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Once you know how to properly butcher one kind of poultry, you can pretty much butcher any kind of poultry. Turkeys, chickens, Cornish hens, pheasants—they all have the same structure (or “morphology”).

Here we show you how to break down a turkey—which, due to its size, is an excellent demo bird—into its wings, crown, and legs for great presentation, as well as how to remove a wishbone and preserve the delicious oyster meat. After some practice, you may never buy pre-portioned poultry again.

How to break down a turkey into a crown and leg quarters.

How to Break Down a Turkey: Crown and Leg Quarters

Here’s the good news. You can go as deep as you like into this, or make it as easy as you want. And you don’t have to stress out about butchering a turkey with any perfection since nothing goes to waste. Anything you goof up can go right into making meatballs or a turkey stock to make a reduction glaze. So, no stressing allowed. This is impossible to mess up! 

We are going to take you from the whole turkey—using any 12-pound bird you can buy at the store—all the way through nine types of final skewers, ready to grill. 

<h4>Overview</h4>

If you want to have a calm Thanksgiving, you can butcher the turkey days in advance. This gives you the chance to take your time and do it slowly. Butchering in advance will also help the final turkey yakitori, since letting the skewers sit in the refrigerator for a day or two will allow them to dry out a bit, which makes for easier grilling and crisper skin.

If you forget to plan ahead, you can still butcher the turkey on the morning of Thanksgiving. 

We have broken this guide into a few sections for easier reference, so take your time and read through everything before you get out your knife. 

Part One: get staged, set up, and prepped for a calm butchery session. 

Part Two: break down the major parts of the bird—the same way you break down a chicken—into fewer parts than a typical yakitori. We decided on a more approachable home version than what you might find in a hardcore yakitori bar. 

Part Three: break down the dark meat for yakitori-style skewers.

Part Four: break down the the white meat for yakitori-style skewers. 

Part Five: make turkey meatballs, using up any trim that you have left over. 

Part Six: make a turkey stock reduction glaze. 

Let’s begin.

Make a turkey yakitori style by butchering a whole turkey into component parts to cut them into skewers to grill. This will be a great Thanksgiving.

How to Butcher Turkey: Yakitori Style

A [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/classic-oven-roasted-standing-rib-roast standing prime rib roast] is the king of holiday centerpieces: a hulking piece of the best cut of beef, cooked until its exterior is bronzed and burnished and its interior is juicy and rosy pink.

And while you can cook a prime rib without doing much to it other than showering it with salt, with a little smart knife work and some judicious use of kitchen twine, you can transform it into a roast that’s as elegant as it is easy to carve and serve, all while making it easier to cook evenly.

How to butcher and tie a prime rib roast.

How to Butcher, French, and Tie a Prime Rib

Trussing a chicken is a basic culinary skill that’s just worth knowing how to do. Here we demonstrate the traditional approach you’ll find most chefs use to truss a chicken before they roast it, but you might also want to check our our unconventional approach to trussing the <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-roast-chicken">ultimate roast chicken</a> too.

How to Truss a Chicken the Traditional Way

Tying a butcher’s knot is a useful skill that every omnivorous cook should have in their bag of tricks.

A butcher’s knot is commonly used to tie roasts and steaks, making them more compact and evenly shaped, which in turn ensures even cooking. It’s a simple slipknot, which means it’s quick to execute and you can cinch it tight by sliding the knot up the string. 

Of course, you don’t have to use a butcher’s knot. A simple knot will do the job, too. But the benefit of a butcher’s knot is that it’s more secure, and thus less likely to come undone during the cooking process, and it’s easier to adjust to the exact dimensions of whatever you’re tying.

When tying meat, it’s important to cinch the knot just enough: it should be neither too tight nor too loose. Slide the knot up until the string cozily hugs the meat, then set the slipknot in place by tying a basic knot on top of it.

Check out the video above for a video demo of the process.

How to Tie a Butcher’s Knot

Want to save money, eat cuts of meat you love, and learn how to meditate while making dinner simply delicious?  Learn how to butcher a whole tenderloin. 

Instead of buying parts of a beef tenderloin shrink wrapped from the grocery store, buy a whole tenderloin from a butcher you trust. Watch this video a few times. After your initial trepidation, you will feel more confident when you get into it. (Keep the video nearby when you do it the first time, however.) Eventually, you will end up with more meat for far less money, as well as the satisfaction of knowing you did what seemed impossible at one point. 

As you watch master butcher Tom Coss—[link https://www.restaurantbateau.com/journal/1 the head butcher at Bateau in Seattle]—clean and take apart this tenderloin, you can see why so many chefs love butchering. It’s slow, methodical work. It requires your attention. Butchering is a meditative act, once you learn how to do it correctly.

So watch Tom at work, then watch the video a couple of more times so you can replicate his work. Then, go out and take that whole tenderloin out of the refrigerator and make some delicious cuts for your dinners, including [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/beef-wellington-level-11-the-ultimate our ultimate beef wellington].

Learn how to butcher a whole beef tenderloin, so you get more meat for less money and learn the meditative art of butchering your own meat. Plus, then you will be ready to make beef Wellington.

Whole Tenderloin Roast: How to Butcher and Cook it up Like a Pro.

“Frenching” a rack of lamb refers to the removal of the fat, meat, and muscle membranes that encase the rib bones, creating an elegant roast that cooks evenly and is easy to carve and serve. That’s right: It means you’re taking a rack of lamb and making it all fancy.

Since the goal is to make the rack of lamb attractive, you want to use a methodical approach; you don’t want to just hack and scrape away at the bones with your knife. While you could, of course, do that, the process is safer and more efficient if you use deliberate, considered cuts and know when to put down your knife and just use your hands (and a clean kitchen towel).

Step-by-step guide to frenching a rack of lamb.

How to French a Rack of Lamb

If you know how to break down a turkey, you also know how to break down chicken, Cornish hen, pheasant—any bird, really, since they all have the same structure (or “morphology”).

Here we show you how to break down a turkey and separate its breasts and legs so you can [link /activities/a-better-way-to-turkey-cook-that-bird-sous-vide-for-the-best-feast-ever cook them sous vide] and use the carcass for stock or gravy.

How to butcher a turkey and separate it into breasts and leg quarters.

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Everything you need to level up in the kitchen. Tips, tricks, techniques, and more.

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The Beef Index

Every cut, explained.