(makes 3 1⁄2 quarts)
Try this once—I know it sounds like a little bit of extra effort, but I guarantee that you’ll be hooked at the something-from-nothing fringe benefits!
After carving away all the meat from a chicken’s or turkey’s frame, save those bones for soup. Sure, the soup stock won’t be quite as rich and deep as it would be if you made it from necks and backbones, but it’s still delicious and much better than store-bought.
For extra flavor, I brown my veggies before adding the bones and water. I use dried herbs here, but if you have fresh on hand, by all means double the quantity and toss them in. This broth can also be made with chicken carcasses, but you’ll need 2 to make a good broth.
Ingredients
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 yellow onion, roughly chopped
2 carrots, roughly chopped
2 celery stalks, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon dried basil or thyme
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon salt
6 whole black peppercorns or 1⁄4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 turkey carcass from a 10- to 12-pound turkey, split in half with poultry shears or a chef’s knife, or 2 to 3 split chicken carcasses
Heat the oil in a large dutch oven or soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and cook, stirring often, until soft and browned, 5 to 8 minutes. Stir in the basil or thyme, parsley, salt, and pepper, add the turkey or chicken bones, and cover with 2 quarts of water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, partially cover the pot, and gently simmer until the broth is rich and flavorful, about 2 hours. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve and cool before refrigerating (it will keep for 5 days) or freezing in quart-size resealable freezer bags, plastic containers, or ice cube trays (transfer the frozen cubes to plastic bags once they’re frozen solid).
