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If you want to do one thing to up the flavor in your cooking, making your own stock would be the thing to do. Do NOT be intimidated. It is easy but it does take time. The good news, it is mostly passive time where you can do lots of other things so you aren’t tied to the stove. The reward here is fresh flavor you just can’t get from a box of broth or stock. You know you’ll use this turkey stock recipe every year for Thanksgiving but I bet, you’ll use it all year round once you taste it!

Let me be perfectly clear here: I use boxed stock and broth ALL THE TIME! It is just part of my day-to-day life in the kitchen. I want and dream of being the girl that has a freezer filled with homemade stocks and broths (all flavors, of course) but I’m not there yet. LOL However, when I’m making a special meal or really want to impress or have the time, I’ll with up my own stocks and the results are always great.

This stock is a must when I’m preparing a big Thanksgiving meal and because I can make it far in advance using the turkey wings, I’m not stressing out at the last minute on Thanksgiving trying to finish my stock and make my gravy. Full disclosure, in my craziest and busiest years, I have grabbed a box of stock to make quick gravy. Believe me, I won’t be judging you. But if you want to be a superstar this holiday, whip up your own stock then make your own gravy. You won’t be disappointed.

This stock is great in soups, stews, gravy and more. Whip up a batch, freeze it and you’ll have it on hand when needed.

One last note: using this same recipe, you can use the carcass of the turkey when the last delicious bit is gone. So, you’ll eliminate the whole “roasting the wings” step and go right to adding the turkey carcass and veggies and herbs to a large stock pot and take it from there. You’ll have a second batch of stock in no time. Since most of us will do this after Thanksgiving or another holiday when serving turkey, be sure to check out all the other ways to use leftovers in my Leftover Holiday Food Recipes Magic.

Check out recipes for left over mashed potatoes (Like my Potato Cakes) and recipes for leftover cranberry sauce (My Holiday Meatballs) and those leftover veggies work great in my Egg Muffins too.

Be sure you see how I use this stock in my Easy Turkey Gravy. Enjoy.

How to make homemade turkey stock

Let’s start by preheating the oven to 400 degrees F. Then, grab a large roasting pan and spray it with cooking spray. Add the turkey wings and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Let them roast for about 1 1/2 hours until nice and brown. I’ll toss them a couple of times so they brown evenly.

Next, you’ll want to cut up all your veggies into about the same size. One inch pieces is fine. Nothing fancy here since they are all going into the pot to flavor our stock.

Add all the veggies, the cooked wings and all the herbs into a very large stockpot. Add enough cold water to cover the wings and vegetables.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer and cook for about two hours. I skim off the foam using a big spoon a couple of time during the cooking time.

At the end of the two hours, remove the wings and discard. We’ve extracted all the flavor we can. Then strain the veggies and liquid into a large colander sitting over a very large bowl. Press down on the solid to extract as much liquid as possible.

Discard all the solids. Let the stock in the bowl cool and skim off the fat that will float to the top.

TIP: I will often put the cooled bowl of stock in the refrigerator to let the fat harden. This makes scooping it off and discarding much easier. Of course, this only works if you are making the stock well in advance.

You can use the stock immediately after skimming off the fat or put into containers and store in the fridge for up to one week or in the freezer for up to three months. I hope you give making your own stock a try. Use this stock to make my Spinach & Cheese Tortellini Soup or turn my Chicken & Rice Soup for Two into turkey soup with this stock.