Just
like a pot roast I find I can get a lot of mileage out of a roasted turkey, or
chicken for that matter. My daughters
asked me why I buy such a big turkey each year and the truth is we will eat off
it for a very long time. After
brining and roasting our turkey we enjoyed our Thanksgiving meal with a huge
amount of the bird still remaining. I
sliced a bit for sandwiches and leftovers but it scarcely made a dent.
I
removed one whole breast and double wrapped it for the freezer for a future
Thanksgiving style meal. I then removed
the wings and wrapped them up to freeze so I can make more turkey broth later
in the spring or summer when we run out.
Since we are not great lovers of dark meat I remove some of the meat
from the legs and then wrap them up to freeze for making broth as well. Once I
have removed all the breast meat, both wings and both legs I get busy and
remove the remaining meat from the carcass and place it into a bowl. This meat is a combination of dark and white
and I like to chop it up and freeze in smaller packages to use in soups and
casseroles later down the road.
The
carcass is then placed in my slow cooker.
I like to leave a bit of meat on it so I have a very flavorful
broth. I add a small onion, a couple
carrots and a few stalks of celery.
Cover with water and place on low for about 8 hours. This year I put mine on overnight so it was
ready in the morning.
Once it
has cooled a bit I remove the big pieces with a slotted spoon to a colander I
have set up on a medium sized mixing bowl.
I strain the broth in a larger mixing bowl, add what has dripped out of
the colander, and set it in the refrigerator to chill. Once it is chilled I skim the fat off the top
and divide it into one and two cup freezer containers. Once labeled the containers are placed in the
freezer. I use this broth for soups and
in recipes that call for chicken broth as one of the ingredients. Sometime
in the late spring or early summer I will repeat this process with the wings
and later with the legs to replenish my supply.
I try to make sure that nothing goes to waste when it comes to our
Thanksgiving turkey.
You may also enjoy revisiting Anatomy Of A Pot Roast.
I do the same as you. I have found the dark meat which I do not like is best for making chicken and dumplings.
ReplyDeleteThis year, for the first time, I did a breast only. We all agreed it was the best way to go for us. :)
DeleteThe only reason I bought a 4 turkeys was because they were $0.49/lb. wE prefer to by a breast. However, Tommy, unlike me, will eat the dark meat.
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