Best Gobbler Recipes

[Sergeant Slabber]

I finally had a succesful turkey hunt this spring and am looking for some different possible ways to prepare it. Let me hear what ya got...Thanks!

[Rolly22]

I'm in the same boat Sarge. If don't see anything better on this site, I think I'll inject and deep-fry.

[dukhnt]

My first bird, I deep fried. The breast meat was awesome. Legs are very tough. All these birds do are walk around all day. Unlike the ones you buy in the store, they have no where to walk to. My next one I made jerkey out of the breast meat. That was some excellent jerkey!!

[castmaster]

deep fried is good. i also like them smoked (breast only) or for jerky, or some good turkey soup.

whatever you do i WOULD NOT reccomend roasting like a store bought turkey. never liked it. even drier than a store bought.

[pikemaster]

I had my first taste of wild gobbler this past weekend. We cooked it just like we cook grouse. Bread in flour/seasoning mix and pan fry. It was excellent. I have heard that as far as deep frying a wild turkey goes, it's only decent with jakes. Toms get too tough. The bird that we pan fried was a 24lb tom with an 11 inch beard from the northwoods of Douglas Co. wisconsin, so I am guessing that it wouldn't have been good deep fried.

[DIRTY BIKER]

Try this one! Garbage Can Turkey! Take a new galvinized garbaged can and wash with dish soap to remove any oil next get a horseshoe stake pound it in the ground so its stable dig out around stake about 6in round and 1in deep to catch the drippings cover ground and stake with tin foil make a ball at top of stake with foil so turkey wont slide down to the ground. Rub turkey with olive oil and lemmon pepper and Mrs.Dash or whatever seasonings you like. Place turkey ontop of stake cover with garbage can upside down make sure its a tight fit to the ground,lift foil up around can edge and seal to can.Place charcol around the edge of can and on top of can approx 20lb bag(might need more depending on weather cold,windy) light and forget about it for 90 mins after that move charcol away from can peal back foil and lift can with pot holders as can is very hot and check temp(Usually 90 mins is good for any where from a 10-20lb bird) If not done replace can and charcol and cook longer. This has really got some looks camping.But its some of the best turkey I have ever had Its very moist but be careful not to over cook it!Bird size dosent seam to make that much difference in time of cooking.I cooked a 32lb domestic wild turkey in about 2.5hrs this spring.Try wireing a can of beer to the top of the stake this really keeps it moist!Try it let me know what you guys think.

[Jackpine Rob]

We did our wild bird at Christmas time and I stuffed the cavity with chunks of onion, apple and celery, then closed it up in one of the oven bags and baked it like a normal turkey. The bag kept things moist, and that was one great-eating bird!!

[Sergeant Slabber]

I was thinking of just doing it in a bag as well with some good seasoning and probably injecting it with some marinade. Someone in an earlier post said not to do it in the oven, but I think the bag will keep it nice and moist. We are having a bunch of people over next weekend for a birthday party, so I don't want to screw this bird up and have to end up ordering pizza.

[Jackpine Rob]

The breast was excellent, as well as the upper wings and thighs. The drumsticks were tough.

I purchased a couple of of those packs of powdered soup mix, and cooked it up with the left over turkey meat (including the tougher stuff) My favorite ended up being the chicken and rice with wild rice, but the chicken noodle was pretty good also.

[harvey lee]

I have smoked all 5 birds that I have harvested. I had a friend that deep fried his and he said that it is even better than smoked.I guess that I will need to go turkey hunting again and try it.

[Sergeant Slabber]

I've had domestic turkey from a deep frier before and agree that it's awesome! I'm wondering how a wild turkey would turn out since they really don't have any skin to protect the meat. Does a guy need to coat it with something first? This is why I'm a little leary of doing it in the frier.

[LABS4ME]

They have skin if you pluck them...

I've injected and deep fried a couple, the breast meat was good, the thighs O.K. and the drumsticks were useless. I've roasted them in a bag on the grill, the meat was moist and it was good, but the drumsticks were still to tough.

Now I pluck the breast, cut it out whole with the bone on and do whatever I like (smoke, deep fry or roast). the thighs and drumsticks get added to our wild game booya. I've made soup out of the thighs before and it was tasty, but you gotta like dark meat as they are real dark.

Good Luck!

Ken

[Jackpine Rob]

I pluck my turkeys. The skin helps hold in the moisture.

[Hotspotter]

I grill the breasts. Trick is in the marinade.

I have two that are not very precise, but here goes.

Teryakish Marinade

-1/2-2/3 can coke

-1/2 cup soy

-Good shot or two of olive oil

-garlic - a few cloves if you like, minced

-seasoning salt - celery, spike, lawrys - whichever you prefer - not too much as the soy has plenty of salt

-fresh ginger if you like

Lemon/Garlic/Herb

-Lemon - juice from one whole lemon

-A few cloves of garlic

-Fresh parsely is my fav., but you could do well with many different fresh herbs

-dry white whine - a splash or two

-pinch or two of dry mustard

-seasoning salt of your choice

-vinegar - only a capfull at most (to break down muscle fibers)

I usually grill on the non-stick foil if that helps. Can't remember the grilling technique tho, have to look at a book to be certain.

Joel

[Borch]

I pluck mine so that I can deep fry them. I inject them with cajun seasoning and then rub them down with some more. I'll let the bird sit in the fridge at least 4 hours but prefer to do it overnight to let the marinade distibute through out the meat. The legs are pretty tough. Everything else tastes very good.

We've done one without the skin and with that one we coated the bird light with fry magic. It got pretty dark but the bird stayed moist and tasted good.

[UNIT]

I have grilled my turkey breast coated with olive oil, salt and pepper and it got to dry. There must be a fine line for temp with poultry. Cook book said to get internal temp of 180 and I took it off at 170 and let it rest and it got way to dry. Next time will use a marinade. I have also deep fried a whole turkey with creole butter injection and it turned out great. Would definitely do it again. The oven cooking bag is a great invention because it makes cooking turkey easy. The meat is always moist and I have never been dissatisfied.

[Sergeant Slabber]

I've decided to try it in a bag for my first attempt. I'll be cooking it up tomorrow and I'll give a report on Monday.

[smoked perch]

the best i've done it is to use a marinade (overnite). i usually use my 'fridge door' sauce (soy, teryaki, worchester, apple juice, italian dressing) as a base, and add spices such as cumin, onion powder, cayanne, blk pepper, salt, cilantro, fennel, fresh garlic (anything you like). refer to earlier post jnelson marinades if you need more specific quantities. or, when in doubt, don't go overboard.

i usually smoke the bird for 2 hrs @ 200-225 F, then finish off in the dutch oven (with a mixture of apple juice and a bit of white wine to keep moist). 350F for 40-60 min.

the d.o. keeps the bird nice and moist. to keep from killing the drumsticks, add legs/thighs to d.o. 15-20 minutes after the breast-wings.

[Sergeant Slabber]

I did the gobbler this weekend in a bag. It could have come out of the oven about a half hour sooner, and it would have been perfect. It got a little dry in spots near the breast bone, but the main part of the breast was really good. I injected garlic/herb marinade in one breast, left the other side plain, and put a rub over the whole thing. Overall, I was happy with my first attempt at cooking a gobbler. Can't wait till next time!

[Tom Linderholm]

Next time you try the bag method try mixing all your flavoring with Mayoniasse and rub it all over the bird, then stuff it in a paper bag. I think you'll like the end result.

[Sergeant Slabber]

Thanks for the tip Cheffrey! Would I still put the bird inside the plastic turkey bag, or just cook the whole thing in a paper bag?

[Tom Linderholm]

Just cook the whole thing in a paper bag, just make sure its saturated with moisture from the mayo other wise you may have a small fire hazzard.