Here is an excellent use for a meaty leftover roast turkey carcass. It’s a riff on a classic chicken sotanghon soup. I’ve decided I am not a huge fan of roast turkey unless it is brilliantly done and served still very warm, since it has a tendency to get a bit dry and frankly, tastes less appealing that other fowl or red meat. But I do love stuffing, and lots of the side dishes as well as the hubbub around say a Thanksgiving or other celebratory meal with turkey as the meal’s centerpiece… It’s always a bit of a challenge to come up with a recycled turkey recipe that pleases everyone in our household. If the volume of a recipe consumed is any indication, a ginormous pot of this soup was inhaled by 8 people in record time. Yup, it was surprisingly good.
Take your turkey carcass and strip it of most meat and hand-shred the white and dark meat and set this aside. Put the turkey carcass in a large pot, cover it with water and any remaining turkey stock that you saved from the holiday meal, some chopped onions, carrots and celery and let this simmer for say 2 hours until you have a flavorful broth. If you are concerned about not having enough flavor, you may wish to add say a can or two of low-sodium chicken stock. I also added in a cup full of leftover dark turkey gravy and about 3 tablespoons of Kikkoman soy sauce. Once the stock is done, strain it and return it to the stove over medium heat. Add in the shredded turkey meat, some julienned carrots, and taste it and season with salt and pepper to your liking. I then added some sotanghon noodles, chopped up bok choy and some cabbage and let this cook until the vegetables are just cooked. Serve with soy sauce and kalamansi and you have a hearty, flavorful soup (with a pinoy like twist) with lots of meat, noodles and vegetables. It was so easy to make, and it was approved by all in our household. :)
9 Responses
Not a big fan of turkey meat myself, but here is what I do with my turkey left overs. I save the larger chunks of meat for stuffing sandwiches. The carcass, I put in a large pot with water and simmer till the meat falls off the bones, throw in some chopped celery and carrot cubes then add cream of mushroom soup….. a hearty but slightly heavier than MM’s sotanghon soup that is more appropriate for the warmer clime.
The best part after boiling off the carcass is picking off the bits of gristle and gnawing on the cartilage.
Oh man!! Best for soup season, now that it’s cold here…Yum!
Getter Dragon,Lol!! I thought I’m the only”animal” who do that..I usually salt & peppered it together with some skin & broil it..yumm!!
Fastest recycling – turkey fritters. Turkey + herbs + onions + shredded potatoes (or sweet potatoes) + flour + rice flour + S&P + leavening. Other combos according to imagination. Deep fry the damn things and look at them disappear! Even better with leftover cranberry sauce spiked with chillies and ginger!
Natie, totally agree with you!….just love this weather for it is soup season…when my family gets tired of the usual turkey soup, I make it into congee with shredded falling off the bones meat and cooked century egg much like the shredded pork with century egg served in Chinese dim sum.
Another one is like a Vietnamese rice noodle soup with different toppings such as the shredded turkey meat, sautéed oyster mushrooms, julienned carrots, sautéed napa cabbage, tofu puffs, turkey skin cracklings, etc.
For baon, pulled turkey panini….shredded turkey meat smothered in Bull’s eye BBQ sauce, caramelized onions, Havarti cheese on thickly sliced calabrese and then placed on a panini press.
I made the soup and it was fantastic! The stock made from the carcass/bones was very flavorful. I always end up making turkey salad and turkey pot pie with leftover meat. The stock from the bones goes into noodle soup (usually the Filipino sopas), which is okay, but that gets old, so I am switching to this tasty sotanghon soup :) My husband who is a clam chowder-kind-of-guy was instantly converted when he ate the soup and said we should have it again this week. But geez, I am out of turkey, wait until Thanksgiving, haha! The vegetables were mild and did not compete with the soup flavor, and you can actually get a hint of sweetness from the cabbage. Nothing was overwhelming another, it was just good clean flavor, everything was complementing each other. I have to add that the soup was so pretty too! It did not need anything but I like garnishing mine with toasted garlic and green onions :) Thank you for sharing this with us :)
Your bowl is beautiful. It reminds me of the chalice, ciborium etc by abueva used in ateneo’s chapel back when i was in college.
That obligatory roasted big bird on the table is coming soon. I used to hate turkeys, i think that it’s such a waste to have a dry, card board tasting bird that you really have to smother with gravy for it to be edible come Thanksgiving until I read a post from Chicago Tribune about brining it for 3 days before putting it the oven. An absolute must try! Moist and tasty, even the breast (turkey). As for the left overs, arroz turkey with lots of fried garlic, spring onions sprinkled on top then a touch of patis and lemon is my answer. Yum, now I’m ready for the polar vortex. :)