Homemade Turkey Stock

A jar of turkey stock on a white plate with sprigs of thyme and veggies in the back.

This turkey stock is a soup-lover’s dream come true in one simple recipe. Just toss your turkey frame into a pot with some veggies, herbs, and spices, let it simmer for a few hours, and voila—liquid gold!

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Course: Soup, Stocks and Broths

Cuisine: American

Keyword: homemade turkey broth, turkey stock recipe

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 4

Total Time: 4 10

Servings: - 12 cups

Calories: 8kcal

Author: Lyn Croyle

Ingredients

1 turkey carcass from a 16-18 pound turkey about 3 pounds but will depend on size of your turkey.
12 cups cold water
1 medium yellow onion diced
1 rib celery sliced
1 large carrot sliced
4-6 sprigs parsley
2-3 sprigs thyme
1 bay leaf
8-10 peppercorns
1 tablespoon salt

Instructions

Place carcass in large pot with onion, celery, carrot, parsley, thyme, bay leaf, peppercorns and salt. Add water.
Cook over low heat covered with a lid for 4-5 hours. Transfer large pieces of carcass from pot to a sheet pan or large plate to cool. Strain broth through a fine mesh sieve to remove all the vegetable solids and seasonings. When cooled, discard the turkey carcass. I don’t recommend using the meat as it will be quite tough and dry after cooking for so long.
Transfer the broth to containers for storage. Allow the broth to cool in the fridge and then skim off any extra fat on the broth surface if you want.. Store in the fridge for up to four days or the freezer for 4-6 months.

Recipe Tips

Simmer don’t boil. Add water as it cooks if there is too much evaporation. More intense flavor occurs when some of the water evaporates. You can keep it like this if you prefer. I lose about 3-4 cups of liquid when cooking and added two cups of water at the end of cooking for 10 cups of broth.

Can add pan drippings if you want a richer flavor and have some left. Just note that any seasonings in your pan drippings will now be in your broth. Watch out especially for adding more salt if you use the drippings.

2-3 hours will work but I find the broth is more flavorful when cooked 4-5 hours.

You can include the turkey skin if you want but you will likely want to skim off the excess fat it will add. I don’t usually use the skin when making broth which means there isn’t a lot of fat to skim off.

The consistency of this broth is quite gelatinous when cold due the large amount of cartilage and cooking time.

Use kitchen shears to cut the carcass into pieces that will fit in your pot.

Nutrition