Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Need help cooking a "skinned" turkey

I harvested a couple of wild turkeys this season. I dont know how this happened, but when plucking the birds, I ripped the skins off of them. What is the best way to prepare a bird without the sking. I would like to do it in the oven, and would like to prepare the entire birds. On older birds, I usually breast them out, and use the legs and wings in a stew. But with the younger birds, I like to make them whole. ANy help and advice would be appreciated.

You could incorporate the meat into any number of dishes as I'm sure you know. Stir frying, grilling, breading and then deep frying, sauteing. To roast without the skin? I've never done it. You could also try deboning and grinding the meat for use in a casserole or Tex-Mex style tortilla dish. I guess you're going to learn something one way or the other.

The only way I would attempt this is in a Reynolds cooking bag. Other options include covering the meat with oil, shortening or melted butter soaked cheese cloth. Or covering the meat with slices of bacon. Even inside the cooking bag, I would probably cover the meat somehow. I'll wait and see what somebody else says...

My advice would be against roasting the bird whole without any skin. I'd part it out, and use it different ways in other dishes, maybe grill the breasts.

Plus one on what has been stated above.

breasts down in the roaster so they don't dry out.bacon strips over the back to add moisture.

or(I prefer)

bacon on the roaster bottom,t!ts up with bacon slices across for the same reason.

you can throw some mandarin orange pieces or apple slices in to add moisture as well...doesn't hurt the flavor any either

you can also drizzle some cooking oil over it as well.

you just need to replace the moisture lost with the skin...you are only limited by your imagination.

Another +1

Do a search on brining a turkey. This will add moisture to an already "dry" bird (wild). Then I would roast slowly breast
(.)(.) down. In the future, scalding a turkey like a chicken will enable the feathers to fall off in your hands and leave the skin intact.

Unless you have a covered casserole pan or dish capable of handling a whole bird, I'd not advise roasting in the oven. Unless one literally stands there to tend (basting) the bird, it will be a dry and potentially tough product.

I'd suggest parting it down, maybe giving it just a little grill time to impart flavor, and then going to a casserole dish with some mushroom soup, sour cream, cooking sherry, and perhaps some other flavor imparting ingrediants on and around the parts. 350 for and hour or two and one should end up with some tender and tastey cuts.

Good luck,
1Minute

Go back to page 6 in this forum and look at "sharptail recipes".
I would part out your turkey and try it as I described for sharptails and other grouse/chicken. Whether you stuff the breasts with cheese/prosciutto is up to you. You can lightly brown the prosciutto wrapped meat before adding to veggies and putting sauce on.

cover the bird with cheesecloth. Rub the cheesecloth with olive oil, and cook as normal.

We had some turkey breasts from the Boys' trip to North Dakota. I chunked them up, battered them and fried them. Turkey McNuggets of a sort. They were very good. I made the batter with a sort of pancake batter, but put some mustard in it. Dipped them in ranch dressing. They were moist and tasty.

There are tons of recipes for skinless chicken breasts, just get creative.

Last year after Thanksgiving I went by Costco and they were blowing out the leftover turkeys. Some how I figured three 20+ pound birds could be put to good use I skinned and parted out two of the birds and used them for various dishes such as taco's, stir fry etc.

Batter and chicken fry and serve with biscuits and gravy.

Have made tequila marinated fajitas out of the breast meat as well as jerky.

breast down in the drippings and cover the bird with bacon.