I have been boning out some chickens and decided to try it out on a turkey. Most of the time I stuff them, but for the turkey I am just going to smoke it and use it sandwiches. Then it is much easier for slicing. Here is a little pictorial of how it went. Thanks Chris for taking the pics.



Start of bu cutting off the wings, and leave the drummette.





Next I removed the wishbone.



After that you pull back the skin a little and cut between the carcas and the wing bone.

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After seperating both wing bones, you hold the wing in one hand and the carcas in the other and pull away from the carcas until you get to the oyster on the thigh.



After doing this to both sides, you will be able to pull the breast off. The tenderloins will stay attached and will be removed later.



After the breast is seperated, you will hold the leg and thigh and pop the thigh up breaking it loose at the carcas. Then cut through the skin.




After you have seperated the leg on both sides you will have the turkey with just the wing,leg and thigh bones to remove.

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Next you can remove the tenderloins from the carcas, and once removed remove the tenden running through it.





The next thing I did was remove the leg and thigh bones. To do this just cut around the joint of the thigh, then scrape the meat down the bone. Repeat the process for the leg bone. Once you get to the end of the leg bone, push it back into shape and with the back of a heavy knife break the bone just before the end and then remove it.

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After both legs are done you do the same thing with the wings, except once you scrape the meat to the end, you can just pull the bone out.



Once this is done the bird is deboned and ready to put back together. First take the 2 tenderloins and lay them into the skin under the legs.
Also to make the breas more even, you can cut a piece of the breast meat most of the way through and lay it over to cover the spot with no meat.





Now just fold one side of the turkey over and then the other side, and using some buthers twine truss the bird to get it ready to cook.












Sorry this is so long, but just thought I would share another way to prepare your birds. This will work for any bird, not just turkey or chickens.


Doug

Dang that camera must be brilliant it even made my badly framed shots look pretty good, could have put the flash up for better pictures though.

Looked good when you were doing it, can't wait till we see what you do with it tomorrow!

I put in the brine before I left for work this morning. When I get home I will throw it on the smoker with a little cherry wood and maybe a little of T's steak and chop. That stuff is good on everything.

Now you just need the duck-en part!

Good job Doug, and nice pictures Cris. The boss has just put my breakfast on the table gotta gooooooo!

OK so here are the finished pics. It turned out great. Really juicy. The leg looked like old faithfull when I checked the temp.











Now the best part for me is just slice and make a sandwich.


Doug

Dude, that turkey never stood a chance! Nice job, this will be on my short list if things to try...

I'll have to try that. Usually, I bone it out piece by piece, removing wings, legs, and breasts, then using the bones for stock. I've never tried removing the bones and leaving the meat intact, but the finished product looked amazing.

Here is link that should help make this a little easier.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAekQ5fzfGM