Ideas for preparing turkey meats?

[quigley777]

Besides average roasting, whats your faviourite way to prepare turkey?

 

[Katie H]

Love smoked turkey legs. Tasty and a great finger food way to eat turkey.

 

[Candocook]

I use ground turkey for many things--meatloaf, chili, spagetti sauce. Other than Thanksgiving, I don't ever cook a whole turkey through the year because we don't really care for dark meat. I use turkey breast for making (the BEST) chicken salad!!
I did to a braise of turkey drumsticks that was pretty delicious--rubbed with garam masala and braised in the oven.

 

[Uncle Bob]

Hickory smoked!!!
Fried is not bad either.......

 

[urmaniac13]

You can substitute with turkey for most of the chicken recipes. To me, turkey provides some extra flavour and richness compared to chicken.

 

[jkath]

I love turkey in all forms. It's so much better than chicken, I think. Homemade turkey soup is such a comfort food! Also, turkey pie, turkey tetrizzini (sp?), turkey breasts parmesan...
I like to make whole turkeys as often as I can. Right now I've got one defrosting in the fridge.
I also like to use ground turkey as a nice alternative to beef in some of my dishes.

 

[BreezyCooking]

Since my husband doesn't eat red meat, we consume a LOT of poultry - turkey in particular. At all times I will have ground turkey, turkey drumsticks, turkey cutlets, different varieties of turkey sausages, marinated turkey strips, turkey tenderloins, smoked turkey thighs, turkey ham, turkey pastrami - you name it, it's probably in my freezeror fridge at this moment or I've cooked it recently.

As far as favorite ways to make turkey besides our roasted Thanksgiving bird? You name it, I've probably done it. I use cutlets for "Turkey Piccata" & "Turkey Marsala"; ground turkey for stirfries, lasagna, tacos, burgers, meatloaf, etc.; tenderloins to cut into chunks for kebabs; marinated strips for burritos, faquitas, & stirfries; sausage for pasta sauces, pasta veggie/tosses, sub sandwiches, etc.

I no longer purchase smoked turkey thighs from the supermarket as I find they WAY too salty. I order them from Burger's Smokehouse instead.
(Burgers' Smokehouse Home Page) This company has the best smoked turkey thighs on the planet. Each one is large & individually vacuum-packed. I either nuke 1 apiece in the microwave for 2 minutes per side (& serve with buttered egg noodles & green beans) or just use one to add to black bean or split pea soup. They're just wonderful, & not salty at all - just nice & smoky.

As you can see, if it's made of turkey, I've probably cooked it, enjoyed it, & can give you a recipe for it - lol!!

 

[Michael in FtW]

Humm .. depends on my mood. I like brined and slow smoked (like Uncle Bob said - Hickory - but Pecan or even Apple wood isn't a bad alternative), but I also like deep fried. Heck - I see nothing wrong with "plain old roasted"!

 

[BreezyCooking]

Oh - I've also made regular (unsmoked) turkey drumsticks using recipes for lamb shanks (reducing the cooking time, of course), & they come out fabulous. I usually serve them on a bed of cooked northern white beans which helps to soak up that wonderful garlic/wine sauce.

 

[Constance]

My husband does all kinds of wonderful things with turkeys. He brines'em, he smokes'em and he injects'em, he fries'em, and he roasts'em on the gas grill.
But I love my good old easy way, like my first MIL taught me. Season him throughly, put breast down in a roasting pan, tent with foil and cook at about 325 until the leg and thigh wiggle loose. Turn it over and take off the foil the last bit to brown the skin if you want, but it will still be crispy and good if you don't.
That is the MOST tender, tasty and juicy turkey you've ever eaten, and you have nice goodies for gravy.

I notice no one has mentioned the use of a cooking bag. My son-in-law did that for Thanksgiving, and the turkey was extremely juicy and tender, even the white meat, which I usually find a little dry. But I didn't care for the flavor. Maybe it was just in my mind, but it seemed to have a "taste".

 

[VickiQ]

Have you ever marinated a whole trukey?? It's great. I make one every Palm Sunday. Juice 6 lemons saving the rinds mix with 1/2 cup soy sauce and 2 cups dijon mustard.In the cavity of the turkey place the lemon rinds with fresh rosemary,basil and oregano.(I stuff in stems and all).Pour marinade all over the top and sides of the turkey.Lay more of the fresh herbs on the top and some stuffed between the wing and body. Cover with plastic wrap and let marinate for up to three days.Follow roasting directions for the size bird you have. I usually make between a 15 and 20 pounder.I also keep it covered with foil the 1st 45 minutes to an hour to keep the herbs from burning.Baste every half hour or so.The drippings make a great gravy too-I got this recipe from a show called Home and Family many years ago.I have long lost the original recipe but, have managed to remember it-go figure!!!!I hope you enjoy this! Love and energy, Vicki

 

[StirBlue]

A friend told me that she cuts her turkey (legs, thighs, breast...etc), seasons it and roast it in the oven. I had a 10lb turkey and cut it up into these pieces. (I can't imagine dealing with a 20-24lb turkey...so heavy) I was very happy with the results. This is definitely a keeper in the recipe box.

 

[aesthete]

thanksgivings have become such a large event at my house (20-30 people) that I make 3 turkeys, one fried, one smoked, and one baked. I know fried turkeys were a big fad for awhile, but they really do produce the juciest meat of all the methods. For the smoked turkey I used hickory, despite many warnings on the net that hickory is too strong a flavored wood for turkey, i alleviated that by cutting way back on the amount of hickory smoke used compared to a pork shoulder.

For oven roasting, I found a brine recipe on this board, brined the bird, and rather than use foil to control the heating of the breasts, I covered the breasts with a olive-oil soaked cheesecloth. I was really happy with the results and will do that again next year.

 

[Constance]

Aesthete, my grandma used the cheesecloth on the breast method, too, except she used butter. That was before we even heard of cholesterol.

 

[aesthete]

I was going to use butter, but one of my diners has a dairy allergy, so I tried olive oil as it's one of the few instances where replacing butter with olive oil was possibly going to produce a better result. I was happy with the olive oil/sage flavor combination.

as a side note, i made a second batch of mashed potatoes with olive oil instead of butter (and rosemary as a seasoning) and it was also fantastic.

Aesthete, my grandma used the cheesecloth on the breast method, too, except she used butter. That was before we even heard of cholesterol.

 

[jeanettemn]

Smoked turkey legs are a treat

 

[McDaddy]

no matter how you decide to cook it the one thing you must do is completely cover the turkey in a kosher salt water solution (one cup to gal.) at least for twelve hours prior to cooking. Might want to rinse quickly after removing from from brine to knock off a little of the salty taste. This makes turkey oh so juicy.

 

[Robo410]

turkey breast is very nice braised in broth with rosemary

 

[AllenOK]

I love Smoked Turkey Legs. I usually fix these once or twice in the course of a summer. I've already done one batch this year. My kids went nuts for them, as usual.

The Tulsa State Fair is in a couple of weeks. I used to go strictly for the Smoked Turkey Legs. I'm not going this year, as A) I can't afford to go, and B) Like many people, I'm boycotting the Fair since the County Fairgrounds Board decided to evict the local amusement park. I need to get some Turkey Legs soon, and smoke them up.

I really like Fried Turkey. I wish I had a Turkey Fryer. Hopefully one of these years, I'll get one. Of course, I could just fry one at work, and save myself some money.

 

[Caine]

A Filipina friend makes turkey adobo with legs and thighs.