I Ain't A White Meat Guy

I hate to say this, but I'm not really a breast man. I prefer thighs. Now that Thanksgiving is almost here, I have to insure that there is enough dark meat available for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. Preference for white meat/dark meat is about 50/50 where I go for Thanksgiving. Most of the guys like the dark meat and the ladies prefer the white meat.

Only problem is that turkeys are bred today to produce huge breasts and little thighs and legs. To make things worse, the dark meat on the leg isn't really all that great when it's baked; the meat from the thighs is really about all you can use.

Starting last year we purchased extra leg/thigh portions to go with the 20 lb turkey. Things worked out pretty well. Leftovers were also balanced pretty evenly among breast and thigh meat.

So why am I boring you with all this breast/thigh stuff??? Think about it, the main cooking oven is filled with the ol' 20 pounder Thanksgiving morning, leaving the thigh/leg portions, extra dressing, oyster dressing and sweet potato casserole to be cooked someplace else. Closest place is the oven in my kitchen. I may even have to use the toaster oven to complement things.

So there you have it, added dark meat just compounds the Thanksgiving cooking model...we'll see how it all turns out. Probably pretty well...I'll let ya know later in the week.

JD