Processing a wild turkey you’ve harvested can be intimidating if you’ve never done it before. With the right techniques and tools, you can break down your bird into delicious and usable cuts of meat. Here are the steps for going from a full turkey in the field to cooked dishes on your dinner table.
Field Dressing
Once you’ve harvested your turkey, the first step is field dressing. Start by laying the turkey on its back and making an incision just below the breastbone. Be very careful not to puncture the intestines or crop. Reach inside the cavity and remove all internal organs. Take special care with the gallbladder – puncturing this will ruin the meat. Remove the crop, trachea, esophagus heart, and liver if desired. Rinse out the cavity with water. The turkey is now field dressed.
Transporting
Transport your turkey in a cooler with ice if possible. This will prevent spoilage and help the carcass cool evenly. Place breast side up to keep fluids from collecting in the breast cavity. If cooling with ice is not an option you can transport in a game bag. Hang the turkey breast down and avoid piling other birds or gear on top.
Aging
Aging, or hanging, your turkey will improve flavor and texture. Age wild turkeys for 4-10 days at a temperature between 32-40°F. Be sure to monitor and discard any meat that shows signs of spoilage. Aging allows enzymes to break down connective tissue while moisture evaporates.
Plucking
You can either pluck or skin your turkey. Plucking takes time but leaves the skin intact for crisping. Start by submerging the turkey in 135°F water for 30 seconds to loosen feathers. Pluck all feathers, taking extra care around small pin feathers. Singe off any hairs by quickly passing over a flame. Avoid scorching the skin. If opting to skin, simply cut away the skin taking care not to cut into the breast meat.
Removing Wings
Start by bending each wing back and cutting through the wing joint. Continue cutting through skin and tendons until the wing is freed. For whole wings, proceed to removing the breast. To separate, cut through the two wing joints keeping the drumette and wingette portions.
Removing the Breast
Using a sharp fillet or boning knife, start an incision just below the wishbone. Scrape the breast meat from the bone working from top to bottom. Feel for the contour of the breastbone as you cut to get all meat. Free the tenderloins underneath with your fingers or knife tip. Cut each breast into smaller portions if desired.
Removing Legs and Thighs
Cut through the hip joints to remove the entire leg quarters. Bend legs back to expose the thigh joint and separate. You can leave thigh and drumstick connected or cut between the knee joint to separate them. Cut off the feet at the last joint.
Organ Meats
Save the heart, liver, and gizzard for cooking. Rinse well, dry, and store wrapped in wax paper in the refrigerator for 1-2 days. Cook within 3 days for best quality. The neck and backbone can be used for stock.
Packaging the Meat
Cut meat portions into usable sizes for recipes. Place in sealable plastic bags removing as much air as possible. Use within 2 days for best quality or freeze. Cooked turkey keeps 4-6 months frozen. Raw turkey keeps 9-12 months frozen.
Cooking Your Turkey
Wild turkey needs gentler, slower cooking than domestic turkey. Braise legs and thighs until tender. Grill or pan sear breasts and wings over medium heat just until cooked through. Take care to avoid overcooking the naturally lean meat. Use your favorite poultry seasoning or a simple salt and pepper rub.
Processing a wild turkey allows you to make full use of your harvested bird. With the proper techniques, you can break it down into delicious cuts for all your favorite recipes. Follow these steps for clean field dressing, aging, butchering, packaging and cooking for superb wild turkey meals.
Butchering Wild Turkey Tenderloins
The tenderloins are that smaller, finger-like piece of meat hidden below the breasts. They have different muscle striations and should be cooked separately. On a large spring gobbler, they can be the size of a pheasant breast. As you might have guessed, they are the most tender cut on a wild turkey. You shouldn’t need a knife to remove them; you can carefully peel turkey tenderloins off the bone.
Do I Pluck or Skin a Wild Turkey?
In past articles, I advocate for plucking when possible. Additionally, I have suggested not gutting the bird before plucking, as tears in the skin may make plucking difficult. In the instance of wild turkeys, based on the toughness of the skin, you can indeed gut the bird before plucking. Additionally, because these large birds are heavily insulated and hold a lot of heat, you’ll want to gut that bird within a couple of hours, especially if the day is supposed to be a warm one.
And, yes, you should absolutely save your giblets. More on that here.
Wild turkey skin has flavor, but wild turkey is one of those birds where I don’t consider plucking to be essential. In terms of the wings, though, plucking those is worth the effort. This is because of the skin-equals-flavor argument and because skinning (e.g., knife work) along the wings runs the risk of damaging meat.
But the thighs and legs require low-and-slow cooking techniques. When using these methods, the skin may turn into gelatin and actually offer an unwanted texture in your wild turkey dish. Regarding the breasts, skinning or plucking them is up to you. In the butchering section, I’ll explain why the effort of plucking wild turkey breasts may not fit your needs in the kitchen.
If you do plan to pluck your bird, you can dry pluck or scald it, which means dunking the whole bird in 150-degree Fahrenheit water multiple times until the wing feathers easily pull out. Once they do, you’re ready to pluck the rest of the bird. Remember that it might take three to five minutes of dunking for the wing feathers to pull out easily.
How to Pluck and Clean a Turkey with Steven Rinella – MeatEater
FAQ
What to do with a wild turkey after you shoot it?
- Cut the neck and skin
- Open the body cavity
- Remove the entrails, including the gizzard, lungs, heart, and lower intestinal tract
- Remove the trachea and esophagus
- Let the body cavity air dry
What is the best way to prepare a wild turkey?
The breast is tender, thus this requires dry cooking methods which include stir fry, sauté, pan fry, deep fry, broil, grill, and roast. Turkey breast is also an excellent choice for moist cooking methods such as boiling (simmer) and poaching.
How soon should you clean a wild turkey?
2 weeks. Just watched it again. It says ‘ the turkey will hang for 2 weeks before its plucked or gutted’.
Do you skin or pluck a wild turkey?
When butchering my wild turkeys, I start by removing the breast meat. You can pluck or skin them, but it helps to cut the loose skin between the thigh and breast, then fold the thighs before proceeding (or remove the thighs completely before the breasts, up to you).
How do you butcher a wild turkey?
Butcher a wild turkey right away, especially if you are harvesting innards. After each cut is removed from the turkey, clean and wash the meat thoroughly. Make sure to wash off blood, feathers, and dirt. Pat the meat dry and also let it air dry on a rack before freezing or cooking.
What is a wild turkey?
When people most people think of turkey, domestic or wild, they envision a whole bird. The skin is crispy, caramelized from a long oven roast, and stuffed to the brim as a dinner table centerpiece. This was the picture I had in my mind when I bagged my first wild turkey over 12 years ago. I treated it no differently than a Thanksgiving bird.
What should I do after cleaning a wild turkey?
With the recent bird flu outbreak, be extra careful transporting wild bird carcasses and contaminating your butchering gear after cleaning a wild turkey. Follow these guidelines. Consider keeping the spurs, beard, and fan from your turkey. They’ll last far longer than the meat will. Remove pellets from the meat while butchering.
Is wild turkey a good meat?
Wild turkey is my all-time favorite game meat. It’s easy to cook, it has plenty of rich flavor, and it’s just about impossible to beat fried turkey nuggets dipped in spicy barbecue sauce. Talk to any serious turkey hunter, and they’ll agree. However, not all turkey hunters know how to butcher a turkey and get every cut of meat.
Can you pluck a wild turkey breast?
In the butchering section, I’ll explain why the effort of plucking wild turkey breasts may not fit your needs in the kitchen. If you do plan to pluck your bird, you can dry pluck or scald it, which means dunking the whole bird in 150-degree Fahrenheit water multiple times until the wing feathers easily pull out.
How do you remove stray pellets from a Turkey?
Remove pellets from the meat while butchering. You might see entry wounds in the breasts and legs of your turkey from stray pellets. Press on these wound channels with your finger or follow them with a thin, sharp knife and remove pellets from the meat.