If you want to make a fun and festive Thanksgiving Day appetizer that will delight and impress guests, try making a Turkey Charcuterie Board! Perfect for the holidays, this charcuterie board is fun and easy to make, and looks amazing on any Thanksgiving table!
Every occasion calls for a fun charcuterie board!
While charcuterie boards have been around since the 15th century, they’ve definitely become more popular in recent years.
Whereas the French term refers to meat, nowadays, people all over the world use the term charcuterie to describe almost any kind of board that includes a variety of food.
Take our Brunch Board, for example, which is great all year round!
Charcuterie boards can be savory or sweet, with meat or without.
They are great for wine tasting adventures, parties, especially for the holidays! We’ve made Valentine’s Day Dessert Boards, 4th of July Dessert Boards, Fall Grazing Boards… so many possibilities!
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🌟 Why this recipe works
You’ll love making this turkey charcuterie board for Thanksgiving!
- You can be creative – Use my board as an inspiration, then use your own favorite meats, cheeses, crackers, and fruit!
- Fun for the whole family – Kids can help arrange the food to help create the turkey shape.
- Great for picky eaters – Because your kids can help you choose which ingredients to add to the board, there’s surely going to be something that each person will enjoy eating!
- This is a fast and easy recipe – This board only takes about 20 minutes to make at the most. You can make it even faster by buying pre-cut cheese squares, and pre-sliced salami in deli store packs.
🛒 Ingredient notes
The photo above shows you most of the ingredients I used to make the turkey charcuterie board in these photos. But don’t limit yourself!
Here are some ideas for different ingredients that would be great to use in this Thanksgiving recipe.
Meats – turkey deli slices, turkey sausage, dry salami, prosciutto
Cheeses – cheddar, Mozzarella, Swiss, havarti, gouda, pepper jack
Nuts – almonds, walnuts, pecans
Fruits – pears, apples, grapes
✅ Step-by-step instructions
- Lay out the board and any plates or outer decorations. If creating any cheese greetings using mini alphabet cookie cutters, cut those out now and set them aside. Or, go ahead and place them on the board where you would like them.
- Cut a pear in half and create a turkey. Cut out cheese for the eyes, beak, and feet. You can also use pretzels for the feet. Then use small raisins or mini chocolate chips to place in the middle of the round cheese pieces you cut out for the eyes. Set the turkey aside on a plate for now.
3. Start by placing the bottom outer layers first. For me, this was the cheese, which I used to create the turkey feathers.
4. Next, it helps to place the prepared pear turkey body. This helps to show how much room you have, and then you can plan around it. I also placed some almonds at the bottom to serve as the “ground” the turkey was standing on.
At this time, you can also fill in some spots with rosemary, thyme, or sage sprigs for the bottom layer.
5. Start layering in the turkey slices, since these are larger and you can layer on top of these as needed.
6. Layer in some crackers. I fan them out in individual rows between the turkey slices to create a nice pattern.
7. Then start filling in with the other meats like salami or turkey sausage peaces.
8. Fill in gaps with more cheese triangles to create “feathers” throughout, and also with grapes. Continue filling in blank spots with more meats, cheeses, nuts, or fruits until you’ve filled in all the spots.
Feel free to move some items around for better placement.
At the end, you should have a nice looking Thanksgiving turkey charcuterie board!
👩🏻🍳 Recipe FAQs
You can assemble all of the ingredients in place except for the crackers, wrap the whole board with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for up to 2 or 3 hours. Just before you are ready to serve, you can add the crackers.
The term charcuterie comes from two French words: “chair” which means “flesh,” and “cuit” which means “cooked.”
Two hours. Like most foods, but especially meats and cheeses, you don’t want to leave charcuterie board foods out at room temperature for longer than two hours. If you leave them out too long, you run the risk of making your guests sick. If it’s a warm summer day and the board is outside in the sun, you should only keep it out for 60 to 90 minutes.
🍽 Serving ideas
You can have so much fun with creating your Thanksgiving charcuterie board!
Some fun serving ideas to take your board to the next level:
- Use these mini alphabet cookie cutters to spell out “Happy Thanksgiving,” “Happy Autumn,” “Friendsgiving,” or any other festive greeting.
- Add some Mini Pecan Pies around the board.
And for the main Thanksgiving dinner menu? Consider making this Spatchcock Turkey, along with Wild Rice Dressing, Instant Pot Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans with Bacon, and Garlic Rosemary Focaccia Bread.
For dessert? These Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars or this Pumpkin Cream Cheese Roll will surely impress!
🍷 🥂 Wine pairings
Two of the best wines to serve at Thanksgiving also just happen to be the top two varietals that Oregon is best known for: Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
You can’t go wrong with serving a sparkling wine, either, at Thanksgiving!
🍳 Kitchen tools and equipment
Ready to make this recipe? Here are the kitchen tools and equipment you’ll need:
- Wood board – use an extra large wood cutting board or other decorative base to hold the whole turkey charcuterie board.
- Plate(s) – a large round plate makes a nice base to help you form the turkey body.
- Small bowls – these are helpful if you want to corral small round items like berries, grapes, or nuts.
- Knife – make sure you have a sharp knife to slice the cheese.
- Cookie cutters – I have and love these mini alphabet cookie cutters, and this is what I used to cut out “Happy Thanksgiving” from slices of cheddar cheese.
More Thanksgiving recipes
Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to leave a 5-Star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card, and if you really loved it, please leave a comment further down on the page. Thank you!
Thanksgiving Turkey Charcuterie Board
Equipment
Ingredients
For the main turkey body
- 1 pear, sliced in half
- cheese slices, cut into two round pieces for eyes and two triangles for the legs and feet
- 2 mini chocolate chips or mini raisins for the pupils in each eye
- Optional: use pretzel sticks for the legs and feet instead
For the turkey feathers
- Assortment of sliced cheeses (Cheddar, Gouda, Swiss, Havarti)
- Sliced turkey meat
- Sliced salami
- Mini turkey sausages
- Assortment of crackers
- Grapes
- Almonds or other nuts (Pecans, Cashews, Walnuts)
Instructions
- Lay out the board and any plates or outer decorations. If creating any cheese greetings using mini alphabet cookie cutters, cut those out now and set them aside. Or, go ahead and place them on the board where you would like them.
Make the turkey body
- Cut a pear in half and create a turkey. Cut out cheese for the eyes, beak, and feet. You can also use pretzels for the feet. Then use small raisins or mini chocolate chips to place in the middle of the round cheese pieces you cut out for the eyes. Set the turkey aside on a plate for now.
Make the turkey feathers
- Start by placing the bottom outer layers first. For me, this was the cheese, which I used to create the outer turkey feathers.
- Next, place the prepared pear turkey body on the plate or board. This helps you plan the rest of the ingredients around it. Place some almonds or other nuts at the bottom to serve as the "ground" the turkey stands on. At this time, you can also fill in some spots with rosemary, thyme, or sage sprigs for the bottom layer.
- Start layering in the turkey slices, since these are larger and you can layer on top of these as needed.
- Then start placing the crackers in, and then the other meats like salami or turkey sausage peaces.
- Fill in gaps with more cheese triangles to create "feathers" throughout, and also with grapes. Continue filling in blank spots with more meats, cheeses, nuts, or fruits until you've filled in all the spots. Feel free to move some items around for better placement. At the end, you should have a nice looking Thanksgiving turkey charcuterie board!
Notes
• Meats: turkey slices, hard salami slices, small turkey sausage pieces, prosciutto • Cheeses: cheddar, gouda, mozzarella, swiss, havarti, feta crumbles • Fruit: red and/or green grapes, pear slices, cranberries, apple slices • Nuts: pecans, almonds, walnuts • Herbs: sprigs of fresh rosemary, thyme, or sage Make ahead: you can make this turkey charcuterie board 2-3 hours ahead and store, wrapped with plastic wrap, in the refrigerator. Just leave the crackers out until you are ready to serve and add those last, as they won’t do well in the refrigerator.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
🍂 Free Thanksgiving Planner Printable
Want a printable Thanksgiving timeline, turkey thawing chart, and more Thanksgiving recipes? Click on the image below to download the free Thanksgiving Planner printable.
This is such a fun and tasty way to celebrate Thanksgiving! Adding to this my dinner line up for the holiday; looks too good to pass up, indeed!
I am loving this charcuterie board! This is going to be right in the center of my Thanksgiving table!
Super easy idea for meeting up with friends! This looks delicious and pretty! Thanks for sharing :)
Super fun presentation! Will definitely refer back to this for a Thanksgiving board! Thanks for the great idea.
Love how creative this is, thanks for the great idea! Making this tonight!