13 Steps to Help You How to Carve a Turkey

You have spent all of your enthusiasm and concentration cooking the delicious turkey. Of course, you don’t want the turkey slices to be spoiled or too crushed, nor do you want to present them beautifully and appealing to diners. Don’t worry, we are here to help you learn how to carve a turkey.

How to Carve a Turkey – 13 Easy Steps

Step 1: Let the Turkey Rest

Usually, when people are finished cooking, while the food is still hot we tend to cut it out immediately. This is a mistake with fat turkeys. To ensure the moisture as well as the delicious taste of turkey you should let it rest, relax in a room-temperature environment for 30 – 60 minutes. While you are waiting for the turkey rest you can prepare the necessary utensils to carve the turkey or continue to cook other dishes.

Step 2: Hold the Turkeys

The key thing that determines the success or failure of the successful turkey carve is at this stage. When fixing the turkey on a cutting board you must place the breast on a large cutting board. The turkey’s legs will be closest to you and the wings furthest from you. So when you go through the next steps of how to carve a turkey you can easily rotate and make beautiful slices.

Step 3: Start with Two Turkey Thighs

Hold the chicken position as we showed you in step 2. Now gently hold the turkey’s thigh with your hand, use a knife with the other hand, and slowly cut the thighs out according to its flesh. Cut a line in the skin between the legs and the brisket, run the knife to the hip joint and you have cut the correct muscle.

Step 4: Remove the Leg from the Joint

After you have cut the thighs according to the chicken’s flesh, now put the knife down and pop the leg joint of the body of the chicken. Until you can see the joint where the hip is connected.

Now you pick up the knife and use the tip of the knife to insert and separate the joint from the chicken body. Then pull the rest of the thighs/legs away from the body. Repeat steps 3-4 for the other thigh and leg.

Step 5: Separate the Legs from the Thighs

The part of the thigh that in step 4 you just took out of the turkey’s body is called the chicken thigh. And to be able to carve a turkey so beautiful and attractive, you need to cut the chicken leg out of this large thigh.

To separate the leg from the thigh, find a joint where the leg touches the thigh and cut it straight through with a knife. If you find the correct spot, this cut will be less obstructed and will cut clean. Then you put this leg on a plate and prepare to enjoy it.

Step 6 (Optional): Remove the Femur

This is the step that we guide and further support you. If this is the first time you know how to carve turkey then you can skip this step!

Place the thigh meat that has just been separated from the leg on the cutting board, the skin lying face down in contact with the cutting board. Cut one side of the femur, where you can see the bone, then move the tip of the knife across the length of the bone. Then, flatten the knife and insert the tip underneath the central bone, cutting away from you so the bone can escape. Pull the bone to remove.

Step 7: Cut the Thigh Meat

With the meat that you just removed the bone in step 6, turn up the boneless thigh. Let the skin face up and cut the slice perpendicular to the direction of the bone facing forward. After you have finished cutting the thigh meat, place the sliced ​​meat on a plate and prepare to enjoy.

Step 8: Remove the Wings

You have finished handling the thigh meat and placed it on a plate. The next part you need to deal with is the wings. To cut the turkey’s wings out of your body use the tip of the knife to find the ball joint where the wing touches the chest and cut through to separate. This wing is quite easy to do. You can do the same with the other wing.

Step 9: Cut the Breast Meat out of the Body

After you are done with the wings, rotate the turkey and prepare it with the chicken breast. To get the breast meat out of the turkey, use a knife to cut a line directly down the center of the breasts. Until you see the breast bone or “keel bone” running directly down the center of the breast. This flesh can be quite thick, but it doesn’t require too strong a cut, it just needs to use a force deep enough to reveal the upper part of the bone.

Step 10: Cut Off the Left Breast

After you have cut the flesh and reveal the breastbone. Now continue with the breast meat facing up. Start with the turkey breast on the left first! You need to position your knife just to the left of the sternum and towards the top of the sternum. Cut in a downward direction while your opposite hand pulls the sternum out of the bone as you perform the cut. Keep your blade as close to the ribs as possible, following the rib’s natural curve. Slowly and go through this process until you have completely removed the breast meat from the skeleton.

Step 11: Remove the Right Breast

Once you have the chicken breast on the left side, now rotate the turkey 180 degrees so that the rest of the breast is positioned again on the left side. This will be a little more difficult, so you’ll need to fix the bird with your opposite hand. Place the knife just to the left of the sternum and cut the slice downwards while pulling the meat off the sternum with your opposite hand. Continue to follow the natural curve of the ribs and cut through the cutting board with a knife to remove the brisket.

Step 12: Cut the Breast Meat

With this breast meat, you have 2 ways to cut it. You can put the skin on top, the meat in contact with the cutting board. Then you can cut straight down or cut the skewer according to your preference.

Step 13: Present the Turkey Plate

To how to carve a turkey beautiful after each slice, turn the knife flat and thread the length of the knife under the sliced ​​meat. Use your opposite hand to fix the meat as you carefully transfer it to your serving plate with the wings, thighs, and legs. After that, you arrange on a plate and present the meat beautifully.

Notes How to Carve a Turkey

To Keep Your Carved Turkey Warm

Leaving the turkey at room temperature for 30 – 60 minutes will cause the turkey to lose the necessary warmth in the dish. So if your oven is still warm, you can place the perfectly carved turkey plate in the oven for a short while to warm up. Before you touch the carved turkey plate, cover it with foil and keep it in the oven for up to a minute or two. Remember that you’re just trying to cool the bird a little, not cook more! Get out of the oven. Discard the banknote and serve.

If You Serve Only a Few People

If you serve only a few people and feel that half the turkey is enough, it’s best to slice half the turkey now and save the rest on the carcass for later cutting. The quality of the meat, later on, will be much better if left with the whole bird.

If you have any questions or questions about how to carve a turkey. Do not hesitate to send it to us! We are always here to send you the most compelling and perfect information!