Wild Turkey

[dale2242]

I took my 11 year old Great granddaughter fall turkey hunting for her first time .
She made a great head shot on a young one with her 20 gauge.
We have never eaten wild turkey before and have heard a lot of pros and cons about it.
I filleted out the breast and thighs, sliced them fairly thin and tenderized them with a meat hammer.
Grandma pan fried them like you would chicken.
They were tender and very tasty.
We had them for the granddaughters 12th birthday dinner.
She can get one more tag before the end of the year for $10.50.
We adults have to pay $24.50 for a turkey tag....dale

[Tatume]

Wonderful. Wild turkey has much better flavor than domestic, especially store bought. Good for you, and good for your Great granddaughter.

[Duster340]

Congrats to your great grand daughter! I love wild Turkey and use the entire bird. Pluck, break down wings, thighs, legs, breast and back. I deep fry the breast and make barbacoa/shreded pulled pork type recipes with the other parts. Takes a bit of time and work to cook it down and pull the meat off the bones. But the reward is pounds of delicious tender goodness.

[Lance Boyle]

Congrats to the grand daughter and you. It’s wonderful to see the girls partake. 25 years ago it was a rare thing. Good job.

Wonderful. Wild turkey has much better flavor than domestic, especially store bought. Good for you, and good for your Great granddaughter .

For the generic supermarket turkeys I agree. There are some fine eating heritage strains. My seasonal neighbor runs a gentleman’s farm and supplies his wife’s NYC restaurant with items he grows. A couple years ago he lost a turkey on round up for the pre holiday processing. It ended up hanging around my yard with the chickens. By that time of the year my neighborbwas gone until spring. When it started roosting on my roof and picking grit from the shingles it needed to go. I shot it in the head and plucked the whole bird. Roasted it with stuffing.

That bird was altogether different and much nicer tasting than supermarket. Then again it’s raised in mobile fences with turkey roosts on hay wagon frames. They are on fresh grass in the field not in a turkey warehouse. You don’t get that flavor from a butterball factory bird. Then it was on the loose for about 5 weeks, eating in the wild for two of those weeks before camping out at my place when the snows fell and mooching chicken feed.

[owejia]

Cooked a wild bird using a shake and bake bag years ago, was rich moist and tender. Good eats.

[DxieLandMan]

Congratulations for your 11 year old Great Granddaughter! I too have heard stories about wild turkey being gamey and such. I took a turkey breast, seared it on each side for 5 minutes and then put it in the oven in a baste of lemon, lime juices and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Baked for 22-25 minutes and then served the baste on the side. It was a hit at Thanksgiving. Yours will be too!

[Smoke4320]

Congrats on the granddaughter and getting a Turkey.. More female hunters will also help in the coming gun rights fights

[Tripplebeards]

Awesome! I just make chili with ground wild turkey breast. I fried the burger up with virgin olive oil, rib rub seasoning, and brown sugar before adding it to the pot. I normally make jerkey or batter fried strips or nuggets out of the breast and grind the leg meat for chili, burgers, or hamburger helper mixes. I can’t stand bland, store bought turkey but wild turkey tastes great.