Turkey Soup (Penny Pincher Recipe Series #2)

Comfort soup for penny's.

Some may call me crazy but never, never do I throw away a good carcass, soup bone, ham bone, or leftover I can use in a delicious,  nutritious and comforting soup.  A few weeks ago I purchased a fresh whole turkey on sale for  $.59 @ pound and after serving I froze the carcass, wings, and everything not served in a large freezer bag.  Sunday there were almost a quart of left over roasted carrots and a couple of cups of cooked rice.  (I purposefully made extra rice and carrots.)  These things are the fixings for an inexpensive but wonderful home made soup!

This soup is wonderful simmering away on your stove.

Ingredients for Turkey Soup:

1 turkey carcass with all of the trimmings
1-2 turkey breast halves or chicken breasts cooked and diced or torn into bite sized pieces.
1 onion whole + 1 onion diced
3-4 cloves garlic
salt
water to cover
2-3 C. cooked rice ( I use brown or brown and wild)
2-3 cups diced carrots (fresh or cooked)
2 C. diced celery
2 C. diced potato
1 diced turnip, optional
4-6 oz. dried noodles
2 T. chopped fresh parsley
kosher salt
black pepper
turkey or chicken bouillon crystals or cubes, optional
shredded cheese, optional

The peels of the onion adds color.

Using a large soup kettle place the frozen or fresh bones and trimmings into the kettle (no need to thaw, just remove from the wrappings)  Add a whole onion with peel and garlic with peel a teaspoon of kosher salt and a half teaspoon of black pepper.  If your chicken breast has not been cooked you may add them here too. Cover with about an inch of fresh water and bring everything to a boil.  Cover with a loose fitting lid and simmer about an hour or so, checking the chicken or turkey breasts and removing them when cooked through, then dice and set aside when cooled.  After simmering strain and discard everything except the broth.  Taste and correct the seasonings. The onion/garlic peels are discarded.

Note:  If you have a lot of meat on the carcass you may want to pick it off and use in the soup.  However by this time most of the flavor has been cooked out and it may be a little pasty tasting.

Brown rice adds nutrients.

Place the turkey stock back into the soup kettle and add the diced onion and celery, carrots, turnip, and potatoes.  Simmer for 20-30 minutes until tender.  Taste the stock and if needed enrich it by adding bouillon until it is flavorful and full bodied.  At this point the soup can be turned off or simmered over lowest heat.  About 20 minutes before serving time bring the soup to a boil.  Add the noodles and cook according to package directions.  Add the parsley and diced chicken or turkey and return to a boil.  Place 1/2 C. rice into each serving bowl then ladle the pipping hot soup over the rice.  Top each serving with shredded cheese and serve with crisp crackers.

Add a sprinkling of shredded cheese.

The yield of this recipe really depends on how much broth you make and you can tweak the amounts of the add ins accordingly.  I consider 1-1 1/2 cups of stock per serving.