Thanksgiving Turkey Charcuterie Board - This fun and festive charcuterie board is designed to look like a turkey! Made with smoked salmon, prosciutto, cheese, cucumbers, and fruit, it’s a creative way to serve everyone’s favorite appetizers!
This easy Thanksgiving charcuterie board is both a feast for the eyes and the taste buds! It’s on of my favorite holiday cheese platter ideas and an adorable way to present a variety of meats, cheeses, fruits, and veggies to your guests while keeping with the theme of Thanksgiving.
A turkey charcuterie board is so much fun to make, and can be customized to your liking! Even if your turkey doesn’t come out looking exactly like mine, it’ll still be a delicious crowd pleaser!
Why You’ll Love This Holiday Charcuterie Board
- It’s festive, vibrant, and so much fun to serve different savory appetizer items on one platter!
- You can customize most of it to suit your tastes and your budget.
- Everyone loves a charcuterie board. It’s a great way to sample a bit of everything.
- Can be prepared ahead, so it’s great to bring to gatherings you’re not hosting.
- It’s so easy, I don’t know if I can even call it a recipe!
Cooking Tips For Success
- Pick the right board. You’ll need a large charcuterie board to serve a larger crowd.
- If your board doesn’t fit all of your ingredients, you can make smaller boards with your leftovers. The kids will love snacking on those!
- I recommend using a board with a solid background, either white or wood. That way it won’t distract from the presentation of the turkey.
- Wash and dry everything beforehand. Make sure to dry everything well, so that there is no remaining water that gets on the tray.
- Although the open side of the pear is facing down, if you want to prevent browning, you can squirt it with a bit of lemon juice.
- Add little bowls of cream cheese, red pepper jelly, mixed nuts, and olives on the table for extra nibbles that pair well with any charcuterie board.
- Get creative! You don’t need to follow this exact pattern, you can decide which ingredients you put where.
Possible Ingredient Substitutions
- Pear: Use a green or brown pear if you prefer.
- Deli meats: You can swap the smoked salmon and prosciutto for sliced turkey, salami, roast beef, or black forest ham.
- Cheeses: Swap the cheese I use for your favorites. Sharp cheddar, mozzarella, Swiss cheese, provolone, or cubes of Havarti would all be great.
- Grapes: Use sliced strawberries, blueberries, green grapes, blackberries, or raspberries instead.
- Mini toast: Use whatever crackers you like. Ritz crackers, Wheat Thins, gluten-free crackers, pretzels (rods, waffles, or knots), etc.
- Other items: If you can fit them on your board, you could place some deviled eggs with bacon in there too!
What You Need to Make a Thanksgiving Turkey Charcuterie Board
- Pear: For the body I use a red pear cut in half. Then all the other ingredients are fanned out around the pear to act as colorful turkey feathers.
- Smoked salmon: I use Wild Alaskan sockeye salmon. Use whichever smoked salmon you prefer. It comes in thin slices that fold and bend easily, so they fit nicely on the platter.
- Prosciutto: A cured Italian meat that also comes thinly sliced and adds a really nice salt element to the board.
- Cucumber slices: You can use English cucumbers or mini cucumbers for a crispy, crunchy bite.
- Cheeses: Mild cheddar cheese and pepper jack cheese cut into cubes.
- Mini-Toast: These bite-sized pieces of mini toast are used the same way crackers are. They are great vessels for piling on some cheese and prosciutto, or cheese and a cucumber slice.
- Green grapes: Some fresh fruit for juicy sweetness. I love adding a bit of fruit to a tray full of mostly meat and cheese to cut through some of the heaviness.
- Cloves: For the eyes on the pear “turkey body.”
How to Make a Thanksgiving Charcuterie Board
Step 1: Use a sharp knife to cut the pear in half lengthwise (from the stem down). Use whichever half looks the best and flip it over onto the bottom of the board, open side down.
Step 2: To make the face, stick two whole cloves into the top of the pear for the eyes. Cut cheese into a tiny triangle for the beak, and use a small piece of either smoked salmon or prosciutto for the turkey’s wattle.
Step 3: Arrange the cucumber slices around the pear in an arch. Everything else will follow, just like a rainbow! Now, the salami, then the mini toast with pepper jack cheese, more cucumber, then prosciutto, followed by grapes and finally a last row of mini toast with cheddar cheese.
Step 4: Enjoy right away or cover with plastic wrap and keep it refrigerated until you’re ready to serve!
Bring this yummy turkey fruit and cheese platter to your friends-giving or family gathering. Enjoy!
Recipe FAQs
Sure you can! There are a couple of ways to do this. You can wash and dry your fruit, slice your veggies, and cube your cheese and keep them in separate containers in the fridge until you’re ready to serve it.
Or, you can assemble the entire tray, cover it in plastic wrap, and then keep it in the fridge overnight and serve it the next day. Just don’t keep it assembled for too long or the mini toast may start to get soggy under the cheese.
You can serve it as an appetizer or have it on the table as part of your holiday meal! It makes a great centerpiece and it’s there for everyone to pick at as they eat.
More Holiday Charcuterie Boards
- Christmas Cheese Platter Idea
- 5-Step Cheese Platter for Memorial Day
- Christmas Tree Cheese Platter (yes, a different one!)
Check Out more Easy Thanksgiving Recipes
- Cinnamon Roll Apple Roses Recipe
- New York Strip Steak Grill Recipe
- Cheesy Hot Beef Sandwich Recipe
- Thanksgiving Turkey Recipe with Best Turkey Stuffing
- Crunchy Bacon Cheddar Jalapeno Poppers
- Shrimp Cocktail Recipe
- Best Pumpkin Spice Scones Recipe
When YOU make this Turkey Platter Recipe please tag us @munchkintimeblog on Instagram, we would LOVE to see your creation!
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Turkey Cheese Platter
Ingredients
- 1 red pear cut in half
- 8 oz smoked salmon Echo Falls Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon from Albertsons
- 6 oz prosciutto Primo Taglio from Albertsons
- 3 small cucumbers sliced
- 4 oz mild cheddar cheese cut into small squares
- 4 oz pepper jack cheese cut into small squares
- 2.8 oz bite-size mini toasts Joan of Arc from Albertsons
- green grapes
- 2 cloves for eyes
Instructions
- First, lets make our little pear turkey. Wash pear and cut it in half. Pick the best half of the pear and place it on the bottom of a platter or board.
- Next, using whole 2 cloves, add them to the top of the pear to make eyes. To make turkey's beak, use cheese and cut it into tiny triangle. For turkey's wattle use a little slice of meat like prosciutto, salmon or salami.
- After creating turkey for the cheese platter, now lets add our ingredients together. Feel free to get creative and arrange ingredients any way you like it.
- This meat and cheese turkey platter was arranged in this order: first pear turkey, next cucumber slices, salmon, mini toasts with pepper jack cheese. Then cucumber slices, prosciutto, red grapes and last but not least mini toasts with cheddar cheese.
- Bring this yummy turkey fruit and cheese platter to your friends-giving or family gathering. Enjoy!
HOW CREATIVE!! I love the turkey cheese platter and it look so easy to make!! Did you make the turkey too? It looks so perfect!
Thank you so much, girl! No, I bought it fully cooked from Albertsons, it was sooo juicy! 😀