I know everyone has looked at the leftover turkey carcass on Thanksgiving and been annoyed at how much food is still leftover, but somehow difficult to access. There’s meat on those bones but in such small quantities that it just seems like too much work to deal with. If you don’t want to waste that meat and you’re a soup lover like me, I have you covered. Make turkey and wild rice soup!
I start by taking the leftover turkey and dropping it in a big pot. This includes bones, leftover wings or legs, or whatever. It all goes into the pot. I cover the whole carcass with water and boil it for 3-4 hours, or until you stir and all of the bones are basically detached from each other. I let the pot cool overnight.
After everything has cooled, I strain the meat and bones from the broth. I end up with two bowls that look like this (one full of broth and one full of solid turkey parts):
I then take the bones and meat and start sifting through them by hand. I pull out and throw away all the of bones and cartilage, and shred all of the meat between my fingers so it’ll go nicely in the soup. This usually takes me about an hour, so I put on a movie or a show and get down to business.
Once your meat is bone-free, you can start your soup. I take the same big pot, melt half a stick of butter in it, and then add finely minced onions, celery, carrots, and garlic. The amount really depends on how much broth you have, which is determined by how big your turkey was, so you sort of have to eyeball it. For my 13 pound turkey, I used two onions, about 8 sticks of celery and 8 carrots. I always add a ton of garlic to everything so beware, but I probably added four cloves to this soup. Cook the veggies in the butter until softened, maybe 10-15 minutes. Once the veggies are cooked, stir in half a cup of flour. Then add the broth back into the pot and heat to boiling. Once boiling, add in your wild rice*. I added about 3 cups to my soup, but I like it pretty hearty. You can add less if you like your soup to have more broth. Along with the rice I also added two springs of fresh rosemary, a sprig of fresh thyme, about ¼ cup of Worcestershire, and salt and pepper to taste. There’s no need to chop up the thyme and rosemary. Just remember to pull the sticks out when the soup is done!
Boil for about 30 minutes to allow the rice to cook. Then add the shredded turkey to the pot and boil for about another 20-30 minutes to allow it to heat up and allow the rice to finish cooking. Right at the end, you can add half and half to your soup if you like it creamy (which I do, of course). I added about 1.5 cups and just stirred it in. Ta-da! Delicious turkey soup from scratch.
I like to serve mine with slivered almonds on top for a little crunch, but that’s optional. This also makes a LOT of soup, so I freeze at least half of it into individual sized portions for later. Enjoy!
*real wild rice can be difficult to find, but holds up exceptionally well in soups, so I think it’s worth the effort. I get mine at Pure Pastures, a specialty store in Southeastern Michigan, but you can also find it online