(Full “updated” recipe available for free download on our website landing page – download here: https://elizabethanthonygronert.com/)

Thanks to our wellness friends, our soup making skills have moved up a few notches in our home. Grateful for the experience and generosity of my friend Tiffany Hinton, GF Mom Certified. Tiffany has been a valuable health coach and resource for our family. She has introduced me to the world where “food is medicine”. Particularly grateful for learning about Dr. Terry Wahls. I found Dr. Wahls book easy to read and have applied her wisdom to the way we shop and cook for our family’s health.

As a result, it’s not just great soup! We make incredibly nourishing, healing bone broth soups. Bone broth soups help reduce inflammation – an important every day therapy! This tutorial is for our “after Thanksgiving” Turkey Bone Broth Soup. Being an artist – I enjoy instructions so much more if there is a visual to go along. Therefore, photos have been taken at each step of this cooking adventure.

Thanksgiving day we smoked a turkey, baked a turkey and grilled a turkey breast (with the bones of course!) In this photo you will see the start of our Turkey Bone Broth. Here are the three carcasses covered by filtered water.

 My husband, Kris, installed a grow light by our sliding glass doors. Therefore, we are able to continue to have herbs, greens and tomatoes growing indoors. From this garden, I have added freshly picked organic parsley, thyme, sage along with some chopped garlic, sea salt and organic pepper to the pot.

Whenever possible, we invest in organic produce. If I see any starting to go soft, where it may not be enjoyed fresh anymore, I place in a freezer bag. In addition, I have collected stems, leaves and even the roots of some of the organic plants we had in our outdoor garden this summer before it got cold and froze them. I use these vegetables in the “cook down” of the carcasses. We add these vegetable right away to enhance the flavor of the remaining meat on the bones. Some may prefer to wait till after the meat is collected (after 2 hours of cooking) which does make the process easier. We feel the flavor and nutrition added to the meat, is worth the extra work later when collecting the meat.

Because we still have organic Brussel sprout plants outdoors, decided to add some greens. Snipped off the top and added the leaves and stems with some tiny Brussel Sprouts! (I love these fresh leaves cooked in ghee with garlic too!)

Let everything cook for about two hours.

At two hours the meat should be starting to fall off the bone. Time to use tongs to grab the carcasses, loose meat and bones to glean the usable meat. I have a plate to collect the cook down veggies, cartilage, skin and bones that will go back into the soup pot to continue cooking for an additional 8 hours.

Most people don’t realize how much meat they throw away with the carcass! Look at all the meat recovered from the turkey carcasses! Place the recovered usable meat (I do not like any fat or chewy meat in my soup!) in a container in the refrigerator to add to the completed soups tomorrow. All scraps, cartilage, bones and cook down veggies go back into the developing broth to cook down for another eight hours. I personally do not cook longer. The broth gets a unique smell after cooking twelve hours. So we stop around ten hours. We love the taste, smell and nutrition after 10 hours of cooking!

Finally, after the eight hours (ten hours total) of cooking has passed, we will prepare to get the wonderful bone broth. You may wish to let the hot pot cool for a bit. Place an empty large pot in the sink with a colander on top. Then pour the contents through the strainer – the remaining bones, meat and vegetable parts will be caught by the colander with the nutrient dense bone broth going through into the pot. Throw the bones and leftover meat and veggies away in a safe container that animals cannot get into. Poultry bones are very dangerous to pets and wild animals!

Refrigerate the pot of bone broth overnight. Most broths when refrigerated get a layer of heavy fat at the top  – it is especially thick with turkey bone broth. I remove most of this really goopy fat from the broth before continuing.

This turkey bone broth is ready to use for sauces, gravies, cooking vegetables, potatoes, rice or making soups. I made 2 different soups from this pot of broth plus a tray of cubes to use for cooking veggies, potatoes, etc. to boost nutrition! The first soup was a turkey white chili and the second was turkey vegetable! My family raved about both – they keep getting tastier and more nutritious every year!

My goal is to have at least a cup of bone broth soup every day! So nourishing and I can really feel the benefits! Let me know what you think of this tutorial….happy to share the soup recipes with you!

Let’s connect if we haven’t already! Send us an email at elizabeth@elizabethanthonygronert.com or call/text at (847) 502-8394. Elizabeth & Kris Gronert bringing you Comfort For Life!