Thanksgiving Turkey Leftover Ramen

Turkey gets boring fast. I love Thanksgiving leftovers — the stuffing, the mashed potatoes, the things I don't take the time to make for just two people any other time of year. But the turkey itself? By day two it's already losing its appeal. By day three it's obligation food.

This fixes that.

The goal here is a bowl that barely looks like where it started. Rich, milky ramen broth built from the carcass, finished with white miso, loaded with shredded turkey and soft boiled eggs and scallions. It tastes like ramen. It tastes like it took real skill and a very specific pantry. What it actually took was the bones you were going to throw away and most of a day of largely ignoring a pot on the stove.

The broth is the whole project.

Before anything else, char your aromatics. Two or three medium onions and a few large knobs of ginger, thrown into a hot dry pan over high heat until the edges burn. Don't peel anything. The char adds depth and the skins add color. Toss them into a large pot with the turkey carcass, bones, skin, back, neck — whatever you have that isn't meat. Add a few pieces of uncooked bacon, the green tops of three to five scallions, a few unpeeled garlic cloves, and a carrot or two if you have them. Cover everything completely with water and bring to a rolling boil.

As it comes up to temperature, skim the fat and scum from the surface. After about fifteen minutes it'll stop accumulating and you can leave it alone. Keep it at a heavy rolling boil for at least six hours. This is the key. A gentle simmer makes stock. A rolling boil draws out the collagen and cartilage and gives ramen broth that opaque, milky richness that makes it taste like it came from somewhere serious.

Top the pot off with water as the liquid reduces over the hours. As you get close to serving, let it reduce by about a quarter for thickness. When you're ready, pull out all the solids. What remains is the broth. Stir in one tablespoon of white miso for every two cups of broth — for this recipe that's about a quarter cup. Taste for salt.

The toppings come together while the broth does its thing.

Cook your noodles and toss with a little sesame oil if making ahead so they don't clump. Shred leftover turkey. Slice scallion tops. Soft boil your eggs: lower them into boiling water, cook exactly 6.5 minutes, pull and drop straight into an ice bath. Two minutes later they're just warm enough to peel. These can absolutely be made a day ahead.

To assemble: noodles in the bowl first. Turkey to one side, scallions to another, egg halved and placed cut side up. Ladle the hot broth over everything. The boiling broth reheats everything in the bowl, which means every component can be prepped ahead and held separately until you're ready to serve.

This is an Asian spin on an American tradition, which is exactly the kind of sentence this brand exists to write without irony.