How do you cook your turkey?

[becker]

I shot my 1st turkey opening day... I made some of it in a rice/broccoli/onion. GF thought it was a bit bland. I put to chicken bullon cubes in it, normally use 3 with chicken, but wanted to pick up on a flavor of the turkey, maybe more bullion will solve it for her. Myself, I enjoyed it. Perhaps more so because I harvested it.

Needless to say I only hunt what I like to eat, and because I work out of town 3-4 days a week I can easily consume the turkeys I harvest.

But looking for ideas other use their turkeys.

[CaNINE]

My favorite way is to pound the breast meat flat into a cutlet.  Dip it in egg, then season and coat with panko bread crumbs.  Fry it up in some oil.  The legs/thigh meat need to be slow cooked for several hours in a dutch oven until the meat falls off of the bones.  This year I'll be making up turkey carnitas out of leg meat. 

[Pinetar]

Below is RadSav Turkey recipe. I do this meal at least once or twice a year now. Excellent recipe!!! The only thing I did different is add garlic and Yoshida's Sweet Teriyaki to the mix. This is one of my kids favorite meals with the game they take. Try it Becker you will not be disappointed and I'm positive your GF will love it!!



The past few years I've been tagging a good number of turkey.  But, I was still left with a distaste of wild turkey dishes.  Dozens upon dozens of recipes downloaded, passed along to me and thought up in my head.  Only one of which I made more than once and that was "Leak and Barley" soup from a Better Homes & Garden cookbook.  I was beginning to think I might give up turkey hunting altogether if I couldn't find a recipe that made them palatable.   Worst yet was the wife hated them even more than I did.

Well, last night I made a breakthrough.  The wife liked this so much she not only ate it for dinner, but had it fried for breakfast and nuked for lunch.  Looks like it is going to be a winner!  Wish I had taken better pictures before she wiped it out.  Maybe I will make it again in the next few weeks and post some better pictures then.

The idea started when Chase Fulcher sent me a gift package of Meacham peppered bacon.  I took two whole turkeys and ground all legs, breast and 1# of Chase's bacon together with a course grind.  Then I switched to a fine grind disk and ran it through the grinder again making sure to really mix the bacon, light and dark meat together evenly.  Kitchen Aide did a great job!

I then took half an onion that had been in the fridge for a week, chopped it fine and cooked it is some butter for about 10 minutes until it started to look translucent.  Next time I'll probably use a purple onion...just because I like them better with fowl.  Then it was all about mixing all the ingredients well and cooking in a 350 oven for 50 minutes.  The glaze went on after that and cooked for another ten minutes.  Probed internal temp was about 150-160F

1.5# of ground turkey (w/bacon)
1/2 cup half & half
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 onion (chopped fine and cooked to translucent in butter)
2 Tablespoons chopped Parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried Thyme (I would probably use more if I'd had fresh)
1-1/8 teaspoon Himalayan Pink salt (just because I hate white table salt)
1/8 + teaspoon freshly ground Tellicherry pepper (more flavor)
1/2 cup plain Progresso bread crumbs

I suppose if you wanted to you could add an egg or two.  However, I do not usually use egg in my meatloaf if I have added applesauce and half & half.  It was plenty firm last night and firm enough to make sandwiches after five hours in the fridge.  I was worried about the turkey maybe being too dry and not holding firm without the egg but I shouldn't have been.  IMO it was absolutely perfect without it!

I used the same glaze I use for all my meat loaves.  I found it almost 30 years ago in the same Better Homes & Garden cookbook as the Leak and Barley soup.

GLAZE:
1/4 cup catsup
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon Colman's dry mustard (the only dry mustard I will use)

The only other thing I did is the same as I do with all meat loaf.  I like to have a small dish of Mayo on the side.  I dip just enough to add a little creaminess to the texture.  I did eat some without the Mayo and it was still outstanding.

Hoping this might help someone else who, like me, has never found a wild turkey worth eating.  For myself, this changed everything.  Turkey around here won't be lasting very long at all anymore!

[alexjm]

Steak the breasts into 1" thick cuts -- overnight in olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic -- 3-4 minutes per side on medium/high on the grill.  All you'll need and the best turkey I've ever eaten.

[Magnum_Willys]

Cook Breast filet just like a grouse:

Chop a couple apples - skin on,  chop similar amount of celery.  Put in an oven pot, add box of wild rice mix with seasonings.  Mix together.  Put Turkey breast filet on top with some wild game seasoning and/or salt & pepper, cover with strips of bacon.  Bake covered at 350 for 45 mins to an hour.  Uncover and put on broil last 10 mins if needed to crisp bacon.   Eat turkey and the apple rice. 

[BOWHUNTER45]

smoke it ...Brine it in one bottle of Italian dressing ... 1/4 cup soy sauce ..little pepper ...garlic ( minced garlic ) I never measure anything ..I just toss whatever I think looks good in the brine ...heat up about 1/8 cup honey in micro for about 10 seconds and add to the brine ..just mixes better that way ...marinade over night in a zip lock back ..I always squeeze the air of the bag before zipping shut ...and a half onion ...chopped up !   Use hickory or Alder !

[turkeydancer]

Inject with marinade, sprinkle with Cajun season inside and out, and deep fat fry.

[Dhoey07]

Grind with some bacon and make burgers out of them.

[KevinClimbs]

My favorite way is to pound the breast meat flat into a cutlet.  Dip it in egg, then season and coat with panko bread crumbs.  Fry it up in some oil.  The legs/thigh meat need to be slow cooked for several hours in a dutch oven until the meat falls off of the bones.  This year I'll be making up turkey carnitas out of leg meat.

I do the same. Last turkey I made I took the slow cooked leg meat and made pot pie $$$.

[DrakeKill]

• breast bird; no bones, no skin.
• cut breast halves into pieces about the size of a chicken breast, maybe a tad smaller
• soak overnight in your favorite brine
• wrap each piece completely with bacon - thick cut bacon
• put them in the little chief for 3-4 pans worth of chips. I like hickory, but use whatever you like
• you'll instinctively know what to do for the rest of the steps

This works well for any game bird, even pheasant legs come out wonderful!

[krout81]

  I use my chargriller barrel grill with charcoal and wood on both sides turkey in the middle.   

[Spurdaddy]

I like to take ole tom and put him in a marinate for a day or two. Take the drum sticks and wings off and slow cook them down with some onion and apple slices...mmmmm. Take the breast an put it in the Traeger with Applewood smoke for about 4-6 hours ....just smoking temp...150 degrees with a pan of Apple juice on the side to enrich that smoke. When he comes out of the smoke I will deep fry for about 3 minutes per pound at 375 degrees.....weeeeeee doggie!

[crowinghen]

I cooked wild turkey for the first time last night. Here's what I did:

I put the legs and thighs in the Instant pot ( pressure cooker) added 3 cups water, a chopped onion, some dried mushrooms, minced garlic, salt and pepper . Cooked them for 90 minutes- took the meat off the bones. I cooked down the liquid then added some corn starch and water and thickened it, put the mushrooms etc back into the  gravy- it was great!
 Served it with wild rice and coleslaw- it was really good!

Susie

[NRA4LIFE]

Turkey breast McNuggets.  Enough said.

[270Shooter]

Planning to brine one breast this weekend and smoke on sunday. I'll let you know how it goes.

[Whitenuckles]

Turkey nuggets or Turkey jambalaya!!!

[DOUBLELUNG]

Steak the breasts into 1" thick cuts -- overnight in olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic -- 3-4 minutes per side on medium/high on the grill.  All you'll need and the best turkey I've ever eaten.

This is so good, the only thing I do different is to add fresh ginger as well.  Leg quarters go in the crockpot until the meat falls off, pick out the ligaments, tendons, bones and cartilage, add a bottle of BBQ sauce and let go for a couple more hours for great barbecue sandwich meat.  Occasionally I'll make a stock with the remainder of the carcass.

[Quackwhacker]

Turkey breast McNuggets.  Enough said.

McNuggets are a hit at my house. I grind the rest of the bird and use it for tacos.

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[fly4fish]

I like to cut the breast and any leg meat possible into strips and fry like chicken strips after soaking in egg and coating with flour and or saltine cracker crumbs. Every one I've had has been delicious and I'd venture to say better than store bought chicken. Firm, juicy and tasty!

[tgomez]

Smoke the breast meat or turn it into turkey nuggets.