This turkey neck recipe is such a great way to use up leftover turkey giblets! With a little bit of seasoning, patience, and love, it’ll be perfectly fall-apart-tender!
Some of you might think I’m a little crazy for cooking with turkey necks, but trust me — this recipe will change your mind. Growing up in Ukraine, I was taught that every part of the animal has a place on the dinner table, and when prepared properly, turkey necks turn into the most tender, fall-off-the-bone comfort food. I cringe if I find out if anyone has tossed these out after their turkey dinner!
My mom actually started making these turkey necks around Thanksgiving when whole turkeys were on the menu. After that, the necks quickly became a staple in our home. Now, it’s the same in my house — my boys absolutely love them, and turkey necks have become the most fought-over cut of turkey.
Hot tip: If you’re looking for another turkey neck recipe, try my turkey neck soup. My boys love it, and just like chicken noodle soup, it is so comforting and the perfect dish to make when anyone is feeling under the weather.
How to Cook Turkey Necks
You might feel a little intimidated cooking turkey necks, but don’t worry — this turkey neck recipe is incredibly simple and honestly no different than roasting any other cut of meat.
- Sauté the necks & veggies: Brown the turkey necks in a hot skillet. Remove them, then do the same with the veggies.
- Combine the meat and veggies: Transfer the necks back to the cast iron skillet (here’s my go-to skillet) with the carrots and onions. Add the seasonings, and water or chicken broth.
- Bake: Put the skillet in the oven and bake covered with a lid for about 1.5 hours at 350°F.
- Enjoy: Remove from the oven and enjoy the fall-off-the-bone, ultra-tender meat.
Tips for Cooking Turkey Necks
Most people know how to cook a turkey, but when it comes to cooking turkey necks, not everyone knows how to do it best! Here are my top tips to get delicious necks your first go around.
- Add hot water for optimal tenderness: The key to keeping turkey necks tender is to add a cup of hot water to the cast iron skillet before you bake. Creating a slow boil in the oven ensures that the turkey necks do not become rubbery and burn. The added liquid also creates a yummy gravy!
- Opt for chicken broth (optional): If you have chicken broth, use it instead of water! It’ll add even more flavor!
- Feel free to omit the carrots: Sometimes, I don’t add carrots if I don’t feel like it. The onions and seasonings add plenty of flavor in case you don’t have carrots on hand!
- Season with your favorites: Use any of your favorite seasonings to season the turkey necks. It’s all up to you.
- Leave it in the oven to rest: Once the necks are done baking, turn off the oven and leave them in there until ready to serve. They will become extra tender and stay hot until ready to enjoy!
- Use the drippings to make gravy: Once the necks are done cooking, debone them, and use the drippings and remaining bits in the bottom of the pot/skillet to make a delicious gravy. Here’s my delicious five-minute gravy recipe. Oh, and this separator might come in handy!
Hot tip: You can find turkey necks in most, large grocery stores, although not every store carries them. If you didn’t get them with a whole turkey, you can buy them at Publix or Whole Foods. Or, ask your local butcher.
Storing & Reheating Tips
You may not have too many neck leftovers, but just in case you do, here are a few tips on how to store and reheat them later.
- Refrigerator: To store for 3-4 days, refrigerate cooled turkey necks in an airtight container.
- Freezer: Store cooked turkey necks in the freezer for up to three months. Thaw in the fridge.
- Reheating: Reheat the necks gently on the stovetop in pan drippings or liquid until warmed through. Or, reheat in a covered dish in the oven at 325°For 20–30 minutes.
More Turkey Recipes
- How To Make a Smoked Turkey – A must if you have a smoker!
- Ground Turkey-Stuffed Bell Peppers – Everything you need in one dish
- Spatchcock Turkey Recipe – A super fast way to cook a whole turkey
- Turkey Bone Broth – Use the leftover bones to make this delicious broth
Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 lbs turkey necks
- 1 large onion
- 3 carrots peeled
- 1 tbsp salt adjust to preference
- 1 tsp ground black pepper adjust to preference
- 4 bay leaves
- 1 cup hot water or chicken broth
- 1 tbsp oil olive or avocado
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Dice the onion into half rings, then clean carrots and cut them into large pieces.
- In a hot, oiled skillet, cook the turkey necks until browned on all sides. Remove them from the skillet and set aside.
- Cook the onion and carrots in the same skillet, until they're slightly browned. Then, add turkey necks back into the skillet.
- Season the meat and vegetables with salt and pepper, and add the bay leaves. Then, add one cup of hot water to the dish, and cover with a lid. Place in the oven at 350°F to bake for 1.5 hours or until the meat begins to separate from the bone.
- Serve turkey necks with potatoes, rice, or simply on their own, while they are still warm.
I’ve watched a mini video of a Turkish restaurant selling Turkey Neck meat (stew) cooked in a wooden oven with plenty of Butter…. It looks amazing n yummy served with a slice of onion, tomatoes n just tandoori Naan (bread)
Can’t you share this recipe
Hello Iqtidar! It's hard to say what stew that was, but I do have a recipe for turkey neck soup that I grew up eating!
Ok so I have about 5 pounds of Turkey necks. I’d like to make Turkey neck gravy for thanksgiving and possibly Christmas. Do you have a good recipe. I was gonna follow your recipe then debone and make a typical gravy recipe in the same cast iron. Thoughts?
That sounds like a great plan! You can definitely follow the turkey neck recipe, then once you debone the necks, use the drippings and remaining bits in the cast iron to make a delicious gravy. I have a simple 5 minute gravy recipe on the blog that uses any drippings of choice. Check that out!
What if you skip the browning the turkey neck and instead just put directly in the oven??
Hey Sarah, Browning the turkey necks adds flavor and nice color. You could skip it though if in a time crunch.
I like to try them today do I cook with a top on it
Hey Vickey, Yes, they should be covered with a lid when going into the oven. Enjoy!
Delicious! I have made this several times, with one alteration.
Instead of water I I use 1.5 cups of chicken broth.
The liquid left in the pan to make a sauce/gravy for mashed potatoes.
Hey HR, That's a great idea - I bet the gravy is delicious!
Do you cook the turkey necks for 1 1/2 or 3 hours and make up your mind?
Hi Fred, It's 1.5 hours. We're working on updating the 3 hour typo. Thanks for letting us know!
Hi Natalya, I'm puzzled as to why the cook time is given at the top of the recipe as 3 hrs and in the instructions as 1.5 hrs. I did the recipe for about 2 hrs and it was perfect.
Would it be alright to add turkey giblets and liver, which I love, or would you recommend doing them separately?
Many thanks, Thomas
Hi Thomas, I'm happy to hear it turned out delicious. We will work on making the corrections to the recipe. You can add the liver and giblets! Enjoy!
Tried this recipe this weekend for a friend's birthday dinner. His Mother and Grandmother used to make turkey necks for him growing up. He was both surprised and pleased. Thank you so much for providing this recipe
I did make a couple of small changes: substituted water with chicken broth, and substituted regular salt with All Season salt and added black pepper and paprika for another layer of seasoning.
Hi Jewell, That was so thoughtful of you to make it for his birthday! Thanks for sharing!
Instead of carrots could you use broccoli or potatoes?
Hi Abijah, Potatoes would be delicious substitution. Enjoy 🙂
I’m poked this dish for my family tonight. Waiting to serve it to them so I don’t know the results. I’m a pescatarian so I couldn’t taste it but we will see if they like it and hopefully enjoy with yellow rice and broccoli cheese.
Hi Porsha, I hope your family enjoyed it!
When do the bay leaves come into play? The ingredient list mentions them but not in the instructions. I'm not a cook but I love turkey necks and even with my wife's large clan, I never have to worry about someone else getting to the neck first. They don't know what they're missing.
Hi Mike, the bay leaves will go into the pan before you put it into the oven. Thank you for bringing that to my attention! I agree with you about them not knowing what they are missing. This stuff is amazing!!
Can you imagine my surprise when I saw turkey neck receipes. My italian background, much like your Ukranian did not waste anything. Turkey necks were used in so many ways to add flavour to broths, pasta dishes,, sauces, etc. This one you provided was very nice. I am lucky that we have a local grocer who sells turkey necks, like you would find chicken wings; in packs with 4-6 large necks in each and always available, no matter the season.
Hi Milli, I am so glad that you have found this recipe! Thank you for sharing, I hope you love this dish as much as we do! Enjoy!!
Ever since I stopped stuffing a Turkey and turned to making Dressing I use turkey necks to give my stuffing incredible flavor. Just make your dressing as usual then lay 3 to 4 Turkey necks on top and cover with foil. Bake like you would your normal dressing. When done strip the meat off of the necks and put it in your gravy.
Hi Larry, Thank you for sharing, that sounds like it turns out absolutely delicious! Happy Holidays!
Here in South Louisiana, our main way of cooking turkey necks, is to boil them in a heavily seasoned water. It's basically the same water we use to cook our seafood(crabs, crawfish, shrimp).
Our second method, is smothered down over rice. The third method would be stewed/fricasseed. This seems to be a cross between smothered & stewed.
I coated them lightly in seasoned flour before searing, it helps later when using the dripping for a gravy. I also added lots of minced garlic, some Cajun seasoning, Worcestershire sauce, and chicken stock. We like our seasoning here.
Lonnie, this sound so so good. I love the idea of a stew. Thank you for sharing your recipe, looking forward to trying it.
My husband is Russian, I am Ukrainian ancestry but don’t have much experience in Ukrainian cooking. The husband requested turkey necks like his mama makes. BOY did this smash it out of the park!! This was mouthwatering. I have to say the biggest surprise of the dish for me was how incredibly delicious the vegetables were after roasting with the necks. Holy cow! Spasiba bolshoy/dyakuyu! This is a new regular for us.
Anya, this made me smile, I am so glad you loved the results and that you found a staple recipe! Thank you for taking the time to comment!
I am allergic to Beef, lamb, chicken and pork so I eat turkey necks everyday. I cook mIne in duck fat for 4 hours at 210 degrees on top of my induction burner in covered in my Eurocast Berghoff wok. I buy the big tub of duck fat which does not go bad and use it for a couple months then discard and start over. The meat comes right off the bone. I buy the big necks with no more than 4 in a package and two when I can find them. I eat one package a day. I use no seasoning. They are great for health and weight loss.
That sounds delicious! Thank you for sharing the tips, Janet.
Turkey necks one of my favorite comfort food over a bed of white rice in gravy... then add some franks hot sauce
Tonya, I love the idea of adding some spice. SO good!
I'm happy to find someone who enjoys turkey necks as much as I do. This is how I cook my turkey necks and sometimes I BBQ them with a spicy sauce or curry them.
Ohh, the idea of adding them to curry sounds delicious. What do you make your curry with?
You dont mention in the recipe if you must cover the dish in the oven or not..jam planning on using this recipe to make dinner tonight
Hey Debra, it is better to cover it with a lid. Enjoy
After searing can I just finish cooking in a large pan in oven?
Hey Aria, yes, just make sure it has a lid. Enjoy
I just found your website I spent the last hour going through and looking at all your recipes making notes of the ones I want to try! I have a very long list LOL! And I thought I was the only one who like turkey necks! For Christmas I I cook the turkey neck and then I woke up the next morning and found that I forgot to put it in the refrigerator! I wanted to cry! I have never cooked just a batch of turkey necks so guess what’s at the top of my list!
Hey Vicky, I am so glad you found the site. 🙂 Turkey necks are a total treat, we love them so much. Sorry about your bad luck with them.
Heh Natalya-
Do you consider the turkey tail a delicasy, as I do? That "knob" area of the bird is that lower flesy backside that's pointed & holds tail feathers. It is a secret food part too. They say, people who eat the knobs are no slobs. 🤣 I love them.
From,
Coty
Coty, I don't care for it but in my family, we have two members that fight over it. They always try to get it first 🙂
Is there enough stock left after baking to make gravy?
I grew up eating nose-to-tail food recipes, and this is no exception, brilliant, thanks for sharing, Mark.
Mark, I was telling my son how we use to grow chickens in Ukraine and everyone would fight over the neck. He will never understand 🙂 glad he still loves turkey necks!
Usually, I have a good amount and you can add a bit of water to it because the flavor is very rich. Enjoy
Do you cook it for 1.5 hour or at the top of recipes it says 3 h cook time?
Hey Debbie, at least 1.5 hours. It would depend on how large the pieces are.
Great recipe-I too as a child enjoyed chicken necks and backs also.
I'm glad I'm not the only one 🙂
I am trying them today
Love this recipe.
Do I cover the necks in the oven?
Yes, do cover them in the oven. I will make a note in the recipe. Enjoy!
Whats the amount per serving
It's about 3/4 lb of turkey necks. There are 6 serving in the entire recipe.
I'm going to try this recipe.
I hope you love it as much as we do!
great recipe!!! thank you! have made 4-5 times and always yummy..I use chicken broth and add celery and it's a yummy and healthy meal!
SO GOOD AND TASTY WITH CELERY AND LOTS OF ONIONS
Yes, so good. Glad you enjoyed it.
Hey Neil, I am so happy to hear this. Thank you for sharing.
also usually add fresh rosemary/ thyme and lot of garlic to the broth.. broth always very yummy
Oh I love the tips with extra herbs. I bet it adds so much more flavor. I have to try it your way!