Crockpot Turkey Stock
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Crockpot turkey stock is the easiest turkey stock recipe there is! Simply put your leftover turkey into your slow cooker, add some water, and turn it on!
If you haven’t tried making turkey stock in your slow cooker, you’re in for a real treat. It’s almost completely hands-off and is the quickest and easiest way to clean up after a big turkey dinner!
The long and gentle cooking keeps the stock clean (no yucky foam to spoon off the top) and extracts all the delicious flavor from the bones. Cooking the stock in your slow cooker also keeps your house from becoming a hot turkey steam room. Big bonus.
We LOVE making turkey stock in our slow cooker after Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey dinner. The biggest reason why we love it so much is that making the stock becomes part of cleaning up and not a whole other task. Usually, you have to find a place in your full fridge to store the turkey bones until you’re ready to use them. But instead, ‘store’ them in your crockpot and the next day you’ll have stock. Two birds, one stone.
Ingredients needed
The list of ingredients is so short that it feels a bit silly to even talk about it. Here’s what you need:
- Bones from your leftover turkey
- Water
That’s it! Because the roasted bones have so much flavor, we don’t add vegetables or seasonings to the stock. It also means that you can add them straight to your crockpot after dinner without making more (chopping veggies) work for yourself.
How to use turkey stock
Use your delicious crockpot turkey stock in one of these turkey soup recipes!
Freezing and storage
Once you’ve cooked and completely cooled your turkey stock you can transfer it to mason jars or airtight storage containers – we LOVE these reusable Stasher freezer bags.
In the fridge: crockpot turkey stock will last 2-3 days.
In the freezer: crockpot turkey stock keeps for at least 6 months in your freezer.
Crockpot Turkey Stock Recipe
Ingredients
- Bones from your roast turkey
- Enough water to fill the slow cooker
Instructions
- If you’ve stuffed your bird, remove all of the stuffing. Remove the meat from the bones and put aside for sandwiches or soup. Discard any skin.Bones from your roast turkey, Enough water to fill the slow cooker
- Break the bones into pieces that will fit in your crockpot. Fill your crockpot with as many of the bones as you can and then add water to the fill line.
- Now put the lid on and set the timer to cook on low for 8-24 hours.
- Set a colander over a large bowl. Carefully pour the turkey stock through the colander into the bowl. Take a second large bowl and place a fine-mesh sieve over it. Pour the stock through the fine-mesh sieve into the second bowl. You can use it right away to make soup or store it for later.
Nutrition
We have thoroughly tested this recipe for accuracy. However, individual results may vary. See our full recipe disclosure here.
What to make with leftover turkey
If you have any leftover turkey (lucky you!), try one of these recipes:
- Leftover Turkey Pizza
- Leftover Turkey Bolognese
- Butter Turkey Curry
- Leftover Turkey Shepherd’s Pie
- Thanksgiving Leftovers Eggs Benedict
Or for more inspiration, check out all of our turkey dinner leftovers recipes!
More stock recipes
For more inspiration, check out all of our soup recipes!
Do you leave the lid off?
No, the lid stays on.
This is the perfect way to make turkey stock. Less mess than the the stovetop method and endless straining
Thank you for sharing
I took your advice and just put all the turkey bones after Christmas dinner into the crockpot and started the stock right away. Made clean up so much easier! And the stock the next day made delicious soup. This is the way I’ll be making it from now on!
Very easy! However, when I got to the point where I was to put on stretchy pants, I was stumped. I asked my wife if I could borrow hers. She laughed and said not unless she could post a picture of me on Facebook. I skipped the stretchy pant part and just drank more wine.
I want to make this but all I have is Turkey legs! Can I still make the broth?
Absolutely you can! Just put all the legs into your slow cooker and cover them with water. It will turn out great. We do the same thing with our leftover chicken bones, too. 🙂
Turkey legs are also really good just seasoned and cooked on low for a few hours until done, when the meat is very tender and falling off the bone. This is how I cook turkey legs and it’s by far the best recipe that I’ve found.
There is nothing in here about skimming the fat. My mother used to do it but I never paid close enough attention. Do I skim the fat then add all other ingredients?
If there is a lot of fat on top you can definitely skim it off. 🙂
I have to say that I used two paper towels to take the very small amount of grease off the top of this stock. I was surprised. But I was even more surprised by the incredible taste of this. I used a turkey carcass that my relatives were tossing into the garbage after Thanksgiving dinner. Yummy
I’m so glad you saved those bones! I’ve done that after family dinners, too. I can’t bare to see bones thrown away when I know they make the best soup stock!