Turkey neck - what should I do with it?

isuhunter

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I am cooking a turkey at the moment for turkey sandwiches at a "quick thanksgiving" on Friday night.

What should I do with the neck? I don't want to toss it but don't really know what I should do?
 
You can simmer it and the giblets and make a really good gravy.

We have a turkey neck gravy poutine every year after thanksgiving. Just a different way to use all of the bird.
 
My mother always simmered the neck & giblets. I wished I had learned how she made the gravey from scratch
 
Used to do whole turkey dinners by the hundreds for Thanksgiving Day so always had literally hundreds of necks to experiment with. Favorite is simmering for a couple hours till they are fall of the bone tender. It really is the best meat on a turkey if you have enough to make it worth it... :)
 
I've simmered it in a sauce pan with the rest of the giblets. Get it nice and tender, then shred it and add it to my stove top dressing. And I use the water i simmered it in for the dressing. its good!
 
I use the neck along with carcass and giblets, add onion, celery, and carrot. I actually put it all on a crock pot and let it go overnight. Terrific stock to use in making gravy or future stews and soups. Heck I would heat up a mug and drink it straight up.
 
Some awesome advice so far...

If you're looking to make gravy (though you might not be, since you're planning on sandwiches...), I'd say simmer the neck in a quart of chicken broth along with one sprig of fresh rosemary, one bay leaf, and a few cracks of fresh black pepper. Let it simmer for a couple of hours, then pull out the neck and herbs. In a separate pan, make a roux out of 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup flour. Once the flour has just started to brown, and the whole roux takes on a "wet sand" kind of consistency, whisk in the broth about a cup at a time. Once it's all in there, cook down until it's the thickness you like, then shred the neck meat and add it back to the gravy.

If gravy isn't your thing, I'm totally with Fnjay about making turkey stock. Throw the neck, carcass, a cut up onion, a couple of ribs of celery, a dash of salt and pepper, and a cut up carrot in your Crock pot, cover with water, and let go on "low" overnight. Then remove the solids, strain, and save. Should freeze pretty easily, and will make preparations for Christmas dinner a whole lot easier - and tastier!
 
I generally save stuff like that for making stock, I also save the carcasses from roasted chickens and turkeys, put them in a ziploc bag and freeze, then when I have enough I'll make a big batch of stock, homemade stock is liquid gold in my opinion.
 
Season it up and throw it on the grill with the heart and gizzard. Used to get to eat it all by myself till the kids and now the grandkids found out how good it is. I still get a bite or two.:grin:
 
Mine goes in the roaster pan with the rest of the giblets onion carrot garlic & celery for da gravy.
 
I am cooking a turkey at the moment for turkey sandwiches at a "quick thanksgiving" on Friday night.

What should I do with the neck? I don't want to toss it but don't really know what I should do?

Toss it in the smoker. Then use it (with or without the giblets) to make stock for turkey soup or gravy, or....Just suck the meat right off of it.

If you still have the neck, toss it in a freezer bag. when you have 3 or 4 more, use them to make stock.
 
Smoke it along with the turkey. Early dinner treat for me and my son.
 
All great advice here. I freaking LOVE the necks. There is so much awesome collagen in there. If you can get your hands on a bunch of necks making stock/broth from just turkey necks will basically get you turkey flavored jello. It'll firm right up when you refrigerate it! I then like to take the necks and pull all the meat from them and save it back to add to dressing or future soups/turkey dishes. Making this awesome rich stock and pulling the meat from it you can make some rich flavorful dressing that comes out as good as stuffing cooked in the bird (without risking drying out your bird).

I couldn't get a hold of any extra turkey necks this year so I took the two necks from my good birds (locally raised fresh, one for this week, one for friendsgiving in February) and bought an additional cheap bird at Meijer. I roasted the necks with the cheap bird last night and I'll be making stock with all of that tonight. The meat from those necks/bird will be added to stuffing along with going into the freezer for turkey soups/dressing/etc.
 
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