I have mentioned in a previous post that I have a big bucket of leeks that I picked from the garden ready to be made into delicious leek and potato soup. In preparation for this I pulled a couple of poultry carcasses out of the freezer to make into poultry stock. One of them happened to be the Christmas turkey; it was high time I used this!

If you have never made stock before I urge you to try it. Why throw poultry carcasses in the bin when they are full of nutrients and flavour? Home made stock adds a certain something to soups and casseroles that the powdered stuff just doesn’t. You can make stock with any bones, or even just with vegetables. I happened to have a chicken and the turkey carcass in my freezer so I used those. You ideally need at least two carcasses to make a good poultry stock.

Method

Put your poultry carcasses in a big pot with a couple of carrots, an onion chopped in half, three sticks of celery, 2 bay leaves and about 6 black peppercorns and added enough cold water to cover. Put on the pan lid and bring to the boil and simmer for around three hours. When I get home I will strain it and it will be ready for my soup making tomorrow. Easy!

If the turkey carcass had been smaller I would have chucked it all in the slow cooker to make this poultry stock but there was no way it was going to fit.