So you want to know how to debone a turkey. It’s not difficult, it does however help if you know a little turkey physiology (where the joints are).

Before I deboned my turkey, I brined it in an 8 to 1 water to salt solution for 24 hours. I rinsed it well and patted it dry.

I made a stuffing for it. In our family, my dad, (Shimmy) is the stuffing king and so I use his recipe.

Stuffing for one 12 to 15 pound turkey

1 loaf bread (pre-seasoned & herbed bread is great)

4 stalks of celery, chopped

2 onions, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

4 cups mushrooms, sliced

2 to 4 cups of chicken stock to moisten the mixture.

Always season with salt and pepper to taste.

I start with my mix of onions, celery, garlic and mushrooms. I heat up my pan, add a little oil and saute until wilted but not browned. Season with salt and pepper. It should look like this:

Mix together your sauteed vegetables with the cubed stuffing bread and moisten with chicken stock until it holds together.

Then I cool the stuffing in the fridge so that it is as cold as the turkey.

You need a sharp knife to debone. If in doubt take your knife to your favourite cooking supplies store and arrange to have your knife professionally sharpened.

Make sure that your hands and your knife are dry. Lay your turkey breast side down and make a cut from top to bottom along the backbone.

Your next task is to begin to remove the turkey skin and meat while leaving the central carcass behind. You carefully cut through the wing joint and the thigh joint and scrape away the breast meat from the carcass. We’re half way done.

Turn the turkey around and repeat the process. The goal is to leave the carcass without any meat attached. You should remove the thigh bone too.

In the following photo the carcass has been removed and is on the right.

I have to be honest with you….I have done this about a hundred times, I have deboned every kind of poultry right down to quails. It takes only practice to get the hang of it. It took me 25 minutes to debone my first turkey, now it takes about 5. I teach courses on how to do this.

Next we need to fill the cavity with stuffing.

Then I sew the turkey back up using wooden skewers.

then you need to truss and massage your turkey back into a ‘turkey shape’.

I like to roast my turkeys at about 375 F until the internal temperature of the stuffing is 140 F.

I have a convection oven and this 12 pound turkey took about 1 hour and 20 minutes. It’s worth it to own a digital probe thermometer. They are very inexpensive ($10 at Ikea or Loblaws) and the alarm goes off when the correct temperature is reached. I set the alarm at 130 and after it rests on the counter it goes up to 140 in about 15 minutes.

The beauty of this turkey is the presentation. Once it’s cooked you simply cut it in half, tip it cut side down and slice it like a solid roast.

There are a ton of boneless/spineless poultry jokes in my family about these turkeys but I’ll leave you to send me yours.
If this seems too time consuming just email me and I’d be happy to prepare one for you and deliver your dinner ready for cooking.