Chicken or Turkey Stock and Soup

If you are like me after the Christmas turkey dinner, or after a roasted chicken dinner, I slice up the meat for hot turkey sandwiches or other tasty meals, but I always put the carcass along with the bones, neck, liver and kidney in a freezer bag for soup. The 'parts' give the stock a depth in flavor that you will miss if you don't add them. This recipe is for a very large chicken or turkey carcass.

STOCK

1 chicken or turkey carcass

14-16 cups water

2 tsp salt

4 pepper corns

2 peeled whole garlic cloves

1 washed unpeeled onion

2 scrubbed unpeeled carrots

1/2 cup fresh parsley chopped up slightly

2 chicken bullion

Using a large roasting pan spread out thawed carcuss along with parts and roast for 1 hour at 45oº. This is very important if you want a flavorful stock. While this is roasting fill a large soup pot with water and add the remaining ingredients. Leave the skin and peels on the vegetables and chop them into large pieces. Leaving the skins on also adds depth to the flavor. Add the roasted carcass to the pot and bring to a boil. Turn down, cover and simmer for 3-5 hours.

Using a large colinder, strain the stock into another pot. If you have allot of meat in the stock that was still on the bones pull it off and add it to your soup. Discard everything else.

I use this stock to make chicken or turkey noodle soup, or freeze it in smaller containers to add to casseroles and other recipes that call for poultry stock.

If you are going to make soup with the stock, boil noodles and pour the hot stock over them.

For a 'fuller' soup you can add other finely chopped vegetables such as carrots, celery, and fresh parsley. Add to the stock, bring to a boil and simmer until vegetables are tender. Then add cooked noodles, or use cooked brown or white rice in place of the noodles.