Turkey Breast Cutlets And Strips

The turkey butchering continues here in Hickery Holler. Once the bones are boiled down for broth and that is in the refrigerator cooling. And the meat from the legs, thighs and back are cut off and ground then we deal with the breast meat. 

For us the breast are cut into cutlets weighing about 4 ounces each. These are individually wrapped in plastic wrap and then placed into a vacuum bag and sealed. We do 6 breast cutlets per bag. That's 24 ounces of pure white lean meat. With a family of three that allow 2 servings per person. Many times in the winter I will fix a meal in the morning that we will eat for both lunch and dinner. That allows one for lunch and one for dinner. These can be used the same as a chicken breast. They can be grilled, stuffed, breaded or used in casseroles. Or maybe just thrown in a cast iron skillet with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. A couple veggies on the side and you have a meal.  

And then we have these loin strips. They make great strips that can be cut for stir fry but I use these mostly for the grandkids. For turkey nuggets and strips. As a treat grandma soaks these overnight in buttermilk and Italian dressing. Then I roll them in seasoned flour and fry them into homemade turkey nuggets. This is kind of a special dinner for when the grandkids visit.  We froze 2 quart bags of these.

So with the first 10 turkeys killed we got 7 bags of breast cutlets, each cutlet weighing 4 ounces, each bag weighing 24 ounces. That's 128 ounces of breast meat or 8 pounds. 

And 2 bags of chicken strips or nuggets averaging 24 ounces per bag. So that's 3 pounds of breast meat for strips. 

15 1/2 pounds of ground turkey.

And 6 quarts of meat and broth with two cups meat or 8 ounces per jar, and 10 quarts of plain broth. That's another 3 pounds of meat.

So for 10 turkeys that's 29.5 pounds total meat which we will round off to30 pounds. Now that's 3 pounds per bird of pure meat. No fat, bones or gristle. 

These turkeys I posted about on June 6th as hatching so they are 3 and 1/2 months old. Many hatched under broody chickens, fed some purchased grain along with corn on the cob and garden culls. With 24 birds still out there to butcher that is alot of meat. We are seriously considering selling a few to a neighbor that wants some. 

Guess we know what I will be continuing to do for the next week or so. 

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter