How to Dehydrate Turkey
Using Pre-Cooked, Pre-Sliced Deli Turkey Breast!

I'm so glad you're here to learn how to dehydrate turkey - safely.

Pre-cooked sliced Turkey dehydrated on Nesco food dehydrator

Dehydrating Turkey is So EASY to Do!

Dehydrating turkey that is pre-cooked and pre-sliced makes it an easy task!

So off to the refrigerator. I took out a 9 oz. plastic tub of sliced Turkey I'd bought from Target Stores and managed to fit five slices of turkey, per tray.




These 'before' and 'after' photos (below) are of the sliced turkey on the dehydrator. Notice how much they shrink when they are fully dried!

Pre-cooked turkey, before and after dehydrating

Cut Evenly Sized-Pieces of Turkey

As with the chicken and roast beef pages, I note you can use your leftover meats (as in whole chicken and turkey, and cuts of beef).

Just cut the meat into "dehydratable" pieces—make the pieces similar sizes—now they will dehydrate uniformly!

That's important because you want them to dry at the same rate of time. You don't want to be storing "half-dried" meats - they need to be fully dried evenly.

REMEMBER to turn the heat UP to 160°F
never dehydrate meat on a lower setting,
that's not safe (germ-wise).

REMEMBER to turn
the heat UP to 160°F
never dehydrate meat
on a lower setting,
that's not safe
(germ-wise).

How to Dehydrate Turkey:
Ideal Temperature for Dehydrating Cooked Turkey

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

The package from Target filled all four of my Nesco Dehydrator trays, and I couldn't believe that it only took TWO hours to become fully dehydrated!

Turkey Slices Re-hydrate Really Well!

Pre-cooked Turkey after dehydrating and Re-hydrating

In the photo above, 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 sticking out straight and crispy!

I was very pleased, to say the least.

IMPORTANT: Rehydrate in the refrigerator in CLEAN water. You can also use chicken stock to rehydrate your turkey (chicken and turkey aren't "that much" different in taste, right?) I get my stock from Better Than Bouillon. Read about this super stock here.

Don't leave your turkey out on the countertop! Don't waste your time and effort and let the turkey go 'off'!

Pre-cooked, sliced turkey vacuum-packed with an oxygen absorber

In the photo above, 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!

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




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

Turkey from Tastes Better from ScratchImage and recipe courtesy of
Tastes Better from Scratch

I can't wait until next November or December for turkey!

Here's an easy, no-fuss turkey recipe.

It's from a place called Tastes Better from Scratch.

Then you'll be back here—dehydrating turkey leftovers! :-)

Turkey Risotto Memories

One of my favorite "turkey" memories is getting to eat Turkey Risotto. My mom made it every year back in the UK at Christmas time.

After moving to the USA, I got to enjoy my favorite turkey meal twice a year. Yes! Now Thanksgiving is another reason for going the extra mile for a sit-down turkey dinner.

Instead of using rice every time, I changed it up and added orzo. Adding orzo also shortened the cooking time by half!

Mom's Tasty Turkey Risotto

Mom's Turkey Risotto Recipe was simple: A can of diced tomatoes, a small can of peas, half a white onion, handful of mushrooms. She added Italian herbs, too. And cooked, sliced-up turkey, of course!

Cook it all down in a large shallow frying pan with a tad of chicken stock. Then add the rice, bring to a boil, and simmer for 30 mins or until the rice is cooked. Again, if you substitute orzo for the rice, you've only got about 15 mins of added cooking time!

Believe it or not, I preferred the Risotto to the 'turkey, mash, and gravy' sit-down dinner.

I'm a big fan of turkey. I'm on a keto diet and I totally enjoy a very light dinner comprising a mozzarella stick wrapped in two thin slices of turkey breast. Learn more about the keto diet here.

Thanks for stopping by to learn how to dehydrate turkey! If you have any questions, feel free to drop me an email here.

If you wish to learn how to dehydrate chicken, simply visit this Chicken page. To learn how to dehydrate pork, visit this Pork page. And let's not forget beef, which you can learn more about beef here.

If you've got a hankering for learning how to dehydrate seafood, read more about seafood here.


Easy Food Dehydrating and Safe Food Storage by Susan GastREAD MORE

20 Taste-Tested Easy Recipes eBookREAD MORE

How to Dehydrate Food ... Top 20 Topics ... over 225 Questions AnsweredREAD MORE

Make Nutritious Dog FoodREAD MORE

More Good Stuff to Read!


Susan Gast, owner of Easy Food Dehydrating plus ePubTechReviews.com, and SusanGast.com

Susan Gast began Easy Food Dehydrating in December 2010.

Read Susan's story of what sparked her interest in all things related to "food dehydrating."

She is featured on the Mother Earth News blog, and on Solo Build It! (SBI!) who hosts this site. Read her first SBI! interview and her second SBI! interview.

Since 1980, Susan's involvement in publishing - in one form or another - led her to create ePubTechReviews which reviews a variety of products related to the publishing industry - if you're at all interested in AI and self-publishing. The website is also hosted by Solo Build It!

Susan also runs her namesake site SusanGast.com on Solo Build It! that showcases the books she has written since 2012.

Do you want to send Susan a quick message? Visit her contact page here. She'd love to hear from you!