Day After Thanksgiving Turkey Pho

My fiancee and I cooked basically this recipe minus the anise & fennel since we don't like those flavors. It is VITALLY important to start with a good broth. One of the other reviewers commented that it took a lot of water to cover the carcass. My fiancee fixed this problem by taking out the largest knife he had and hacking the carcass in half and then in smaller pieces. It's also a good idea to do this for the larger bones too. Inside the bones is where a lot of the flavor and collagen(which thicken the broth) are. It'll fit easier in the pot and make a great broth. For those of you who already put too much water in, long cook times. Leave the pot on the stove for 2-3 hours and cook down the broth, concentrating the flavor until it tastes good. If you didnt use all the drippings for gravy, you could add a small amount in for a very intense turkey flavor.

I had a very large turkey carcass, so I needed more than 8 cups of water to cover it. Perhaps that was the reason that the broth itself didn't have much flavor, or maybe more cardamom pods, cloves, star anise pods, ginger, fennel and cordiander seeds are needed? I feel that I could have omitted the turkey carcass and the boiling for 2 hours and just used a carton of chicken broth since the flavor of the spices was so very subtle in the broth.

I added 4 cloves but kept all the other spices the same and just added them all into the pot and used a chicken carcass and it came exactly as my restaurant down the road. I didn`t do all that sauteeing and it was still excellent - my new pho base recipe!

This was awesome! The only think I changed was to add about 2 cups more of water to cover the bird completely, otherwise I left everything else the same and it turned out perfectly.

This is a really good soup recipe. I left out the carcass/bones (personal preference) and the basil.

this was so delicious! i've only had pho two other times and this tasted just about as good. i took the advice of Callista and broke down the bones before putting them in the pot. i was worried that the spices were not as pronounced as i'd like them to be, but i *did* forget to cook the spices before adding them (oops!). used half fish sauce and half soy sauce. cooked the noodles in the broth itself and garnished with green onions, cilantro, and sriracha.. ty so much for the recipe

This was SO good! I can't tell you how many times my husband said, "honey, this is a DO AGAIN!" while we were eating it! I did make a couple of adjustments. I had already made turkey broth from the carcass of our Thanksgiving turkey yesterday and picked the meat off of the bone before I discovered this recipe, so here's how I proceeded: I went ahead and toasted the star anise, fennel seed and whole cloves. I skipped the cardomom pod, as I didn't have any. I removed the spiced to a piece of cheesecloth as sugested. I then charred the fresh gingerc and then added it to the cheesecloth as well. I charred two thick slices of onion in the pan, but rather than adding those to the stock, I just chopped them up to add on top later. I then made the sachet and added it to my already made broth, brought it to a boil, and continued to simmer while I prepared the rice noodles. I should also mention that I didn't have coriander seed, so I just added about 1/4 tsp of ground coriander directly to the broth. We DID use the optional basil, cilantro (which really makes the dish - so don't skip those). We served it with sliced lime and Sriracha. I've been wanted to make a Pho for quite some time now, and I'm so glad I made this one. Will make again, for sure!

After quite a bit of tinkering around with this recipe, it comes out to my liking. First of all, I more than double the amount of spices called for. In addition to starting out with more in the beginning, I also take out the small strainer I use and refill it with fresh spices about halfway through. I don't know if this makes sense or not, but if this doesn't happen I end up with a flavorless soup base. I use tons of ginger (I have used the kind in the squeeze bottle and end up using about half the bottle!). Lastly, I add a bit of brown sugar. I don't use as much fish sauce as the recipe calls for because intends up overpowering everything.

The toasted spices in this recipe make the most flavorful broth. The soup was delicious. I will use the combination of spices for all my homemade broths. Thanks for sharing!

After Thanksgiving Pho is my new tradition! This recipe is the only reason I cook turkey at Thanksgiving! I've made this several times and am about to make it again. The turkey was smoked in our smoker so it has a pretty intense smokey flavor to begin with. I cover the carcass to just above the bones with water--I didn't really pay attention to how many cups that was. I doubled up all of the spices and also added 2 sticks of cinnamon to the sachet. I added a 4-inch piece of ginger, and a smashed stick of lemon grass to the stock pot. I also increased the fish sauce to 1/2 c. It is divine! Make sure you don't leave out any steps. Toasting the spices and charring the ginger and onion really give added dimension to the stock.

This is the 2nd year I've had a leftover turkey carcass and made this fabulous soup with. I pulled off the extra turkey from the carcass, reserving the bigger pieces for a tetrazzini and the little bits of meat for this soup (about 2 cups). I added a whole lot more water than called for to the stock pot and let just the turkey simmer on low (just hot enough that there are occasional simmer bubbles moving through the liquid) about 24 hours. During the day when I was in the kitchen I turned it up a bit. I didn't add the spices until I put the broth through a sieve and started the soup. This pho comes out so well my family doesn't even notice it's turkey. Both times I've made it my family has consumed it all in one evening, wow! If you're wanting to make this for the "need a lot of flavor crowd," you can add a chicken flavored pho cube (asian markets). I had one on hand this year and it added to the flavor. Last year I did not and it was fine. If you feel the recipe is missing something a regular bouillon would up the flavor. Enjoy, this recipe is something a little different to use the turkey leftovers and please a group! Oh, and I add a little lemongrass with the other spices since I have it on hand. I love the flavor it adds.

I've made this a few times and will continue every time we have a whole turkey. Very good broth.

Nice meal. I had already boiled down the carcass so just added the spices into a tea strainer after grilling and heated the broth with the spices. I was surprised the noodles with turkey broth could be so filling.

Great recipe! I recommend Thai basil if you can get it... I grow it myself since I don't live anywhere near an Asian market. I used a metal tea ball for my seeds and put the ginger directly into the broth, I added a clove of garlic as well. Besides using a turkey carcass, I've also used stock from chicken breast and onion that were cooked in the crockpot (I drained off the liquid and took out most of the onions and some chicken for my pho before adding barbecue sauce) ... I love two in one cooking!

Super simple when done in the slow cooker. Will be freezing the extra broth next time

We ended up toasting and adding additional spices. Overall it was tasty, but a lot of work to get it to taste more pho like.

So, I had already made turkey bone broth the night before but I simmered the spices in for an hour and used this ingredient list. It turned out fantastic!

I despise Thanksgiving leftovers, so this recipe had me intrigued! I love pho and eat it pretty regularly from one of the many Vietnamese restaurants in the area. This was tasty, however I could barely taste the spices, which is really what makes or breaks pho. The broth itself was kind of bland. Next time I would use at least 3-4 star anise, 2-3 cardamom pods and throw in a cinnamon stick. Try and find Thai basil, as it has a much better flavor than regular basil. I served it as suggested, but next time I’d also serve with thinly-sliced jalapeño and bean sprouts. All in all, a fantastic way to give those boring leftovers a makeover!

This recipe for pho was fantastic. Really delicious. My only changes in the future would be to leave out the onions and add bean sprouts. My wife could not find cardamom pods in the store but when we went out for dinner the chef gave us some.