Turkey Charcuterie Board

You need this Turkey Charcuterie Board on your table this Thanksgiving! It's a kid-friendly no-cook appetizer or dessert platter and can be put together in only 20 minutes. What better way to celebrate the holidays with your family than by making festive shaped snacks and desserts, like our chocolate Thanksgiving turkey cupcakes?!

My kids and I love making snack boards for holidays and gatherings. Our favorite ones are a snowman shaped hot cocoa board and red, white and blue snack board for the summer. But my girls find this turkey board hysterical since it's shaped like a funky looking animal. It's always the center of attention on the holiday appetizer, snack or dessert table.

My girls love helping to choose the foods we use and arranging them, and even if the board doesn't look perfect, I let them have fun with it (even when it turns out with crooked eyes)!

How To Arrange The Turkey Board

When making Thanksgiving charcuterie boards or other holiday boards shaped into objects, there are 3 steps I always follow:

1. I always draw an outline on paper first.
2. Then I make a list of foods that I think will work with the colors.
3. And last, I write in what foods will work in different locations.

For this fun turkey shaped Thanksgiving charcuterie board, I chose red, orange, yellow, and brown as my colors. To choose the foods, it was easiest to think about what took up most of the board first: the turkey's body, so I worked in 3 steps.

1. Choosing food for the turkey's body
2. Choosing food for the details on the body
3. Deciding on accent foods to place around the turkey

Arrange the feathers in a large U shape, starting with the donuts and working your way into the grapes.

Then I worked on the details of the body. For the eyes, I arranged mini marshmallows in a circle and stuck a brown m&m in the center. Blueberries, hershey kisses or chocolate chips work too.

The nose is a piece of American cheese cut into a triangle. The wattle (that red fleshy thing that hangs from its neck), is made with raspberries. Strawberries or twizzlers are another good choice for the wattle.

The feet are my favorite part! They are Nutella breadsticks I happened to stumble upon at the grocery store. I think each pack was a little over $1 and they work perfectly for turkey legs! I dipped each breadstick in a little Nutella to give it some definition.

Once the turkey was done, I focused on filling in the gaps with objects that we associate with Thanksgiving, like pumpkins. I started by placing the peeled clementines on the corners and filled in the gaps with candy pumpkins. The stems on the clementine pumpkins are sour punch bites, which you can find in most stores. Celery is a good choice for the stem too, to keep it healthier.

Last, I filled in the jars with candy corn and red, orange, yellow, and brown m&m's. I did not buy a special bag of m&m's. I picked out these colors for the standard package. Another thing I enjoyed about this board was being able to use leftover candy from the Halloween treats we made.

Tips For Making Charcuterie Boards

1. To make this super cute turkey shaped appetizer board, follow these tips: Choose 3 or 4 Thanksgiving colors, but not all of them. We think of Thanksgiving colors as red, orange, yellow, white, brown, and green. Centering the board around only 3 or 4 of these helps the turkey to stand out and look like, well, a turkey! Once you choose your focus colors, any hue or shade of them should work.
2. Decide on the type of food. Do you want a sweet board? A savory board? A combination? What foods will your kids eat? Try not to choose foods that you know your kids won't eat just because they fit into the color scheme.
3. Choose your board. A rectangle board works great for turkey shaped appetizer boards. You can also use a cutting board if you don't have a charcuterie board. No one will know the difference!
4. Choose 2 small bowls as focal points around the turkey. Place the bowls on the board first, and then shape the other foods into a turkey around them.
5. When shaping the turkey, start with the donuts first and work your way into the turkey's pretzel body. After creating the turkey, fill in the gaps between the turkey and the bowl with candy or fruit that is part of your color scheme.