I shot a jake last weekend and have the breasts, legs, and thighs in the freezer (didn't have room for the whole bird). I'm thinking about smoking one of the thigh/legs, and doing a simple turkey noodle soup with some breast meat. I would appreciate recipe suggestions and any tips on cooking them. I've cooked turkey before but not a wild bird.

Don't over cook !!
I wouldn't waste the breast on soup ,just roast or broil. You might baste with butter and herbs but keep it simple .
Use the legs and thighs for smoking or use them in soup. But again keep it simple to get the full flavor of the turkey.

ENJOY !!

Thanks mete!

Explore braising the legs and thighs..
especially the legs as the meat will fall off the tendons..

What everyone else has said. The legs and thighs are full of tendons. Frankly, they would be the best choice for a soup.

I fillet the breasts, slice into fingers, season, batter and fry. Delicious!

I roast, and then finely chop or grind the dark meat, add a small amount of mayonnaise, and finely chopped onion, celery, bell pepper and sweet pickles for a salad. Great in a sandwich, or on crackers as a snack or appetizer.

I always fry the breasts, floured in olive oil.
I cut them into thin strips.

Also, I use a lot of turkey breast in stir fried rice. I cut them into small cubes, around 1/4", flour them and again fry them in olive oil, before I put them into the stir fried rice.

I usually mesquite smoke the thighs. Then I cut them in half and freeze them in seal a meal bags. I thaw them out and eat them with crackers and cheese, ie a "construction lunch".

As stated above, do not over cook wild turkey.

I also save the hearts, livers and gizzards. I have used them for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners in my Giblet gravy, but usually i fry them up with chicken wings as a special treat for ME... The wife "don't eat guts"...

Hearts, livers and gizzards, most especially, ain't guts -- them's giblets! And excellent fare. Be glad your wife doesn't want to eat them!

Great stuff, I appreciate the suggestions!

I think I made a mistake by not saving the heart, which I typically do now. I am not much of a liver guy. My girlfriend is becoming more adventurous, she loves trying different wild game but tried some venison heart I cooked and blood sausage while in Puerto Rico and liked both.

Any preferred wood for smoking turkey? I've got lots of cherry and maple wood scraps on hand that works well with chicken (in my opinion), I was thinking of doing the same with this bird.

For most smoking things like apple ,hickory,corn cobs. One we tried with bacon which was very nice is black birch.

In the spring when season is open + a few of the boys have scored,we meet up at the roping arena for a fry. Cubed out breasts,battered in flour,corn meal,salt+pepper. Deep fried in a cast iron kettle. Does'nt get any better. An aside to this;when my kids were young,all the local ranchers had been cutting calves + so we had us a big fry with lots of ice chests full.When the food was ready my youngest at that time (musta been 7) came + whispered to me,"Dad,what are we eating?!" I told him "Mountain Oysters" + he gave a sigh of relief when he said his older brother told him they were bull nuts.

To each his own. I'm not trying to start an argument, but I find wild turkey to be one of the least edible meats of all. I mean, it just doesn't have much flavor. Before everyone tells me I just haven't tried it or it hasn't been cooked right, I've had it done by and with people who raved about it. I know what I like and I know how to taste just about anything and I find it just above commercial bologna sandwiches. I also think pheasants are nearly worthless as food, if it wasn't for sauces the cats wouldn't eat it.

One of the reasons I don't hunt wild turkeys is because I don't like to eat them, not to mention, check stations, etc.

Love Wild Turkey! I make

(White) Chili
Bolognaese

Risotto (with stocks)

Jerky

And... turkey (with fois gras) Wellingtons

Wild turkey, quail, axis deer are my three favorite wild game meals. Dove, pheasant, and aoudad are my three least favorite.

I would put elk on both lists. I've tasted some excellent elk, and some really nasty tasting elk. Anything tastes better if I shoot it and my wife cooks it; then I know it has been handled correctly from the time it hit the ground to the time it goes in my mouth.

I agree with the idea of using turkey leg meat for soup. That sounds like a very interesting idea. The tendons, like in pheasant, just take the fun out of eating the legs in a normal fashion. Using the wild turkey breast meat for soup makes me cringe.

Kensco,

I agree on the turkey. Deep frying just the breast Cajun style is one of my favorite methods.

But years ago, I figured out that the legs had too much meat to waste, but were basically inedible due to the tendons. Hence the soup idea. If you put the legs and thighs in a big stock pot to boil and remove the meat when it is done and continue to reduce the stock, you can make a great vegetable turkey soup after stripping the edible meat off the bones and tendons. Smoke it before boiling it to add some additional flavour.

+1 and deep frying the breast with Butterball Cajun dry rub on the outside and injectable version inside is DAMN GOOD!

I love to hunt the things but my wife hates to eat them. So, I've taken to boning them out and grinding the entire bird into burger. I can use that in just about anything that calls for ground meat. I put all the bones, neck and giblets in a crockpot with some onion, carrot and spices and let it go all day. Makes a fantastic base for soup after I leave any bits of meat in the stock and finely chop up the giblets and leave them as well.

Nothing goes to waste, the wife doesn't know she is eating wild turkey and I can keep hunting them without feeling guilty about wasting a resource. that a win all around in my book.

So I finally got to cooking some of this bird over the weekend, and I decided to smoke a breast. We'll do a soup and/or pot pie with the legs and thighs. I appreciate the suggestions here.

I started by brining the breast for 24 hours. I got this recipe from a guy I met while fishing earlier this summer.

(For a 12 pound turkey)
One gallon water
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup sugar
tablespoon pink salt
tablespoon whole peppercorns
Five garlic cloves, crushed
2-3 bunches fresh tarragon

Boil until it's all mixed and blended, then cool and throw the meat in. Let it brine for 24-48 hours.

I took it out of the brine, patted it dry, and let it rest at room temp while I prepped the grill. I put a couple of small bricks under the grate of my Weber grill to hold charcoal and wood off to the side with room for a foil pan under the meat for moisture. I decided to use cherry wood for the smoke and cut a big handful of sticks from my pile of wood scraps.

On the grill...


I didn't want the bird to be lonely so I threw some pork loin on too. Slathered in mustard and a spicy garlic rub.

After an hour...



The little strip of turkey cooked fast and was done at that point, and I couldn't resist trying a bit. It was briny but smoky and delicious, like a little strip of soft turkey jerky. Very promising. At this point I started basting the turkey and pork with a Dr. Pepper mix every time I added more wood. I tried adding some olive oil with garlic and herbs added to the turkey but didn't like how the garlic was smelling, so I washed it off with the Dr. Pepper.

Two hours... the breast was just shy of 160 degrees here and I took it off shortly afterwards.



Results... if they all taste this good, man I am hooked on turkey hunting.



My main concern was moisture and the breast was still nice and juicy. Awesome. The grill got a little hot when I first started but I don't think it was an issue outside of my mind here.

Oh yeah the pork turned out pretty good too, after four hours of low heat and smoke:

Nicely done. How'd the soup turn out?

Evan K., admit it, T took those pictures for you, didn't he?

Looks incredibly edible is all I can say.

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
Nicely done. How'd the soup turn out?

Thanks! No soup yet, as my girlfriend wants to give a turkey pot pie a try when we get a free weekend soon. I'm all for that. I think I'll braise or crock-pot them, then pull and chop it a bit.

quote:

Originally posted by Kensco:
Evan K., admit it, T took those pictures for you, didn't he?

Looks incredibly edible is all I can say.

HA! T wasn't around, but I'll credit him for inspiring the photos (and the mustard on the pork above).

I just smoked the other breast a couple weekends ago and it was just as good as the first if not better. I eased up on salt in the brine and added a handful of basil, oregano, and rosemary fresh picked from my garden in addition to the tarragon, which seemed to balance things out a bit. I used a healthy amount of cherry wood for smoke like the first.



I gave half of the breast to the landowners to thank them for letting me hunt on their land and the other half was devoured on a Boundary Waters canoeing trip immediately after we got to our first campsite. Everyone was raving about it so I think this is a recipe to hold onto.

This pot pie was good enough for my girlfriend to declare turkey as her new favorite game meat and tell me to get back in the woods for another. Okay honey, fine by me!





Used this basic recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/turkey-pot-pie/ and my great grandma's flaky pie crust recipe. I coated a leg/thigh in herbed olive oil and roasted it in the oven at 350 degrees in a pan with some broth for about an hour, and simply pulled and chopped the meat once it was cool. The next pie could use a bit more meat, but I thought it was fine regardless.

That looks like it tastes great.

Wild turkey, and wild duck and other wild bird meat is very tasty IF YOU DO NOT OVER COOK IT.

Which is the same for 4 legged wild animals as well...

What is the method for drawing the tendons out of the leg with the feet? I know it can be done, I've had a leg that was tendon-free, but don't know how.

I've got a pretty darned good recipe for turkey leg soup. I use one thigh and one drumstick for each batch.

1 drumstick, 1 thigh
1 box Uncle Ben's Long Grain & Wild Rice with seasoning
1 medium onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
2 bay leaves
2 medium carrots, sliced
1 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
2 cans cream of chicken soup
salt and pepper to taste

What I do is put the thigh/drummie in a slowcooker with 6-8 cups of water, adding the chopped celery and bay leaves and PLENTY of coarse black pepper. I then leave it for 4-6 hours or until the meat starts to fall from the bone. Once this happens, pull the legs from the slow cooker and allow them to cool. Pull the meat from the bone and the tendons should strip right out. Cut the meat into small cubes and return the meat to the slow cooker.

Add all the other ingredients at this point and cook until the carrots are tender, stirring occasionally.

I like to have a nice heavy bread to serve along with the soup. I've found white mountain bread is excellent, especially when warmed up so the butter soaks in.

If you try this, you'll never toss those drumsticks and thighs again. I have a couple of turkey hunting friends that do nothing but breast the bird and toss the rest. They look at me like I'm nuts when I tell them I want the thighs and drumsticks, but I don't mind those looks, the soup is that good!

I brined and smoked a whole wild turkey once. Sliced up the breast meat for sandwiches, and threw the rest of the carcase into a pot and made incredibly good bean soup. Just like using ham hocks, but low fat, and with a turkey flavor. Just pulled the meat out of the tendons and bones and added it back to the soup after simmering for 3 hours. No waste, great taste!

Thanks Shof for the recipe!

I've got half a turkey, two pheasants, a mallard, and two bufflehead ducks brining at the moment to be smoked on Wednesday. A couple of co-workers wanted to use up the last of their birds from last year, so of course I am happy to help. I'm using the same brine recipe I did with the turkey last year except with a little more varied herbs and with some brown sugar and maple syrup. Planning on smoking it all on my Weber again with lump charcoal and cherry wood sticks for flavor too.

I'm turkey hunting again in less than a month, but until then it's nice to have some for the grill.

I never much cared for wild turkey until I had it deep fried with a nice injected marinade. My grandmother made turkey soup with homemade noodles that was great. Wish I had the recipe.

My last round of smoking on the Weber and the delicious results.