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Crock Pot Turkey or Chicken Stock

To keep our sanity Husband and I flip flop major holidays with each side our respective families. After last year's Tofurky Thanksgiving, we traveled deep in the heart of Texas to spend this Thanksgiving with Husband's family. As we were cleaning up I stopped his sister from tossing the turkey carcass. It was stripped clean of meat but was still able to produce a bunch of tasty homemade turkey stock. 

I asked Husband - the King of Homemade Turkey Stock to work his magic. He's a Lazy Chef too because he makes his turkey stock in a crock pot.




How to Render Bones into Soup Stock/Broth

1. Place your turkey or chicken bones into a crock pot or stock pot on the stove. If you have to cut the carcass up to shove it in the crockpot, that's fine too.The bones are an important part of this equation because the marrow in the bones will add flavor and body to your stock as well as whatever fat is in the meat. If you are making stock from poultry, do not add the giblets (the gizzard, liver, and heart) to your pot because they will make your stock bitter. Bleach!

2. Cover the bones in water in the crockpot.

3. Add a few chopped vegetables (such as carrots, onions, and garlic) and herbs, (such as oregano/basil and a pinch of salt to bring out the flavor.Chances are your turkey bones and bits have already been flavored when you cooked the bird so there isn't big huge need to add a bunch of extra seasoning.

4. Simmer the turkey (or chicken) meat and bones in a large pot of water on low heat for 6-8 hours  to remove any large portions of meat from the bone (called rendering.)

5. Remove the bones from the broth. Ta Da! Easy turkey broth people.

Since our turkey meat was already flavored by smoking, Husband just stuck the entire turkey carcass into the slow cooker, covered it in water, added a bit of salt to bring out the flavor and oregano to compliment the turkey’s original smoked flavoring and let the whole thing simmer on low heat overnight.

Of course, if you’re using a stockpot method, I don’t recommend that you leave anything to cook on a stove unattended. That’s an excellent way to burn down your humble abode, and no amount of turkey stock is worth that!
 
When the stock was finished we fished out the bones and I froze the stock in one cup containers. I like to freeze stock in one cup containers because most recipes tend to call for one cup of broth. You can also freeze stock in an ice cube tray and use the stock cubes for later cooking.

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Comments

Lynnie said…
Thanks for sharing! I have never made turkey stock before and was once again about to throw out everything. Gonna put it in the crock pot right away this morning.
SnoWhite said…
I love making stock!! We did just this with our turkey this year and are enjoying homemade turkey soup... yum, yum!
April said…
Sounds pretty simple! I've only ever made my own chicken broth, and it was a lot more complicated than this!
Eileen said…
This sounds really easy. I have been interested in making my own chicken stock for awhile now, but I never really saw anyone explain exactly how to do it. Thanks so much!
Mmmm, I love turkey broth! They don't sell whole turkeys where I live, as the turkeys here are sooooooo massive that you'd never be able to fit a whole turkey in an oven... But I do get turkey wings, necks, and drumsticks on a regular or semi regular basis. After cooking them, I do save the bones to make a stock, but I miss my dad's post thanksgiving turkey stock from the turkey carcass that I had growing up in the US!

About the giblets, don't toss them!
If you separate the gizzards from the rest, they actually make a terrific addition to the soup. Not bitter at all!
Try BBQing the hearts and liver part of the giblets and your giblets will be put to good use!

I see that you linked up to Pennywise Platter Thursday- I'm trying to build up my weekly Thursday blog party on my blog, called the Zero Food Waste Challenge, where people link up to different ways they used up leftovers, used foods that would otherwise get thrown out, or just anything regarding reducing food waste. This post would be the perfect addition to my linky, because you're reusing your carcass that your sister in law was going to put in the trash- the perfect way to eliminate food waste! I'd love if you could link up to it on my blog party!
Thanks!
http://www.pennilessparenting.com/2010/12/foods-worth-tossing-zero-food-waste.html
Anonymous said…
Great ideal! Thanks for sharing.
annies home said…
thanks for sharing the great recipe I will store in my refrence section
AllieMakes! said…
Very cool! Thank you for sharing the instructions!
Thanks for linking up to Making It With Allie! I can't wait to see what you have for next week!
AllieMakes.Blogspot.com
Unknown said…
oh the crock pot! this is a great way to do it, yet i haven't yet. i must give it a try, especially since i have a carcass in the freezer waiting to be used. thank you for sharing this wonderful tip with tuesday night supper club!
I also like to use the crockpot because you can forget about it, although the pressure cooker is cheaper and faster. Saving in serving-size portions is key!
I do my stock this way as well. Another thought for folks...if you don't have time to deal with the carcass (chicken or turkey) right away...pop it in the freezer until you do have time. Still makes great stock!
Unknown said…
Love this idea! I've never considered using a crock pot to make stock, but it sound perfect! Thanks for sharing on Friday Potluck :)
Julie M. said…
I was so sad that i didn't get the bones this year. My SIL cooked the turkey and she's a vegetarian so she didn't even think about using the bones for stock. She threw them away before I could get my hands on them. I think I might have shed a few tears over it.

The crockpot is such a great idea! I love the idea of lazy stock!
Great recipe! I've never made stock like this; great tips for this time of year!

Thanks for linking up for Friday Favorites last week. Hope to see you again this week. Also, I'd like to invite you to come by next Thursday for my Holly Bloggy Christmas Recipe Party!
Mindie Hilton said…
I love crock pot cooking. I am all about easy. I would love for you to join my weekly linky. I would also like to invite you to enter my 66 give aways for a breaking dawn event happening now.
http://bacontimewiththehungryhypo.blogspot.com/
perfect timing I'm so going to do this. I'd love for you to add this to my link party over at http://raegunwear.blogspot.com
Camille said…
What an awesome idea! I had no idea you could make this in a crock pot! Thanks for linking up to the CSI Project!
Camille
www.SixSistersStuff.com
PS We have a link party every Saturday and we would love to have you stop by and join us!
Whit said…
Thank you so much for sharing. Thank you so much for linking up to last weeks show and share. Make sure to come back and link up this week with your latest project.

A mommy's life...with a touch of yellow
tyandwhitneyulrich.blogspot.com
Very timely post! Everyone should be getting ready to throw their turkey carcass into a stock pot! I'm hosting a weekly blog carnival specifically for soups, stocks and chowders, every Sunday. I would love it if you would come over and post this recipe. Here's a link to last Sunday’s carnival, so you can see what it’s all about!

http://easynaturalfood.com/2011/11/19/sunday-night-soup-night-11202011/

I hope to see you there!
Debbie