Bramble Farm easy slow-cooked Pulled Turkey recipe

Torn turkey piled onto tangy pick slaw on sourdough

Torn turkey piled onto tangy pick slaw on sourdough

Easy slow-cooked Pulled Turkey recipe

If you and your family like pulled pork, you’ll love this simple recipe from friend of Bramble Farm Turkeys, Ruth Macintyre of Ruth’s Little Kitchen. In fact, it’s perfect if you’re buying a turkey crown from Bramble Farm, as each crown & roll comes with the legs and thighs packed separately for use in recipes like this.

When making this recipe, it’s important to remember that quantities can be increased to suit the size of the cut of meat.You could also cook this in a slow cooker. Pulled Turkey is a very forgiving recipe, so if there needs to be more liquid, just add more water, ketchup and cider vinegar. When the turkey is cooked, flavours can be re-adjusted.

This is an ideal dish to make the day before or make it weeks before and freeze it as the flavours infuse and once the meat is shredded, it seems to soak up the liquid.

Ingredients

  • 125g (4oz) ketchup

  • 40g (1oz) cider vinegar

  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

  • 1 medium onion, diced

  • 1 tablespoon Maple Syrup

  • 125ml (4floz) water

  • Freshly ground black pepper

  • Salt and pepper

  • 2 uncooked turkey drumsticks (or ½ kg de-boned thighs)

  • 1 tsp of salt

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil

  • 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

  • 1tbs smoked paprika

  • ½ teaspoon chilli powder

  • ½ teaspoon of thyme

  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin

Equipment:

A wide heavy casserole dish with tight-fitting lid or oven tray with tin foil.

Torn turkey - amazing served on Baps or just a delicious slice of sourdough

Torn turkey - amazing served on Baps or just a delicious slice of sourdough

Method

  • Preheat oven to 180/Fan 160°C/gas mark 4.

  • Remove turkey skin - pull it off

  • Cook onion in oil with 1/2 teaspoon salt in saucepan over medium heat, cover and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until well softened.

  • Add garlic and spices and cook, stirring, 1 minute.• Stir in ketchup, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, maple syrup, and water and simmer for 1 minute.

  • Add the drumsticks (or thighs).

  • Cover with lid and braise in the oven for approx.2 hours(depending on size)until the meat is tender. Meat should be turned once or twice.

  • If using legs - transfer drumsticks to a bowl and cool. Discard bones, any tendons, and any remaining skin, and just like with a pulled pork recipe, pull the meat with two forks or fingers into either fine or coarse shreds. Make sure to get all the small bones off the leg.

  • If using thighs – discard the bone and treat in the same way.

  • If the consistency of the sauce is too thick, it can be thinned with apple juice or cider.

  • If freezing, it may need some extra liquid when re-heating

Serving suggestions:

Just like with a slow cooked pulled pork recipe:

  • Pile some of the torn turkey on top of a roll or slice of sourdough with coleslaw and salad.

  • Or fill flour tortilla wraps with coleslaw or green salad

  • Or just serve with coleslaw, green salad and sauté potatoes

What else can you cook with turkey?

To show off how flexible cooking with turkey can be, we recently teamed up with Surrey-based cook Ruth MacIntyre from Ruth’s Little Kitchen and our friends at Local Food Surrey. You may prefer to stick to your traditional recipes, but we’ve worked hard to come up with a range of new recipes that showcase what an underrated ingredient turkey can be.

Simple turkey recipes anyone can cook

See our other deeply delicious recipes, from Asian-inspired spring rolls with crispy filo pastry to turkey schnitzel with garlic mayonnaise, cheesy turkey gratin and even an Ottolenghi-inspired turkey thigh recipes that could easily have passed as a lamb dish, these are truly mouthwatering – and we eat a lot of turkey!

Further reading

Cooking, Christmas Recipes, How To CookSarah JoyBramble farm turkeysrecipe, recipes, Recipes