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| A delicious gumbo made from the carcass of the holiday turkey. |
Turkey Bone Gumbo
Turkey bone gumbo, Thanksgiving gumbo or Turkey Carcass Gumbo - no matter the name you use, it is a great way to transform at least one of your Thanksgiving leftovers into a whole 'nother meal, by extracting every ounce of flavor from that holiday bird. While everybody is busy traveling and gathering for the big feast on Thanksgiving, I wanted to remind you not to toss that turkey carcass after your Thanksgiving feast!And by the way, once all the feasting is over, pop back by here and check out my list of Thanksgiving leftover recipes too. You're bound to find something to transform those leftovers into something else your family will be happy to gobble down.
You can use the carcass to make an incredible tasting stock for turkey noodle soup, or for this delicious gumbo. Once you've carved up the bird, simply break the carcass up, stick it in a container and hold it in the fridge until you are ready. You can also freeze the carcass if you want to wait, but just don't toss it - you've got another meal waiting there!
The smell of this stock simmering is amazing - smells like the turkey is roasting all over again I swear! And the stock makes a beautiful base for this gumbo. Once you've cooked the stock, you'll strain it out from all of the bones and vegetables - make sure you're straining it into another pot though and not down the drain though! {Ask me how I know this.}
Toss all of those bones, veggies and any stray meat scraps. They have done their job and all of the flavor has been extracted from them - so don't be tempted to use any of that meat or vegetables in your gumbo.
As always with any gumbo, practice mise en place y'all, meaning make sure that before you start cooking, you have everything gathered up and in one place. Chop up all of veggies for The Trinity, and have all of your seasonings, measuring spoons and cups at hand and ready to use. The roux waits for nobody, so have everything ready to go!
Make your roux fresh on the stove-top if you prefer, or save yourself a little time by making an oven roux ahead of time, or simply use your microwave. Doesn't matter one bit.
Stir in the trinity veggies.
From there it's just adding a few ladles at a time of the warm turkey stock you made, into the roux and veggie mixture, blending it in well before adding more stock. Stir in the remaining stock and increase heat to bring a boil. Add the sliced sausage, reduce to a simmer and let cook for about 2 hours. Taste and add salt and Cajun seasoning to taste. Stir in the leftover turkey at the end, just warm through. All of the flavor is already infused into the stock.
Southern Style Hissy Fit Warning: I do want to say one thing about roux, that I've repeated on all of my gumbo posts. Roux can be brought anywhere from very blonde, to light tan for gravies, to peanut butter colored, or more ruddy, like a copper penny, to chocolaty brown, to deep brown, to nearly black - or anywhere in between for gumbo. Bottom line is that it's really a personal preference and don't let anybody tell you that a gumbo roux has to be nearly black. That's just simply not true. While some chefs may do that, I don't know anybody who does that in a home kitchen.
For one, it weakens the thickening power of your roux substantially and makes for a very thin gumbo. For another, it's very robust and very strong flavored. For another, it can take a very long time and is easy to burn if you try to rush it with high heat. If you like that kind of bold (or if you're cooking something like wild duck), by all means, take it super dark. Most folks I know don't want that flavor for a simple chicken, turkey or seafood gumbo and take the roux from somewhere around peanut butter colored to a slightly darker brownish color. Even though this is a turkey gumbo, while we are here, let me add, if you're gonna put crab in your seafood gumbo, and you want to call it authentic to the Gulf Coast region, it's blue crab. Not snow crab.
You will note that like regular chicken gumbo, I don't use okra in this gumbo either, though you could certainly add some if you like. I say pass the Gumbo filé at the table instead!
Gumbo filé is simply ground leaves of the sassafras tree - and are sprinkled on individual servings after cooking to thicken the gumbo when okra has not been used. And by the way, a leftover chicken carcass works just as well for this gumbo. When I roast a chicken and debone it, I put the carcass and bones in a zippered freezer bag to save them for things just like this. Give it a try sometime!
As always with any gumbo, as delicious as it is day 1, it's even better the next day, so make it ahead whenever you can.
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