Dehydrating Turkey
Using Pre-Cooked, Pre-Sliced Deli Turkey Breast!

Click the links to visit the meat pages:
Chicken | Roast Beef | Turkey

Dehydrating turkey that is pre-cooked and pre-sliced couldn't be easier! So off to the refrigerator I went and took out a 9 oz. plastic tub of sliced Turkey I'd bought from Target Stores.

Make Evenly-Sized Pieces of Turkey

As with the chicken and roast beef pages, I note that you can use your leftover meats (as in whole chicken and turkey, and cuts of beef). Just make the pieces of meat into "dehydratable" pieces! When slicing, make the pieces similar sizes – now they will dehydrate uniformly – i.e. at the same rate of time!

Back to the store-bought pre-sliced turkey: The package from Target filled all four of my Nesco Dehydrator trays, with around three slices of turkey on three trays, and four slices on the fourth... and I couldn't believe that it only took TWO hours to become fully dehydrated!

Dehydrating Turkey is So EASY to Do!

These 'before' and 'after' photos are of the sliced turkey on the dehydrator. Notice how much they shrink! (NOTE: the tray on the right was a tray that had five slices on initially, not three).

Ideal Temperature for Dehydrating Cooked Turkey

Cooked turkey is best dehydrated at 160°F as mentioned above – but please consult your food dehydrator's owners manual for their specific instructions.

These 'before' and 'after' photos are of the sliced turkey on the dehydrator. Notice how much they shrink! (NOTE: the tray on the right was a tray that had five slices on initially, not three).

The Turkey Re-hydrated Really Well!

As you can see in the photo, I purposely draped a slice of the re-hydrated turkey around my finger so you could see that it was indeed moist again, i.e. not straight and crispy!

I was very pleased, to say the least. IMPORTANT: re-hydrate in the refrigerator in CLEAN water. Don't leave it out on the counter top! Don't let the turkey go 'off'!

In the other photo you can clearly see three packages of pre-cooked turkey, all vacuum-sealed with their oxy-packs and ready to store.

I will check on these in about a month, to make sure they haven't 'turned' ... because there is fat in meat and we don't want to be eating rancid bad turkey!

I'll keep you posted on this.

UPDATE: Turkey still 'perfectly good' after one month with no refrigeration! :-)

or click on these other dehydrated meat links:
Chicken | Roast Beef

Easy, No-Fuss Thanksgiving (or any day) Turkey!

If you can't wait until next November or December for turkey, then here's an  easy, no-fuss turkey recipe from Tastes Better from Scratch. Then you'll be back here – dehydrating turkey leftovers! :-)

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