This is my dad’s very own and practically only recipe! After the dishes are washed and we are all stuffed and lazy on the couch after Thanksgiving dinner, my dad enters the kitchen to take the turkey carcass and turn it into a tasty soup for enjoying the day after Thanksgiving. We have this savory soup for lunch the next day so that all that other turkey and stuffing leftovers can be eaten for dinnertime. It is filling, zesty and you can feel any sense of coldness outside being melted away as you slurp it down. It makes enough for the four of us and then leftovers for two people the day after that even. I’m sure you could do the same after making a whole chicken too.

Dad’s Thanksgiving Turkey Noodle Soup

Hands-on Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

• turkey carcass after removing legs, wings, and breast meat (12 lb turkey originally)
• 1 head of celery with leaves (Tip: Get the leafiest head of celery)
• 1 onion
• 3 TBSP kosher salt
• 1 TBSP + 1 tsp black pepper
• 3 bay leaves (fresh or dried)
• 1/2 tsp + a pinch ground oregano
• 1/2 tsp + a pinch oregano leaves
• 1/2 tsp + a pinch ground rubbed sage
• 1/2 tsp +a pinch ground thyme
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 large carrots (About 1 cup once chopped)
• 4 cups of extra wide egg noodles

Directions
1. After you have removed the legs, wings, and breast meat from your turkey, cut up the carcass into large chunks to fit into your soup pot and cover with water.

2. Chop the bottom off a large head of celery and chop into 1/2 inch pieces. (Save the stalks for later in the recipe.) Also add all the leaves from the top of the celery. Add chopped celery and leaves to the broth.

3. Chop half an onion into 1/2 inch pieces and add to broth (save the other half for later in the recipe). Add 2 TBSP salt, pepper, bay leaves, sage, thyme, and oregano.

4. Heat at a high simmer to low boil for 3 hours so the meat falls off the bones.

5. Take off the heat for about 15 minutes to cool. Using tongs, pick out all skin, and small and large bones. Let the meat that falls off the bone remain in the soup, but not any grizzle. Bones should come out clean of meat.

**6. You can refrigerate the stock with meat and spices now overnight if desired. OR continue on with the recipe from here. If you do refrigerate overnight, you must bring it back up to a boil the next day before straining…

7. Strain the stock with a fine, mesh sieve. Put the meat back in the now strained stock. With a spoon, add the large chunks of onion and celery back in the stock as well. The discarded, strained portion will be the spices and bits of bone or skin.

8. Heat the soup back on the stovetop to a boil. Then reduce to a low simmer.

9. Press two large cloves of garlic directly into the soup. Chop 2-3 stalks celery in 1/2 inch pieces (About 1/2 cup) and add to soup. Chop 2 large carrots into 1/2 inch pieces (about 1 cup) and add to soup. Chop new 1/2 of the onion, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces, and add to soup.

10. Add 1 TBSP salt, 1 tsp pepper and sprinkle a pinch of sage, oregano, and thyme to top of soup to reintroduce the flavors.

11. Bring back to a low boil/high simmer for 5 minutes. Add the noodles and cook another 5 minutes. Stir regularly. Serve immediately.