CREAMY LEFTOVER TURKEY AND WILD RICE SOUP

First and foremost – eat way too much food on Thanksgiving and put on spandex pants.  When you are done carving the turkey, either place the carcass in the fridge, if you will be making soup in the next few days, or in the freezer and you can make your soup anytime in the next few months.  If you have a really large carcass, I use a small trash bag for storage.

Place your turkey carcass in a large stock pot.  Add the onions, celery, dried thyme, Ciao Bella Italian spice blend, salt, and pepper to the pot.  Add the chicken stock and as much water as needed to mostly cover the carcass.  It is also ok if you have a very large carcass and some of it sticks out of the pot.  It will soften as it cooks and you can push the bones into the broth.  Bring the liquid to a boil and reduce to a low boil/simmer and cook for 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally.  Using a large spoon, periodically skim the fat and foam off the top of the stock and discard, so the soup is not greasy.  Your house will smell AMAZING during this process…

After 2-3 hours, remove the turkey carcass (which will most likely be falling apart) from the stock to a large bowl and let cool.

Add the carrots, barley, wild rice, and mushrooms to the stock in the pot and bring it to a low boil, stirring occasionally, for about 45 minutes to 1 hour until the carrots are tender and the barley and rice are cooked. The carcass should be cool enough to pick the meat off the bones with your hands after about 30 minutes.  Add the meat it to the pot in bite size pieces.  Depending on how much meat you left on the bones, you might want to add some additional leftover turkey to the soup as well.  Stir in the heavy cream and cook for an additional 10 minutes to bring the soup back up to hear.  Stir in the parsley just before serving.