Cooking with ground turkey

We use the ground turkey in any ragu sauce or multi-can chili. That can of Rotel adds a bunch of flavor. It’s also a great way to use up all those old dried seasonings languishing in the back of the spice cabinet :upside_down_face:

Living near a turkey farm and farm store, we eat plenty of ground turkey. In fact, most of our cooking with “ground meat” uses ground turkey. We also buy bags of shredded turkey meat.

When I do use ground beef, it is usually locally purchased “ground cow” which is a bit better than the ground beef sold in the supermarket.

I do remember at one time buying a package of ground beef/pork blend for a meatball recipe I wanted to try.I haven’t checked out the meat section of my local grocery store for a while as I’m trying to use up what I have in my freezer before I need to throw it out.

It’s strange that poultry fat is oily compared to beef, pork or mutton fat being more solid. Otherwise it would be more practical for ground turkey to not be excessively lean.

I think part of reason I’m seeing more of it, is because I’m looking for it as it were. By volume though, it doesn’t even compare to the various ground beef options. By volume/packages, I’d guess its Beef > …a huge gap… > Turkey > Pork > Bison > Chicken > Lamb > Something else?

I used to buy a lot of ground turkey at Costco to make meatballs for my Savannah monitor, but she sadly passed years ago. The lean meat was a good option. But for most of my cooking, where I’m making burgers / patties / crumbles, having some (say 15-20%) fat is useful for cooking the veggies. Less so when I’m making eggrolls, wontons and gyoza, but I’m generally par-cooking the mix first and still render out some fat for the veggie portion.

I find it works best in dishes with a lot of flavoring in there. Like various chilis or any kind of Southeast Asian dish that asks for ground meat, like Thai (Holy) Basil chicken. Turkey works fine there and I would say is even more flavorful (though my preference is pork.) Ground turkey has much more flavor than chicken, at least to me. The main thing ground turkey is missing for me is fat. So, unless you grind it yourself or add fat to it, it’s a bit on the lean side.

Ground turkey breast is tastier than dark ground turkey, but dryer. It’s hit or miss with ground turkey, it needs moisture and sometimes tastes …gamey. Dark turkey-ish…Ground pork is available here, I make a home version of a McRib sandwich, much better than the real thing…Ground lamb and chicken, too. I don’t eat much hamburger.

I’m exactly the opposite there. But I find dark turkey to taste awesome…like more turkey-ish. So if you don’t like turkey flavor, then white meat is definitely more for you. Same as with chicken.

Plenty to go around. I do like bbq turkey legs and smothered turkey thighs.