Processing a wild turkey you’ve harvested can be intimidating if you’ve never done it before. But with the right techniques and tools, it’s actually pretty straightforward. Here’s a step-by-step guide to cleanly and efficiently process your wild turkey, from field dressing to final butchering.
Field Dressing
The first step is field dressing the turkey right after harvest. You’ll want to do this as soon as possible to cool the body cavity and prevent the meat from spoiling.
- Lay the turkey on its back and pull one leg away from the body to expose the vent area. Cut around the vent to begin removing intestines.
- Make an incision along the belly from vent to breastbone being careful not to puncture intestines.
- Reach inside the cavity and remove all internal organs. Make sure to remove the crop which will be a large pouch near the top of the cavity.
- Rinse the cavity thoroughly with water to remove any remaining blood and debris.
- Wipe out excess moisture with a paper towel or cloth.
- Allow the carcass to air dry for at least 30 minutes before transporting. This helps prevent bacteria growth.
Plucking
For the best quality meat you’ll want to pluck the feathers from your turkey rather than skinning it.
- Start by dunking the turkey in hot water between 145-155°F to loosen the feathers. Dunk for 30 seconds, remove, and pluck. Repeat until feathers pull out easily.
- Use a plucking tool or your hands to pluck feathers, working against the grain. Start on the wings and tail where feathers are smallest.
- For stubborn wing and tail feathers, simply use a knife to cut them off at the base rather than trying to pluck.
- Once the body feathers are complete, remove pinfeathers by rubbing the skin surface with a knife handle or other blunt object.
Removing Wings
- Cut through the wing joint where it attaches to the body. Bend the wing back until the joint separates.
- Cut through the remaining skin to fully remove the wing. Repeat on the other side.
Removing Legs
- Cut through the skin between the body and thigh. Bend the leg out and back to pop the hip joint then slice through to remove.
- Cut through the knee joint to separate the lower leg. Repeat on the other side.
Removing Breasts
- Make an incision down one side of the breastbone from cavity to neck.
- Run your knife down along the bone, separating meat from bone. Keep knife tight to the ribs.
- Angle knife inward to cut breast meat away as you move down. Pull breast meat outward as you cut.
- Repeat on the other side to remove the whole breast.
Removing Tenderloins
- Locate the two tenderloins on either side of the tail above the leg joints.
- Peel the tenderloins away from the body. Trim away any sinew or silver skin.
Portioning
Wild turkey breasts are very large so you’ll likely want to portion them into smaller cuts for easier cooking.
- Slice each breast in half through the middle.
- Cut each half into roughly 6-8 oz portions.
- Slice tenderloins into medallions.
Removing Giblets
Don’t discard the giblets inside the turkey cavity! These organs make for delicious eats.
- Reach into the neck cavity to remove the windpipe, esophagus, heart and liver. Separate each.
- Remove gizzard from lower cavity and slice open to clean out interior contents.
- Slice gizzard, heart and liver into smaller pieces for cooking.
And that’s it! With a little practice, you’ll be able to quickly process your own wild turkeys. Now it’s time to get cooking and enjoy the rewards of your successful hunt. Spatchcocking or deep frying are both great cooking methods that really bring out the wild flavor.
Butchering Wild Turkey Breasts
Before you remove your turkey breasts, make sure your knife is razor sharp and, ideally, somewhat flexible. You’ll want to use a fillet knife or something similar to remove turkey breasts. (Read: do not use a carving or chef knife as you might use at the Thanksgiving table.) You don’t even need a long knife; a sharp pocket knife will serve you well.
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). Next, make an incision to either the left or right of the keel bone, just below the wishbone, with the bird’s feet pointed toward you. Keep the blade tight to that keel bone as you run your knife down to its base. From there, it’s a matter of angling your blade to free the meat from the bone via gradual swipes. To do so, place your index finger along the back of the unsharpened side of the blade to help steer the edge up toward the wings. With your non-knife hand, pull the breast meat up and away from the bone, so your knife can get underneath the meat and continue to work inhibited. The contour line of the bone below the breasts isn’t flat, so go slow and angle your blade so it carves off every morsel of meat from the bone.
As you work, you may turn the bird so the head faces me instead of the feet. This helps as I work the blade along the side of the turkey, up towards the shoulder joint. Once you reach the shoulder joint, return to the keel bone and follow the line along the wishbone, eventually meeting at the shoulder and pulling the breast. Repeat these steps on the other side.
Turkey breasts are enormous. Each breast may be the size of your head. When cooked whole, a wild turkey breast’s outer layers often dry out before the center hits that 150 temp. For this reason, I suggest butchering breasts into smaller portions, approximately eight ounces each. When cutting up these portions, it may help to butterfly the breast, or cut it in half like you’re opening up a book. From there, carve it into pieces resembling a chicken breast’s size and shape.
Because of the need to butcher wild turkey breasts into smaller portions, plucking turkey breasts is not worth it to me. Even if you pluck the breasts, you’ll end up with several skinless pieces anyways.
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.
How to Pluck and Clean a Turkey with Steven Rinella – MeatEater
FAQ
What is the best way to prepare a wild turkey?
Place the turkey, breast side up, in a heavy roasting pan and put it in the oven. Roast for 1 hour. Remove the fatback, raise the oven temperature to 375°F (190°C), and continue roasting for 1 hour to brown the breast.
What to do with a wild turkey after you shoot it?
For most hunters, breaking the bird down and getting it in a fridge or on ice will be more practical. I stress “on” ice, not “in” ice. Just like any meat, submerging it in a slurry of ice water will discolor and wash out the flesh.
How soon should you clean a wild turkey?
Field dress the bird as soon as possible and for the rest you should be okay to get it ready for the freezer or the table when you get home. Fortunately, 90 minutes is generally not an issue. Once home, you can pluck the feathers and clean the turkey in cold water.
How long do you let a turkey rest after butchering?
After evisceration, rinse the carcass inside and out and let the processed turkey rest for 24 hours in a large cooler filled with ice water. If you plan to freeze your turkey, make sure you have a turkey-sized freezer bag to package it into.
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.