Turkey Soup

Got leftovers? Tired of Turkey? Wanna get rid of the carcass? Well here you are! Turkey SOUP! And it FREEZES great :)

Whatcha need:

1 turkey carcass with extra meat on it :)

lots of water

chicken bullion cubes

2 bay leaves

5-6 diced carrots

4-5 diced celery

1 med onion, diced SMALL

egg noodles

Whatcha do:

Take your turkey carcass (man i hate that word) and place it in a pot. You're going to cover this poor bird with water. You wanna make sure you have at least an inch of water OVER the turkey. Add your chicken bullion. I add roughly 6-8 cubes. If you're using the powdered kind, add enough to make like 8 cups of bullion. Put in your bay leaves. Now walk away and let it boil for a few hours. I always give mine at least 2 to make sure it gets all the good junk outta the bones :) Now, remove the bones. This is the tricky part. I cheat. I strain my broth into a separate bowl and then I can pick through the meat and stuff to make sure I get it all. After you've done that, bring the broth back to a boil and add the onions, celery, and carrots. When they're close to be being done, add your egg noodles. If you wanna be super woman, I am going to include an egg noodle recipe as soon as I get it again from my father in law :) This is where I got the bulk of this recipe. I just tweaked it a little :) If you wanna just freeze the broth, which is what I do, skip adding the noodles. Just let it cool and put in freezer bags OR if you're super cool like Mrs. B, you use your "food sucker" commonly known as a seal-a-meal LOL Seriously kids, if you can, invest in one! Saves my meat from freezer burn and is great for people who still cook like they're cooking for 12 when it's really only 3 :)

**if you have cats or dogs, PLEASE do NOT give them the turkey bones! Turkey and Chicken bones splinter badly and can get caught in their throat. That's no bueno at all!!!**

Chicken Noodle Soup

With the weather getting icky, it's time to bust out the 'ole pot and get to soup making. I don't know about you guys, but our weather here on Sunday was cranky! It was super windy and rainy. It definitely was a soup and bread day :) I had invited my parents over the day before and they were more than happy when they got to have some hot soup and warm bread! I made quite a few things Sunday. First-homemade chicken noodle soup! It's so easy you'll be surprised!

What you need:

1 whole chicken, cut up or you can do 4 chicken breasts

all depends on what's cheapest and if you like pulling cooked meat off of bones

chicken bullion ( i use the cheap stuff you find in the "ethnic" part of the store its just pollo stuff :) I use roughly 4-5 cubes

chopped onion

chopped carrots

chopped celery

egg noodles*

water

salt and pepper and what ever other seasonings you dig.

What to do:

Boil the chicken! :) I rinse the chicken off and remove as much of the skin and fat as I can. If you're using boneless skinless breasts-then no worries. I'm a huge fan of kosher salt (Thank you Alton Brown!) So, I put a few good pinches of salt in the water. Also add some pepper to taste :) Mine's usually about a dime size amount. I boil my chicken for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. I remove the chicken from the pot and let it cool while I add the bullion to the pot. I let the pot simmer for a little bit while the chicken cools. Then i pull the chicken from the bone and tear it into smaller pieces and add it to the simmering bullion. I let the chicken simmer for about 30 minutes while I chopped up the vegetables. You're probably wondering why I didn't put like how many carrots and what not. It's all your personal taste. I like lots of chicken and don't want it to be over powered by veggies. So, I chopped roughly 5-6 carrots and 4 stalks of celery. I chopped, well no, dice a medium sized onion. Add everything to the pot. Simmer for about one hour or until the veggies are tender, NOT mush. Add the egg noodles. Now, you can use homemade and I'll include a recipe for that in a later post. I felt lazy and used just some wide egg noodles courtesy of our local market. Cook the noodles until al dente. You are ready to go! This soup goes GREAT with home made rolls, which I did :) or bread bowls! It warms you from the inside out :)