How To Carve A Turkey, With Step-By-Step Photos

You can do this, even if you have no idea what you’re doing.

This Thanksgiving, Americans will cook and consume over 40 million turkeys, yet very few of them will be carved in a stress- and mess-free manner, that doesn’t also waste waste your carefully prepared bird.

So we asked Jeffrey Elliot, co-author of The Complete Book of Knife Skills: The Essential Guide to Use Techniques and Care and author of The Complete Guide to Sushi and Sashimi to show us, step-by-step, the best way to carve a Thanksgiving turkey.

Bon appetit!

1

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Place the turkey on the cutting board or a platter, breast side up, with the legs facing away from you. Steady it with the carving fork in your guide hand.

2

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Cut through the skin that connects one leg to the carcass, cutting as close to the leg as possible.

3

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Set down the knife and pull the leg away from the bird until the ball joint that connects it to the carcass pops out of the socket. (If the turkey is too hot to handle, use a clean, dry towel to protect your hands.)

4

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Cut straight through the joint with the knife. The leg will now pull easily away from the carcass.

5

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Lay the leg on the board, with the knee facing you, and feel for the joint connecting the drumstick bone and the thigh bone.

6

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Cut straight down along the bone, removing the meat in one piece.

7

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Rotate the drumstick and continue cutting straight down along the bone until all the meat is removed from the bone.

8

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Bias-cut the drumstick meat into serving-size pieces.

9

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Hold the knife blade parallel to the board and slip it underneath the bone. Cut along the length of the bone to free it from the meat. Pull the bone away from the meat.

10

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Flip the thigh so that it’s skin side up and bias-cut it into serving-size slices.

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Repeat previous steps with the other thigh.

12

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Work the tip of the knife between the ball joint of the wing and the socket.

13

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Cut all the way through the joint, through any meat and skin, and remove the wing from the carcass.

14

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Rotate the turkey so that the other wing is facing your guide hand. Repeat previous steps to remove it.

15

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Make a long, thin cut along the breastbone, in the center of the breast.

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Let the knife blade ride the rib cage straight down to the socket where the wing was attached.

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Cut along the bottom of the breast to remove that half completely.

18

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Lay the breast half on the cutting board, skin side up, and bias-cut it into serving-size slices.

19

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Steady the turkey carcass with the carving fork and repeat steps 15-18 with the other side of the breast.