Jook is one of my favorite Thanksgiving family traditions. It is a hearty rice soup, which my family makes using the turkey carcass. We intentionally leave a lot of meat on the bone when carving the turkey, expressly for this purpose. As soon as the turkey is carved, we start the jook cooking, so that it’s ready to go around 9 or 10pm. If you ever come to Thanksgiving with my family, don’t think you’re done after dessert. The late-night Thanksgiving jook snack is not optional. Jook is also one of my favorite breakfasts, so we make sure to cook up a giant pot that’s guaranteed to have leftovers for the next morning.
Guessipe
- 1 roasted turkey carcass
- 2 cups cooked rice
- salt and pepper
Put the turkey carcass into a large pot and cover with water. You can also do this with a roasted chicken carcass when it’s not Thanksgiving. I like my jook meaty, so I often use the the whole legs and wings. Simmer for an hour.
Add the cooked rice to the pot. Simmer for another hour or two (until the meat is falling off the bones and the rice starts to break down), stirring every 15 minutes to keep the rice from burning to the bottom of the pot.
Pick out all of the bones. Salt and pepper the jook to taste. The thickness of the jook is entirely up to personal preference. If you like it thinner, add more water. If you like it thicker, use more rice. I like my jook to have a bit of rice texture, so I usually go light on rice during the initial cooking, and then add some more cooked rice in the last 15 minutes.
The jook gets great flavor from the roasted turkey. Then the fun part is each person gets to dress it the way they like. I did this one with fried garlic, sriracha, and oyster sauce. Other popular add-ins are soy sauce, chili oil, green onions, hoisin sauce. But you can do it any way you please.
