The reason for this recipe is to give you detailed insight into one of the major steps in preparing Nigerian dishes.

This is because Nigerians believe that food without some form of animal protein – such as beef, fish, turkey, chicken and others – is incomplete.

Also, it is a general practice to first cook animal proteins before adding them to food during the cooking process.

To begin with, there are different types of animal proteins used for Nigerian food cooking.

Many food recipes of Nigerian origin always include one or more of the animal proteins listed below.

• Fish
• chicken
• turkey
• beef
• goat meat
• snail
• offal or animal intestines
• guinea fowl

In view of the above, you would notice that cooking with different types of protein from the bird family is a common practice in Nigeria.

Some of the popular protein from in this category includes; turkey, chicken and guinea fowl.

As earlier stated, while cooking Nigerian food, before many forms of animal proteins – such as beef, chicken, turkey – are added to food, they must be pre-cooked.

But it is important to clarify that there is an exception to this practice and only exemption applies to fish.

This is because fish has short cooking time. So fish is added directly to soups to prevent it fish from being overcooked which may lead to it crumbling when added to food.

Read more about adding fish to Nigerian food here.

I will now list the ingredients needed to cook turkey.

Ingredients for cooking turkey

• 1kg turkey
• 1 table spoon salt
• 2 seasoning cube
• 1 table spoon mixed herb
• 1 table spoon curry powder
• 1 onion
• 2-3 bay leaves

The mixed herb contains basil, dried thyme, parsley, oregano and marjoram but can replace the mixed herbs with just dried thyme.

With this in mind, now I will proceed to write about how to cook turkey step by step.

Step by step process on how to cook fish

• Cut the turkey into small sizes – I prefer to cut my turkey mid wings into two pieces each
• Although turkey comes already clean most times but it is advisable to clean the turkey in water to remove any feather that was missed
• Peel off the skin of the onion and slice it
• Put the cleaned turkey into a pot
• Add salt, seasoning cubes, curry powder, bay leaves and mixed herb
• Add 2-3 cups of water and mix well
• Cook for 20-25 minutes on medium heat
• After 25 minutes fish is ready to be eaten

At this point the turkey can be added to stews, soups or sauce.

But I want to show you how to elevate the taste of your cooked turkey.

Before I share this with you, I will suggest you save the liquid you cooked the turkey with. That liquid is called turkey stock.

Turkey stock is a major ingredient used when cooking many Nigerian dishes such as Jollof rice, egusi soup, ogbono soup, okra soup and many more.

The cooked turkey can be used to cook spicy turkey, stew and many more.

How to elevate the taste of your turkey

To switch up the taste of your cooked turkey here, I will share with you an easy cooking method that you can you.

This cooking method adds more flavour and crunchiness to your boiled turkey thereby transforming the delicious taste of your cooked turkey to something irresistible.

The cooking method you need to use is called the frying method.

After boiling your turkey with the spices listed above, the next thing to do is to fry the turkey in order to get a delicious signature taste.

Now I will proceed to write an easy step by step process on how to fry turkey.

How to fry turkey

Follow these steps to make delicious fried turkey that can be added to any Nigerian food of your choice.

• Separate the cooked turkey from the liquid in the pot
• Store the turkey stock to be used later
• Place frying pan on the cooker
• Pour enough cooking oil into the pan
• Allow the cooking oil heat up well
• Put the turkey in the hot oil
• Fry until the edges turn to a nice golden brown shade
• Turn to the second side and fry as well
• Remove the turkey from the hot oil after the second side turn golden brown
• Put the fried turkey in a basket to drain the excess oil
• Or put the turkey on paper towel to absorb the excess cooking oil.

Fried turkey is ready to be enjoyed or added to soups of dishes of your choice.

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