Turkey Soup With A Smokey Flavor - 11/30/2009

The best part of our Thanksgiving turkey is the turkey soup we made.

IN A LARGE POT:

One large yellow onion chopped
5 cloves garlic chopped
Turkey carcus with the 2 thighs detached and all skin removed
10 cups water
Broth from the giblets that we boiled on Thanksgiving
(I put the giblets in a pot, cover with water, add a couple cloves of garlic, little salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning and bring to a boil and simmer for an hour and turn off) I remove and discard the giblets and strain the broth. I then use a bit of this to make the gravy. What is left (about 3-4 cups), is put in the refrigerator and used for my soup.
8oz chicken stock (used Trader Joes brand, you can use your favorite)
A few sprinkles of Poultry Seasoning

Bring to a boil then turn down to simmer, set timer for one hour and let simmer with lid slightly off, taking the thighs out when they are heated, about 10 minutes. While in this process if the carcus is falling apart, remove the bottom of it and submerge the rest in the pot (this was the part with the remainder of the breast)

One hour later remove the carcus and any bones floating in the soup.

ADD:
6 stalks of celery (including the leaves) cut in bite size pieces
2 dozen baby carrots cut in 3 pieces each

Bring to a boil, set timer for 30 minutes, and let simmer with lid slightly off. Check the carrots and celery to be at the tenderness that you like.

During this time I cut up (cubed) all of the turkey meat to be added at the end.

ADD:
1 1/2 cups of white rice

Bring to a boil and then to a simmer and cover and cook using the directions for your rice.

When the rice is done, stir the soup and add in the cut up turkey and stir again and let it sit with the lid off.

We had a small amount of left over Franco American Turkey Gravy in a jar, so we added this.

We chose not to eat the turkey soup until the next night, so we let it cool off and put it in a large covered bowl and into the refrigerator. It made a great meal with some French bread and is dinner again tonight. A nice warm meal for these cool Fall evenings.

ENJOY!!