Butcher Your Bird

If you’ve never shot a wild turkey, the moments after you pull the trigger are a lot to take in. After all the anticipation—the distant gobbles that drew ever closer, the drumming that rattled your eardrums like a bad car stereo from just out of sight, the final footfalls through last year’s leaves—suddenly, there it is. The biggest bird you’ve likely ever seen in the flesh lies at your feet, wings beating the ground and spurs kicking momentarily before slowing to a stop and leaving the woods once again still—except for your trembling hands.

When the handshakes and high-fives end, you’re left with a new challenge: What do I do with this thing? It’s 20 pounds of skin and enough feathers to fill a garbage bag; of scaly legs that look like they were pulled off a dinosaur; of bony protrusions and fleshy growths that seem altogether incompatible with the shape of those birds neatly shrink-wrapped in the grocer’s freezer.

For the uninitiated, it seems overwhelming, but it’s really not bad. And although there are several ways to process a wild turkey, there’s no need to get fancy. Let’s focus on the simplest one. It’s easiest to pull off and will result in cuts of meat that are the most manageable and versatile to cook. And you’ll appreciate that when you start preparing your first wild turkey meal.

Start Cutting

First, lay the gobbler on its back, with its head pointed away from you. Near the center of the bird in the glossy, nearly black, flat-tipped breast feathers, pull up on the skin and make an incision through it large enough to fit your fingers. If you’re having a hard time getting at the skin itself or seeing what you’re doing, take a moment to pluck feathers from the area to give you enough room to work.

Next, grab the skin on each side of the incision with both hands and pull down and away from the center of the bird. The skin should easily tear open and separate from the meat below, exposing the breast. Now you’ll likely see a pale white line running lengthwise down the center of the bird—if you can’t actually see this, use your fingers to feel for it. This is the keel bone, and it separates the two halves of the breast. Using a sharp fillet knife or similar thin blade, make a cut tight to one side of this bone along its full length, cutting downward until you hit bone at the base of the keel. Holding the breast meat along this cut, turn your knife’s edge to the side and begin cutting away from the keel, being careful to keep tight to the body cavity.

Eventually, you’ll run out of breast meat as you work away from the keel, freeing the breast. The trickiest part is on the upper (head-end) of the breast where it meets the wishbone, but just keep cutting tight along the bone structure until you’ve freed up all meat the color of grocery-store chicken breast.

You should now be left with a roughly triangle-shaped breast. Take a moment to clean up any ragged ends, bloodshot meat, fat, tendons, feathers or anything else you don’t want to chew on later. Then repeat the same process for the opposite side.

Next, it’s on to those drumsticks and thighs—and don’t let anyone convince you they’re not worth taking from your hard-earned bird. Not utilizing this meat qualifies as wanton waste in some jurisdictions, but regardless, you’re shortchanging yourself a couple great meals if you leave these on the bird.

Taking them is easy. First, use cuts you previously made for the breast removal to slide your fingers under the skin and pull it free around the base of the leg, and continue pulling it free up the leg toward the foot. Feel free to make new incisions in the skin to free up stubborn areas. When you reach the joint where the skin and feathers meet the scales of the lower leg and foot, make a cut around the joint, freeing the skin. Then, grasping the drumstick with one hand and the lower leg with the other, bend the joint backwards against itself until it pops, then use your knife to cut the tendons and tissues until the lower leg detaches completely.

Next, hold the keel with one hand and push down hard on the meaty part of the drumstick until the ball-and-socket joint at the turkey’s hip pops free. It sometimes helps to position the bird along the edge of a table or tailgate when doing this to provide more leverage. With this joint free, simply slice tight along the hip until the leg is released. Repeat the process for the opposite drumstick. Again, remove any blood-shot meat, bits of bone or anything else you wouldn’t want in your meal.

And there you have it. That big gobbler that seemed like a such a puzzle when you first hoisted him over your shoulder and felt his weight pinch against your collarbone is quickly reduced to four primary cuts awaiting the freezer. Check out recipes on how to make the best use of each one on our Wild Eats page.