How to Carve a Turkey

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Does your turkey look perfect when you take it out of the oven and then like it was attacked by left handed Wolverines after you carve it? Here's how to carve a turkey with minimal effort & maximum visual impact.

On television, families are always shown serving their entire, whole turkey on the Thanksgiving table. The cardigan clad father stands over it, 2 tined prong in one hand & a carving knife in the other ready to pierce through the crisp skin of the turkey into the succulent meat beneath as the whole family looks on.

This is the silver food dome at Christmas.

In my house, the turkey gets pre-carved in the kitchen by my sister, set in a silver cloche with the dome on & placed on the dining room table.

When the dome is removed for all to see, the turkey still basically looks like a turkey.

Carving your turkey this particular way allows you to present what appears to be a whole turkey on the table, when in fact it's a completely carved, ready to go turkey.

This cuts down on the risk of having a drunk carver fall across the dining room table with a sharp knife in their hand.

Get your good lookin' cooked turkey onto a cutting board. I give my sister an electric knife for carving. You can do this with a regular carving knife but an electric knife makes it quicker and easier.

Whole, golden, roasted turkey on a black cutting board.

Turkey Tip #1

Line your turkey with cheesecloth so when it comes time to remove the stuffing you can just pull the bag out!

Turkey Tip #2

Stuff both ends of the turkey. The butt and the neck. More stuffing equals more happiness.

Removing a cheesecloth bag of stuffing from a turkey.

Cut off your drumsticks by following around the joint with your knife. Once you're through all the meat, pull downward on the drumstick to pop the joint out.

Cutting the drumstick off a golden brown turkey using an avocado green electric knife.

2. Now you're left with the thigh meat on the turkey. Remove that using the same method. Cut around the meat, then pop the joint.

3. Remove the whole wing.

At this point your turkey should look like this ...

4. Now slice down the breastbone, keeping close to the bone, to remove the entire breast.

Removing the entire breast from a whole cooked turkey.

You now have all the parts off the bird. (do both sides obviously ... I just showed you the one side for demonstration purposes)

5. Put your turkey breast on the cutting board and slice it crosswise.

Slicing a whole turkey breast crosswise for assembling on a platter.

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6. Repeat the slicing on the thighs.

7. Now the fun part. Reassembling the turkey.

Turkey carved and reassembled to look like a whole turkey for serving.

You need something for all the parts to rest on so first fill your platter with stuffing. Then you can lay down all the bits of thigh you cut and any remaining meat you can get off the carcass.
You're creating a mound which you'll rest the larger turkey parts on.
Then, picking them up with a long spatula, carefully lay your breast slices on either side of the stuffing.
Next place the wings and add the drumsticks on the end. I've also included the neck/breast portion of the bird which when you cut it off is a sheet of skin, filled with stuffing.

I didn't spend a ton of time making this platter of turkey look perfect and it's a terrible photo so whatever you create should look at LEAST as good as this.

You could spend a lot more time assembling it so it looks spectacular. But ... it's Thanksgiving. The cranberry sauce is on the stove, the potatoes aren't mashed, you have to make the gravy and Uncle Jack is getting drunk again.

Not to mention the fact that your own Diet Coke glass seems to be empty.