Cooking wild turkey

[mitchparker6]

Last time I cooked a wild turkey I cooked it whole on the traeger. I brined it, and cooked the whole bird, the breast meat turned out wonderful, but the legs, thighs, and wings were dry dry dry. Any body have any tips or tricks to keep those from drying out? Or how to cook a wild turkey?

 

[indaswamp]

best to separate the breast from the legs on wild turkeys. I like to cure and brine the breast then smoke and honey glaze.
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/turkey-time.262935/
The legs, I like to smoke, then simmer in a stock pot until they fall apart. Pick the pin bones out and it makes a great pot pie or soup.
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/smoked-turkey-legs-and-cauliflower-soup.269196/
The thighs, I have been making tasso...I used goose thighs in this post, but have one turkey as well, they work too...
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/time-for-goose-thigh-tasso.311949/

 

[thirdeye]

I grew up around turkeys, that were pretty wild. And mean. Sometimes, even the gravy is tough when you cook an old bomber.


Nowadays, they come over to visit and tease me from time to time. The best advice is to shoot a young bird, inject if you are cooking larger parts, or use butter if you pan fry like a pheasant.

 

[tallbm]

Last time I cooked a wild turkey I cooked it whole on the traeger. I brined it, and cooked the whole bird, the breast meat turned out wonderful, but the legs, thighs, and wings were dry dry dry. Any body have any tips or tricks to keep those from drying out? Or how to cook a wild turkey?

Hi there and welcome!

I have never had the luck to bag and/or cook a wild turkey but I would follow what indaswamp suggests because it is what I would do AND he knows what is talking about when it comes to food :D

 

[indaswamp]

Or....if you want easy, can't beat cooking the breast this way:
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/buttermilk-battered-fried-wild-turkey-nuggets.295508/

 

[DougE]

I've never managed to bag one. I see them around my farm, but either out of season (nobody would know if I took one out of season on my farm, but I would) or when I don't have anything at hand to shoot one. The guys I know who have taken them usually skin them out, rather than plucking them, and deep fry.

 

[tallbm]

I've never managed to bag one. I see them around my farm, but either out of season (nobody would know if I took one out of season on my farm, but I would) or when I don't have anything at hand to shoot one. The guys I know who have taken them usually skin them out, rather than plucking them, and deep fry.

Yeah I can understand that.

In my mind it would be cool if I had turkey's and hogs available at the same time. I think I would pull double duty and rock a .223/5.56 for earhole shots on the pigs and still be able to take a turkey hopefully without destroying it too much.

 

[DougE]

Yeah I can understand that.

In my mind it would be cool if I had turkey's and hogs available at the same time. I think I would pull double duty and rock a .223/5.56 for earhole shots on the pigs and still be able to take a turkey hopefully without destroying it too much.

No wild hogs to shoot around here, I suppose that's a plus, but there is no season for them in Kentucky. You can take them at any time, no bag limit.

 

[Sven Svensson]

I’m curious how they taste compared to what we’re sold in the stores. Is there a big difference?

 

[DougE]

I’m curious how they taste compared to what we’re sold in the stores. Is there a big difference?

Similar, but much more lean. Farm raised turkeys have been bred to carry much more fat than their wild counterparts.

 

[tallbm]

No wild hogs to shoot around here, I suppose that's a plus, but there is no season for them in Kentucky. You can take them at any time, no bag limit.

Your turkey regulation is close to our TX feral hog regulation.
They are considered a pest BUT you have to have a hunting license to hunt them. At that point you can hunt them anytime of year any way you like with no limits lol.
I earhole them or try for between the earhole and eyeball so I don't need a big caliber and can go low enough in grain weight to load for turkey but take a pig :D

 

[DougE]

Turkeys have a spring and fall season even land owners have to abide by just like deer. Hogs have no season and can be taken any time.

Hunting licenses/tags are not required for land owners hunting on their own property, but they still want us to check deer and turkeys in through the telecheck system so they can track harvests.

 

[tallbm]

Turkeys have a spring and fall season even land owners have to abide by just like deer. Hogs have no season and can be taken any time.

Hunting licenses/tags are not required for land owners hunting on their own property, but they still want us to check deer and turkeys in through the telecheck system so they can track harvests.

Ahhh same. I misunderstood. We are pretty much the same on turkeys then... to my knowledge at least. I don't get to hunt them so I am not fresh on our details in the state :D

 

[Gonna Smoke]

Last time I cooked a wild turkey I cooked it whole on the traeger. I brined it, and cooked the whole bird, the breast meat turned out wonderful, but the legs, thighs, and wings were dry dry dry. Any body have any tips or tricks to keep those from drying out? Or how to cook a wild turkey?

Keith, indaswamp , has you covered. I will make a perloo with the legs, thighs, and wings after smoking.

No wild hogs to shoot around here, I suppose that's a plus, but there is no season for them in Kentucky. You can take them at any time, no bag limit.

You've got to live in one of the few places that doesn't have wild hogs, consider yourself lucky especially if you're a crop farmer. Years ago a wildlife biologist came to talk to us at our hunt club about deer management, this was long before we had hogs on our property. He said in his travels he gets asked 2 questions about hogs a lot..."How do we get them on our property?" and "How to get rid of them?". Here in SC, there is no season and they can be shot at night.

Turkeys have a spring and fall season

We never had a statewide fall turkey season, only in the upstate the week after Thanksgiving. That was the only time I would hunt them because the fish are biting too good in April. They did away with our fall season about 1990 or so...

 

[tallbm]

Keith, indaswamp ,


You've got to live in one of the few places that doesn't have wild hogs, consider yourself lucky especially if you're a crop farmer. Years ago a wildlife biologist came to talk to us at our hunt club about deer management, this was long before we had hogs on our property. He said in his travels he gets asked 2 questions about hogs a lot..."How do we get them on our property?" and "How to get rid of them?". Here in SC, there is no season and they can be shot at night.

I have a digital day/night scope setup now incase I want to try them at night. Still needs an IR light to work well with it. My first outing with the scope this past Jan I found that my 3 different loading "zeros" were not labeled correctly. So missed the same pig 2 times with 2 different loadings/zeros.

Long story short is that on the scope you can create a new zero but then you can only label/title the zero profile with a phone app that I did not have on me at the time. So I labeled them after the fact... seems I labeled them wrong so need to go back to the range and correct that lol.

It just goes to show that you should always shoot some paper ANYTIME you change something and it's also good to do so at the hunting location so that you know if something was knocked off during travel... had that happen too but caught at the hunting sight and corrected :)

 

[DougE]

No wild hogs to shoot around here, I suppose that's a plus, but there is no season for them in Kentucky. You can take them at any time, no bag limit.

Correction: The KY dept of wildlife is now asking people not to shoot the hogs, but to report sitings to them. There aren't any out where I live to shoot, or not, anyhow.

Wild Pig Home

fw.ky.gov