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Dad's Turkey Stew

Dad's Turkey Stew

One of the most filling, delicious and affordable dishes one can make is turkey stew. You make it with turkey thighs (or legs), which, in addition to being the tastier dark meat, you can usually get for $1.50 per pound or less. Slow cooking them bone-in you get all of the healthy goodness from the bone marrow. Cooking them with skin on will imbue the stew with rich flavor. Root vegetables such as carrots, turnips and rutabaga complement the turkey well.

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Dad's Turkey Stew

Ingredients

2 Tbsp olive oil
3 lbs turkey thighs (preferred) or legs (skin on, bone in)
1 medium-large yellow onion, peeled and roughly chopped
2 stalks celery, roughly chopped
1 quart vegetable stock
2 medium carrots, peeled, 1/4 inch slices
2-3 medium turnips, peeled, 1/2 inch cubes
1 medium rutabaga, peeled, 1/4 inch slices
3 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and quartered
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon herbes de provence*
Pepper

One Dutch oven with cover.

Method

1 Preheat oven to 300°F. Heat olive oil on medium high heat in a Dutch oven on the stove top. Wash and pat dry turkey pieces. Brown turkey pieces, skin side down, 2-3 minutes on each side. You may need to brown in batches if necessary. In the last 3 minutes of browning of the last batch, add the onions and celery.

2 Add salt and 1/2 of the stock. Bring to a simmer, remove from the stove top and put in the oven, covered, for one hour.

3 After an hour, remove from oven and add the rest of the vegetables - carrots, turnips, rutabaga, and potatoes, the herbs, and the rest of the stock. Return to the oven, covered, and cook until tender, another hour or more.

4 Remove bones and skin, discard. Season to taste.

Serves 6 to 8.

*Herbes de Provence is a delightful French blend of herbs - Winter savory, thyme, basil, tarragon, and lavender flowers.

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17 Comments

I am trying to get used to in a crockpot since I am away from home most of the day. Can this recipe be tweeked for that kind of cooking? If so, how do I go about it?

Posted by: Glenn on October 25, 2005 1:36 PM

Do you think that this recipe could be adapted for the Crock Pot? It sounds great, thanks!

Posted by: LB on October 25, 2005 1:38 PM

Hi Glen and LB - I don't see why this recipe couldn't be adapted to a crockpot. Unfortunately, I don't own one and don't cook with one, so I don't have any advice for you on how to do it.

Posted by: Elise on October 25, 2005 1:47 PM

I don't see why you couldn't just brown the turkey in a pan beforehand, and then just toss everything into the crock pot and cook it on low. No idea of the exact cooking time, so I guess you'd just leave it in until the vegetables were at the desired tenderness.

Posted by: Jeremy Henderson on October 25, 2005 3:38 PM

To adapt this recipe to a crockpot, brown the turkey, then the onions and celery as directed. Place them in the crock pot set to High, add the other vegetables, herbs and just 1/2 of the stock. Cook on high for 2 hours, then switch to the low setting for another 6 hours. Or, start with the low setting and cook for 8 hours. Because crockpot cooking creates more liquid than stove/oven cooking, you always use about half the liquid than is called for in a conventional recipe. The newer crockpots have timers and can switch cooking settings from high to low and even to a "hold" feature for this type of cooking.
Bon appetit!

Posted by: Northcoast cook on October 26, 2005 6:05 PM

This sounds like a perfect cold-weather dish. I love leaving something cooking for hours, where it warms (and smells!) up the house and just makes everything feel friendly. Thanks for the recipe, Elise.

Posted by: Lady Amalthea on October 26, 2005 7:11 PM

Made this for the family a
few weeks ago. It was very good. Served
it with a salad, homemade apple-cranberry
muffins, and a good Merlot. Great dish for
a chilly evening.

Posted by: RD on November 10, 2005 3:25 PM

I made this stew and was astounded by the succulence. The root veggies come out balanced between sweet/savory and it made the house smell great too. Only negative: some of the turkey thigh meat was so tough and stringy as to be inedible. But I don't care! It's delish. Maybe I'll try the crockpot technique described above. Thanks to Elise's Dad, Elise and Northcoast cook!

Posted by: Jenine on December 2, 2005 9:38 AM

WOWOWOWOW! 5 star recipe. I chopped up a turkey breast tenderloin to keep calories down and threw in a thigh with skin for flavor, but doubt I would need that. Was going to try the crockpot but didn't get up early enough. FANTASTIC recipe. Meat was tender. Flavors were savory and succulent. Just great!!! Will be a staple in winter.

Posted by: Karen on November 22, 2007 3:41 PM

I made this stew tonight with a few modifications (basically just switched up the veggies a little) and it was fabulous! I put my mods on my blog if anyone is interested. :) Thanks for a great recipe. Definitely a keeper.

Posted by: Elizabeth on March 3, 2008 3:01 PM

Oooh, unearthing an oldie but goodie! This is definitely going on my to-make list for next week.

How's this for an idea: how about once a month you post a listing of your favorite past recipes? I for one would love to see what else is back there, languishing in the shadows. :)

Posted by: Stephanie on October 14, 2008 3:18 PM

Can I substitute the dutch oven with some other utensil?

Looks really delicious btw XD

You need an oven-proof pan with a lid. You also need a pan that you can put on the stove-top on relatively high heat for the browning of the ingredients. With a Dutch oven you can do both. But if you don't have a Dutch oven, you need two separate pans. ~Elise

Posted by: Mohammad on October 15, 2008 5:25 AM

I made this stew in my crockpot yesterday, browning the turkey legs, celery, and onion before adding them to the crockpot with the rest of the ingredients (using about 2/3 of the liquid called for). I cooked all on low for between 8-9 hours. The smell alone is to die for, and the stew came out perfect. Incredibly flavorful. I foresee this recipe becoming a family classic.

Posted by: Carrie on November 26, 2008 6:30 AM

I am thankful this year for leftovers! I scored enough leftover turkey to make this for the third straight year. It is an absolutely terrific recipe that is well worth the time and effort. The only adjustments I make are foregoing the whole pieces of turkey and using meat that is already cooked and carved, no bones, no skin and chicken stock instead of vegetable. The provincial herbs is the make and break of this dish. I did not look hard enough to find it (herbs de province) the first time I made this, but I did for the second batch and it makes a world of difference.

Posted by: baxter on November 27, 2008 6:51 PM

Great recipe! I loosely followed it for leftover turkey and it was wonderful. Since I had cooked turkey already, I just browned the onions and cooked on the stovetop. I only had carrots, onion, and potatoes and it still tasted great. I also substituted the vegetable broth for chicken broth. One problem I had was the broth evaporating during the cooking process (both when I cooked on the stovetop and in the oven...yes, I've made this twice already!). I had to actually use 2 quarts of broth. Am I doing something wrong? Did anyone have the same problem? Thanks for all your wonderful recipes Elise. Whenever I think about cooking something I usually go to your website first :)

Hi dk, the pot should be covered during most of the cooking process. If you are finding that the broth is evaporating, perhaps your pot's cover is not tight fitting enough? ~Elise

Posted by: dk on November 30, 2008 10:50 PM

Great recipe! I used Yams instead of yellow potatoes. I also added broccoli and cauliflower and use turkey breasts just to make it healthier. Its the best stew recipe I have ever tasted. The yams make it a little sweeter!

Posted by: Monica on December 14, 2008 10:07 AM

Dear Elise
This past Sunday we roasted a turkey and because it took a little longer than we expected - cook time and the preparation for the yummy stuffing, I didn't have time to totally de-bone the carcass and want to make turkey soup with it - is it still good? All the turkey and leftovers were put away while still warm so we used proper food handling. Also I saved the pan drippings to try and make gravy the next day - but is that still good too? It is in a glass cover mug covered with plastic wrap. I appreciate any help you can give me. My husband wants me to de-bone the turkey the rest of the way today, but I would rather make soup with it if it is still good (okay to use). Please advise.

Should be fine. We'll eat from the carcass for days, keeping it in the refrigerator of course. Check out my mother's turkey soup recipe for more info on how to go about it. ~Elise

Posted by: Martha on March 17, 2009 8:41 AM

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