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Portuguese Turkey Soup

Mahaila McKellar shares her mother's recipe for turkey soup. This is the perfect dish for your holiday leftovers!

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Portuguese Turkey Soup

Mahaila McKellar

(My version of my mother's recipe, and her mother's before her)

Yield: 6 - 8 quarts of soup

Ingredients:

For the broth:

Roasted turkey carcass

1 gallon filtered water

2 - 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 heaping tablespoon sea salt

For the soup:

2 large cloves Garlic, chopped

1 large organic Carrot, sliced (scrubbed, with peel on)

1 large organic Onion, chopped

1/2 cup sliced organic Celery

1/2 cup organic Parsley, chopped (without large stems)

2 large organic Yukon or Russet Potatoes, chopped (scrubbed, with peel on)

Cooked Turkey Meat salvaged from the carcass, chopped

2 cups organic short grain Brown Rice

1 tablespoon Sea Salt

1 teaspoon organic Ground Black Pepper

Directions:

1. Separate all the turkey bones (even tiny ones) from skin and meat. Set aside the meat to be used later in the soup.

2. Put all the bones, gristle, cartilage, and turkey skin in a super large pot. (Any skin that is roasted to the point of being dark brown and/or crisp, do not use. The resulting broth would not taste good. For example, I've found that typically the turkey wings are too cooked to make good-tasting soup).

3. Add the water to the pot, along with the vinegar and salt. Stir and bring to a boil. Lower heat and allow to slowly simmer uncovered for 6 - 8 hours. Check on it from time to time to be sure it doesn't need water added, and to give it a quick stir.

4. Strain out the solids and put the bone broth in a large container and chill the broth, covered, in the refrigerator overnight.

5. The next day put the broth in a large pot. Bring to a boil and add the rice. Once it is boiling again, lower the heat and cook on a strong simmer for 20 minutes. Check the rice by taking out a grain or two to see if they are cooked. If not, continue cooking the rice for another few minutes.

6. When the rice is mostly cooked, add the garlic, carrot, onion, celery, parsley and potatoes to the pot. Cook for another 20 minutes. Check to see if the potatoes are done. If not, cook for a few more minutes.

7. When the potatoes are done, add the turkey meat and continue cooking just a couple of minutes for the turkey to heat through.

8. Check for seasoning. If the broth tastes too intense (salty/briny) and/or is too thick, add water - a cup at a time - until you like it.

Notes:

- This recipe can be used to make chicken soup. For this quantity of soup you'll want to use the carcasses of 2 or 3 roasted chickens. You can also use just one chicken and reduce the remainder of ingredients to 1/2 of what is listed.

- If you already ate most of the meat from your turkey or chicken before making this soup, you'll still have a delicious soup without it. However, if you want lots of meat in your soup, you can add chopped up chicken breast to the chicken soup, or ground turkey to the turkey soup. Simply add them at the same time you add the vegetables, to cook along with them. Just make sure the pieces are small enough so they cook thoroughly, and keep the heat low on simmer so the meat doesn't get tough.

- For seasoning, I sometimes like to add a tiny splash of apple cider vinegar to my bowl of soup. My mother did that, and she also loved eating this soup with homemade sour (dill) pickles. I never witnessed it, but I wouldn't be surprised if my grandparents (and our ancestors before them in the Azores) also ate this soup with added vinegar and pickles. :)

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