start with this!
After you eat the "good stuff", hack up the carcass and roast it
Add the turkey, onion, carrots, celery, garlic, parsley, bay leaves, thyme, and peppercorns to a stock pot
Add water and boil--then simmer
Using a strainer, pour stock into another pot
Separate the turkey from the vegetables in the stock, and pull the meat from the bone
Slice up a fresh set of carrots, celery, and onion
After simmering the veggies and turkey in the stock a bit, stir in the cooked wild rice, and you're almost done!
SMOKED TURKEY AND WILD RICE SOUP
- 1 Meaty turkey carcass, including wings and other leftover meat, if you did too well when you carved the turkey (I used smoked turkey, the original used wild turkey, you could really use any turkey or probably 2 chicken carcasses)
- 2 Medium onions (1 quartered, 1 chopped)
- 5 Carrots (2 coarsely chopped, 3 sliced)
- 5 Celery stalks (2 coarsely chopped, 3 sliced)
- 5 Garlic cloves, smashed
- 6 Parsley sprigs
- 2 Bay leaves
- 2 Thyme sprigs (or 1 tsp dried thyme)
- 1 Tsp Peppercorns
- 1 Tsp Salt
- 1-2 Cups of cooked wild rice (I do 1/2 cup uncooked wild rice, which turns into about 1 1/2 cups cooked)
- Salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes, to taste
- Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
- Hack carcass into useful sized chunks (good manly man work here…)
- Roast carcass chunks on cooking sheet in oven for 30 minutes
- Put roasted carcass chunks in large stockpot
- Add quartered onion, coarsely chopped carrots and celery, garlic, parsley, bay leaves, thyme, peppercorns and salt to pot
- Fill pot with water to cover all the meat and veggies
- Turn pot on high until it boils, skimming off any “scum” that accumulates on top (I’ve not had this problem)
- Reduce heat and simmer uncovered until meat begins falling off bones–about 3 hours
- Pour stock through a large colander into another large pot–we use our cast iron porcelain pot here. Alternatively, you can pour the stock into a large bowl, and then pour it back into the same pot you used for the stock.
- When the chunks in the colander have cooled, separate out the turkey parts and discard the rest
- Pull off the meat and chop coarsely–discard bones and cartilage
- Combine turkey meat (here you can add some leftover chopped turkey if you don’t think you got enough from the bones), sliced carrots and celery, and chopped onions with stock and return to boil
- Simmer until vegetables are tender, about 45 minutes
- Add cooked wild rice, stir, and serve! (we enjoy serving with crusty sourdough bread or rolls)
- Season with additional salt, pepper, or red pepper flakes as needed, either before serving, or in your individual bowls
Oh yeah--that's the stuff! Served here with a crusty sourdough roll!
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Article by Jeff Greene
I'm a professional political hack who loves the outdoors and loves to cook and loves to cook outdoors. I also love Colleen. :-)
Jeff has written 62 articles for The Taste Place.
