Portion size is especially important when you are considering cooking and getting yourself a plate. You don’t want to eat so much that you end up feeling so full you feel like you must get sick.
Plus, even if you don’t feel sick, eating more than you should affect your weight in the long run.
Then, on the flip side, eating too little could make you want to snack later. The best way to circumnavigate this problem is by learning the correct portion size for the meals you are preparing.
One food people do this with is meat, like turkey, and in this article, you’ll learn how much to give each person, plus more!
Contents
How Much Turkey Do You Give per Person?
There is a certain amount of turkey you should give each person, but it depends on what kind of turkey you happen to have on hand.
In this section, we will break down the portion sizes of turkey breast, deli turkey, and finally, thanksgiving turkey.
Turkey Breast per Person
Turkey breast is a great cut of turkey to serve your guests. You can get a bone-in or boneless turkey. What it depends on is what you and your guests prefer… if you have guests. If it is just you, then go buck wild!
The rule of thumb is you should buy half a pound of turkey breast per person. So, if you are just having a regular dinner and are a typical family of four, you will want about 2 pounds of turkey breasts.
You can always buy a little more to have leftovers for the week, but the portion size for everyone’s plate should always be half a pound.
Deli Turkey per Person
Deli meat is a popular type of lunch food. It is not the cheapest to buy, but it still is really easy to purchase and prepare. There is no cooking that needs to be done!
For deli turkey portions, you should assume that every sandwich you make is going to be two to three ounces. So, if you are serving four people, then you’d get eight, and so on and forth. With the deli, is that simple?
Thanksgiving Turkey per Person
When it is time for Thanksgiving, you are going to want to make sure that you have a lot of turkey on hand. It is a big holiday in America, so you are going to want to make sure you have enough turkey on hand.
Holiday gatherings can be quite large, so if you have a large one, then go with 2 pounds of turkey per person. For smaller gatherings, 1 to 1 and a half pounds will do.
Always figure this out way before Thanksgiving because the longer you wait to get your turkey, the less chance you have to get the size you desire.
Of course, you can always get more per person if you want to have leftovers. It’s just going to be on the expensive side, so keep that in mind before purchasing the turkey at the store.
Can You Eat Too Much Turkey
While there are benefits to eating turkey (which we will touch on later), you can also end up eating too much will have consequences for your body. This includes:
- Turkey is low in fiber, and not having enough of it can give you bowel issues such as constipation or diarrhea.
- Another issue is that turkey has a high protein content, and this can also give you bowel issues such as constipation and diarrhea or just make it irregular in general. Besides that, this high protein content can cause nutrient deficiencies because it causes you to lose out on other nutrients.
- Finally, one of the last issues you can deal with is heartburn. Eating too much turkey can lead you to experience heartburn, which can cause a lot of serious issues down the road. Luckily, there are over-the-counter as well as prescription options for those with this issue.
Sadly, there sometimes can be too much of a good thing. This can apply to anything in life, but it seriously does apply to food.
It’s also more serious too because food goes into our bodies, and any of these consequences could end up affecting one’s health in the long run.
What Are the Benefits of Eating Turkey?
Despite the consequences on your body of eating a lot of turkey, there are benefits to eating this meat in general.
- One thing turkey is great in is protein, which we mentioned before. It has a lot of vitamins and minerals such as B6, B12, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc. The amount turkey contains differs depending on what one you are referring to.
- Turkey also doesn’t have high-fat content. It’s mostly low-fat if you don’t eat the skin. This is also assuming you haven’t fried the meat as well. Frying meat always causes the fat content to go up because of how it is cooked.
These are the biggest benefits of eating turkey. While it may not seem like much, having it once a week or so will do wonders for your health in the future.
Meat is an especially important food to have in your diet. If you end up picking turkey as the meat you have weekly or bi-weekly, then realize that you have made a good decision for your health.
Final Thoughts
And there you go, all your turkey lovers out there! Now you know how much portion size you can give each person. It does depend on the type of turkey that you have on hand, so always make sure you know what you are doing.
We also felt the need to touch on what happens if you eat too much turkey and also the benefits of eating turkey as well.
The reason for this is so you can have all the information on hand to be able to make an informed decision when it comes to feeding your guests and yourself!
You might also be interested in the following:
- How Much Pork per Person?
- How Much Pork Shoulder per Person?
- How Much Pork Tenderloin per Person?
- How Much Pork Butt per Person?
- How Much Ham per Person?
- How Much Chicken per Person?
- How Much Meat per Person?
I have been smoking and grilling meat from an early age and enjoy sharing my knowledge and expertise through the hundreds of articles I have written about BBQ. I hope to make everyone’s BBQ journey that little bit easier.