Carving a Turkey

Appears in
Thanksgiving: Recipes for a Holiday Meal

By Lou Seibert Pappas

Published 2011

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Once you remove the turkey from the oven, allow it to sit, tented with aluminum foil, for 20–45 minutes before carving. Allowing the bird to rest before you carve it will cause the juices to redistribute evenly throughout the flesh, resulting in a juicy turkey. When carving, the drumstick alone, rather than the entire leg, is removed from each side of the bird, and the wings are initially left in place. The thighs and wings help steady the bird as you carve the breast. Because each drumstick or thigh is larger than a single serving, the meat is sliced from the bone.