How To Carve A Thanksgiving Turkey

Spring Chicken · November 2014

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

If you are like most people, you will be cooking, or perhaps purchasing an already cooked, turkey to serve your family and friends for that all important Thanksgiving Day Dinner. Yes, the one day when everyone sits around waiting for that magic moment when the Turkey is carved and served.

If that responsibility is yours, then you certainly want to do it right, especially if you have spent the better part of the day cooking that beautiful bird on your Big Green Egg.

You have dedicated hours to selecting, thawing, prepping, and cooking the turkey, and it is absolutely beautiful finally sitting there on the table surrounded by stuffing and decorations that makes your table look like something right out of a Norman Rockwell painting. You almost hate to cut it into pieces it's so beautiful, but cut it you must.

So, now what do you do?

Well, you certainly don't want to have everyone gasping at your turkey carving incompetence again like last year, do you? No... you want the carving to show this wonderful turkey in its best light and not as some gruesome hacking up of a formerly proud bird.

Instead, you let everyone take their photos of the table and, of course, you standing there with the traditional turkey carving knife and fork.

Then you take a moment to thank everyone for coming, and to give thanks for this wonderful occasion.

Then you gracefully remove the entire turkey, platter and all, to the kitchen where you will transfer the turkey to a nice large cutting board, preferably wood, where you commence with the carving using a well-sharpened knife, using a well-rehearsed sequence that not only results in beautiful and appetizing pieces of meat that can be laid out on the platter, but will make serving a delight to everyone.

This is when you are glad you watched Alton Brown carve a turkey the right way. Like he does here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d739zXtd8XQ

Or if you prefer a different method, try this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_XVFGHXAoQ

Now isn't that a lot better than how you did it last year?

Happy Thanksgiving.

Spring "Beautifully Carved" Chicken
Spring Texas USA

SGH · November 2014

I just rip mine apart like a animal with my bare hands

Actually my wife carves the bird, for reason mentioned above.
Great videos my friend. Thanks for sharing.

theyolksonyou · November 2014

Thanks for posting. I've never been good at this. I guess cause I was doing it wrong.

SmokinTiger81 · November 2014

Thanks for sharing--my family laughed at me for watching a video on how to carve turkey. Let them laugh--the food will be good and now well sliced.

shtgunal3 · November 2014

Thanks for the videos Mr. Chicken. I like the Alton Brown video best although I don't agree with his choice of mayo.

tazcrash · November 2014

Agreed, only this year did I find out I've been carving the breast the wrong way.

Zmokin · November 2014

Well, I've known how to remove the appendages and to debone the thigh.
But I've always used an electric knife to make slices of breast meat as I peel them off the carcass, which of course had me cutting along the grain, not across the grain. Now, I am not a fan of white meat, but I guess this year, I'll follow the advice of the videos, and remove the breast and then slice across the grain, giving everyone a little bit of skin.

Thanks for posting the videos.

Ragtop99 · November 2014

I normally remove the thighs and drumsticks first, which made the turkey unstable when removing the breast. I'm going to try removing the breast first after watching this.