Turkey tenders are a treat OUTDOOR

My first turkey hunting sea son is now in the books. I was fortunate to get my picture taken with a nice tom and we’re going to have a few meals together as well. Bag ging a spring turkey is such a great event because it’s the re

ward for enduring another win ter. The older I get, the longer those winters seem to be.

On a guess, I bagged my first turkey almost 30 years ago. That was back in the day when I didn’t get a tag every year. There just weren’t many birds to be had so getting a tag was cause enough to be ex cited. Actually harvesting a tom turkey was cause for a cel ebration. Being a green horn at turkey hunting meant that I also had no clue how to pre pare a bird for the table. I did learn early on that there was a world of difference between a wild turkey and a Butterball. If a wild bird is prepared the same way as a store bought one, it will be the driest turkey you have ever eaten in your life. That’s a mistake I only made once.

Obviously, I have tried a few different ways to prepare wild turkey. One of the ways that I really liked it was to have it smoked and I think I need to do that again. I had it smoked, then frozen, and then wrapped in small packages to be used for sandwiches. Oh man, now I’m hungry for a turkey sand wich.

I have also grilled wild turkey using a variety of mari nades, with most of them being some sort of honey mustard. But no matter how I grilled or prepared my wild turkey, I al

ways went to extremes to re move all of those darn BBs. If there was a penetrating hole in the meat, I use a scalpel type knife to dig as deeply into the meat as necessary to find them. If you have ever bitten down on a BB, you know how un pleasant that experience is and that you never want to do it ever again.

That brings me to my fa vorite way to prepare and eat wild turkey. I have to tell you the backstory on the recipe be

cause I doubt that many cook ing stories have started out like this. I was walking around Menards and I was surprised by the large display of Shore Lunch. I love the Beer Batter and always have a box or two in the cupboard at home. While looking at all of the choices, I noticed the box of Shore Lunch Classic Chicken Fry. I thought, “well heck, turkey is white meat like chicken so why not?” I bought a box to try.

I cut up my turkey into strips and started up my garage stove. I followed the directions on the box and the end result was some tasty wild turkey tenders. You don’t have to take just my word for it, because my daughter ate so many ten ders that I had to cook a second batch, which I gladly did.

While cooking up my last batch of tenders I wondered, how does everyone else pre pare their birds and wouldn’t it be great to share recipes in one place so everyone could bene fit? So, if you want to share your favorite way to prepare wild turkey you can either post it on the Outdoor Tales and Trails with Dave Beck Face book page, or you can email it to me and I’ll post it for you. Thanks in advance, and good eating!

Didn’t get enough Dave this week? Visit “Outdoor Trails and Tales with Dave Beck” on Facebook for photos and video of Dave’s adventures. You can share your own photos and video with him there as well, or by emailing him at [email protected] ws Also, check out OTT content on Instagram @thepiercecountyjournal

BY DAVE BECK