Recipe: Parmesan Wild Turkey Nuggets

A lot of outdoorsmen and women overlook the wild turkey when it comes to excellent table fare. Everyone sings the praises of great venison, but a lot of big game hunters skip out on spring turkey season. While the turkey may not yield the abundance of meat that a deer does, the quality is there.

There is nothing like some fresh turkey meat in the spring. And when we're talking turkey meat, we're almost always referring to that incredible breast meat. Some of the best white meat that you will ever find.

The meat speaks for itself, but the key to cooking any wild game and making it taste good is a good recipe. There are tons of ways to prepare some wild turkey breast. Some folks smoke it, some grill it, and others fry it up. You really cannot go wrong, but this method is both healthy and tasty. So, we wanted to share it with you in step-by-step fashion.

Prep

A huge key to creating great table fare actually takes place in the field. From the time you wrap your tag around that turkey's leg until the meat is marinating in your refrigerator. Getting that animal prepared is the key. I prefer to have my bird breasted out within two hours of the kill. It's as simple as making an incision on the breast bone and filleting the breasts right off. Plenty of YouTube videos can show you how in step-by-step fashion.

Once you have two fresh turkey breasts, go ahead and soak them in cold water for a bit to get rid of any nastiness accumulated during the cleaning process.

The next step is giving the breasts a buttermilk bath. A tried and true method for removing any gaminess in wild game. You can let them soak anywhere from a few hours to an entire day. After that buttermilk bath, rinse the breasts clean and you will be ready to move on to our recipe.

Cut and Coat

As you probably guessed from the title, we're going to be chunking these breasts into nuggets. The size and shape will obviously be your choice. Now it's time to get the nuggets coated in olive oil in order to help our breading adhere. Simply toss the nuggets into a bowl of olive oil and coat them evenly.

In a separate bowl, we're going to need Panko, Italian bread crumbs, and grated parmesan cheese. It's as simple as tossing those olive oil-coated nuggets into the breading mix and coating them evenly. We then move onward to the baking process.

Shake and Bake

Go ahead and coat a baking sheet with some Pam spray or some kind of grease to prevent sticking. This breading can definitely create some sticking issues, so be sure to treat your baking sheet. Evenly spread out those breaded nuggets and preheat your oven to 425 degrees. They will need about 8-10 minutes before you will flip the nuggets over and bake for another 5-10 minutes, depending on how crispy you prefer them to be.

From there it is time to kick back and enjoy some fresh wild turkey!

This is a super simple recipe that yields incredibly tasty nuggets. Much better than anything you can scoop at the local fast-food joint, and infinitely more healthy for you.

Just another reason why we love this outdoor lifestyle!

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