Parts of a Turkey for Cooking – Cuts and Giblets Labeled

All 10 parts on the diagram

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On the bird 6

Breast White meat from the flight muscles of the chest. It can be split along the breastbone into two halves.
Drumstick The lower leg, cut from the thigh at the knee joint. Dark meat.
Thigh The upper part of the leg, taken off at the hip joint. Dark meat. With the drumstick it makes the whole leg.
Wing Three segments from the body out: drumette, middle segment, wing tip.
Back The backbone and pelvic bones, from the shoulder joint to the tail.
Wishbone The forked bone at the neck end of the breast. It can be cut off with its meat as a piece of its own.

Neck and giblets 4

Neck Cut from the body at the shoulder joint. Often packed inside the bird with the giblets.
Heart One of the three giblets, with the liver and the gizzard.
Liver One of the three giblets, with the heart and the gizzard.
Gizzard A stomach with thick muscular walls that grinds the bird's food. One of the three giblets.

How this list was compiled: Every name checked on 2026-09-30, a name kept only where two sources use it: (1) 9 CFR 381.170, Standards for kinds and classes, and for cuts of raw poultry, read at Cornell Legal Information Institute, https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/9/381.170 (breasts, wishbones, drumsticks, thighs, legs, wings and wingtip, backs, necks, wing drummette, leg quarter, giblets as hearts, gizzards and livers, and where each is separated); (2) Wikipedia, text only: Chicken as food, Poultry, Giblets, Gizzard, Furcula and Turkey as food (breast, drumstick, thigh, the three wing segments, neck, giblets, wishbone, white and dark meat); (3) USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Turkey from Farm to Table, read in the Internet Archive copy of https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-preparation/poultry/turkey-farm-table (breast, drumsticks, thighs, wings and wing drumettes, the neck, gizzard, heart and liver as giblets). Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry; nothing traced. Not to scale. Licence: own work

How it works

A whole dressed turkey from the side, breast up, divided into the parts it is sold and carved as. The second drawing lays out the neck and the three giblets.

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On the bird

Number 1, the breast, is the big rounded top. Numbers 2 and 3 are the drumstick and the thigh, the two parts of the leg. Number 4 is the wing, folded against the side. Number 5, the back, is underneath, and number 6, the wishbone, is hidden at the neck end of the breast.

Packed inside

Numbers 7 to 10 are the neck and the giblets: the heart, the liver and the gizzard. A whole bird is often sold with these packed inside it.

White and dark: the breast is white meat; the thigh and drumstick are dark meat.
Thigh plus drumstick is the whole leg. A leg quarter also has part of the back attached.

Questions and answers

What are the parts of a turkey for cooking?

On the bird: the breast, two wings, two thighs, two drumsticks, the back and the wishbone. Packed inside: the neck and the giblets, which are the heart, the liver and the gizzard.

What are turkey giblets?

The heart, the liver and the gizzard of the bird. The gizzard is a stomach with thick muscular walls that grinds food. The neck is often packed with the giblets.

Which parts of a turkey are white meat and which are dark?

The breast is white meat. The thighs and drumsticks are dark meat: leg muscles work for long periods, and the protein myoglobin they hold gives the darker color.

What is the difference between a drumstick and a thigh?

Both are parts of the leg. The thigh is the upper part, joined to the body at the hip. The drumstick is the lower part, cut from the thigh at the knee joint.