I have been cooking Thanksgiving dinner for my own family for the past 25 years, or so, and have never attempted to make home made stock.  I never saw my Grandpa (THE Thanksgiving GURU in our family) make his own stock, as far as I knew, canned stock was the only stock there was. #1970sCannedFoodKid 

This year, since I’m trying to keep the meal as clean (read: uncanned) as I can this year to try and keep close to my Keto goals, I thought I’d try to make my own stock ahead of time and put it in the freezer to have for basting the bird and making the (Not Keto) stuffing and gravy.

The biggest hassle with making turkey stock is the fact that you have to make a whole turkey first to have a turkey carcass on hand.  I did find a way around this: I use turkey thighs, because I like the moister dark thigh meat, which I buy at my local grocery store, in this case, the Gelson’s a couple of miles from my house.  I like the upscale Gelson’s Market because it offers antibiotic-free, fresh, organic, and kosher (if that is important to you) turkeys and turkey pieces.

While not an all day process, it is a two part process.  First you have to cook the turkey parts and then you can make the stock.  Luckily the pressure cooker makes both parts easy.

Pressure Cooker Turkey Thighs

• 4 turkey thighs
• 4 TBLS olive oil
• 1 medium onion, peeled, and chopped into large chunks
• 4-6 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
• Zatarain’s Creole Seasoning
• salt and pepper (if not using the Creole seasoning)
• 24 oz low sodium chicken or vegetable stock

1. Set your pressure cooker to the “Brown” setting
2. Add 1-2 TBLS olive oil to the pressure cooker.
3. Season your thighs liberally.  I prefer to use Creole seasoning but you can use salt and pepper.
4. Brown your thighs, two at a time, on all sides.  Make sure that the skin side is a deep, golden brown to ensure that the fat is rendered and the flavor is sealed into the meat.  Remove the browned thighs and set aside.
5. Slip the skin off of the thighs and return to the pressure cooker to render as much of the fat into the pot as possible.
6. Add the rest of the olive oil and the chopped onion. Saute the onion for about 5 minutes and then add the garlic.  Cook for another 2 to 3 minutes.
7. Add the thighs back to the pot. Stir the onion and garlic up onto the chicken then season with salt & pepper, add the red wine vinegar and the stock.
8. Lock the lid and cook on high pressure for one hour.  When cooking is finished, allow to return back to pressure naturally (about 30 minutes).
9. Remove thighs from pressure cooker and put on plate for removal of meat from the bones.  Leave everything else in the pot.

**To Use Thighs For Stock:  The meat will easily shred right off the bone, but don’t worry, plenty remains to flavor the broth.  Store the shredded thigh meat in a covered container or zip bag to use in sandwiches, add to soup or eat in other meals.

Continue Preparing the Stock

• bones from cooked turkey thighs (retained from recipe above)
• 1/2 cup chopped turkey thigh (from recipe above)
• 2 stalks celery, roughly cut into about 1″ pieces
• 2 carrots, scrubbed and roughly cut into about 1″ pieces
• 2 Bay leaves
• 5 sprigs fresh parsley
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon whole peppercorns
• 2 tsp pink Himalayan Sea Salt (you can use any sea salt – I like this one)
• 3 cups water

1. Add the skin, bones, chopped meat, celery, carrot, bay leaves, parsley, thyme, peppercorns, and salt to the vegetables and cooking liquid already in the pressure cooker pot, then add water.
2. Pressure cook on high for 60 minutes.
3. Let the pressure come down naturally – about 30 minutes.
4. Scoop the bones and vegetables out of the pot with a slotted spoon and discard.
5. Strain the stock through a fine mesh strainer and discard the solids.
6. After the stock is completely cooled, I portioned it into quart-sized zip lock freezer bags.  It can be frozen for up to 3 months.

**Tip – If you use glass jars make sure to leave about an inch of head room or your jar could break when it freezes. #ThisGirlLovesToEat