Here's a prep shot. I know from messing with whole chickens that once they've been frozen and injected with saline that they will continue to leak and leak fluids no matter how many paper towels you have to pat them dry, so I decided to use a pair of plastic platters as cutting boards. I also have a bag for putting the random extra bits in for stock. You should always save poultry skin and bones for stock because its so incredibly easy to make stock at home!
Here's the turkey just unwrapped. Despite days of thawing, there was ice in the folds and the entire center of the bird. This is a trouble I regularly have when trying to thaw any kind of meat in my refrigerator. I also had trouble removing the wire holder from around the legs and vent (the turkey's rear) there. The popup thermometer came out pretty easily for having a barbed end.
The giblet package was in the neck skin area and the neck was shoved up the vent. Here's a shot after I took that out and used shears to remove the skin.
The next step was to cut down the middle of the breast bone and separate the two breast portions from each other. This was a relatively difficult step in a turkey compared to a chicken, but I found that I was able to get pretty good leverage with the poultry shears. Next, you fold open the turkey "like a book."
Pretty gross, I know. I usually take a moment to clean up anything the processing people might have left behind up in here. Next, flip over the turkey and press down on the backbone (snap!) to free it up from the surrounding meat.
Then flip it back over and cut down from neck to vent on both sides of the backbone to remove it. I found that I had to use the shears for leverage again. Seems my boning and carving knives could use a sharpening. They didn't even want to cut through the skin. Now you have 2 turkey halves.
I decided to cut the halves into quarters: breast, thigh, leg, and wing. You could just halve it or you could just leave the wing on the breast. Turkey wings are less meaty and way more full of skin than chicken wings. You could take most of the wing off and put it in the stock bag. I put a few red lines on this pic to show roughly where the parts separate at.
Cutting the turkey into quarters goes pretty easily if you start by separating the thigh from the breast first. If you lift up the drumstick, you can easily see the separation between the two to cut through. Next I separated the wing by lifting it up and finding the joint. Separating the drumstick from the thigh can be tricky because you have a huge bone at the joint, which might be a good excuse to leave them attached.
And here's the turkey exactly how it came from the store:
Here's the turkey just unwrapped. Despite days of thawing, there was ice in the folds and the entire center of the bird. This is a trouble I regularly have when trying to thaw any kind of meat in my refrigerator. I also had trouble removing the wire holder from around the legs and vent (the turkey's rear) there. The popup thermometer came out pretty easily for having a barbed end.
The giblet package was in the neck skin area and the neck was shoved up the vent. Here's a shot after I took that out and used shears to remove the skin.
The next step was to cut down the middle of the breast bone and separate the two breast portions from each other. This was a relatively difficult step in a turkey compared to a chicken, but I found that I was able to get pretty good leverage with the poultry shears. Next, you fold open the turkey "like a book."
Pretty gross, I know. I usually take a moment to clean up anything the processing people might have left behind up in here. Next, flip over the turkey and press down on the backbone (snap!) to free it up from the surrounding meat.
Then flip it back over and cut down from neck to vent on both sides of the backbone to remove it. I found that I had to use the shears for leverage again. Seems my boning and carving knives could use a sharpening. They didn't even want to cut through the skin. Now you have 2 turkey halves.
I decided to cut the halves into quarters: breast, thigh, leg, and wing. You could just halve it or you could just leave the wing on the breast. Turkey wings are less meaty and way more full of skin than chicken wings. You could take most of the wing off and put it in the stock bag. I put a few red lines on this pic to show roughly where the parts separate at.
Cutting the turkey into quarters goes pretty easily if you start by separating the thigh from the breast first. If you lift up the drumstick, you can easily see the separation between the two to cut through. Next I separated the wing by lifting it up and finding the joint. Separating the drumstick from the thigh can be tricky because you have a huge bone at the joint, which might be a good excuse to leave them attached.
I put them into 3 freezer bags: wings & legs, thighs, and breasts. I put the first two bags into the freezer but will likely put the breasts into the crock pot today or tomorrow. I want to cook them and then shred the meat to use in meals since one breast could probably feed both of us.
Normally, I would prefer not to thaw and refreeze something this much, but it was done using the safest thaw method and more processed turkey can actually be frozen and thawed multiple times before it gets to your house (and still costs you more because of labor!) And also, I was right about that whole leaking fluids thing...
Final step: disinfect. Seriously... use bleach. Turkeys are filthy.
