Bacon Wrapped Turkey

I've seen these bacon wrapped turkeys on the internet but was hesitant to try one.  Since it was just going to be us for Christmas this year (no one from another household allowed because of Covid🙁) I thought I'd give it a try. 

It was a nice change... the meat stayed moist and tender without an overwhelming bacon taste that I was expecting. And there's no need for basting!

Ingredients:

Bacon Butter:

1/4 cup butter

2 slices bacon, chopped

2 tsps thyme

1/2 tsp sage

8 lb turkey, thawed

1 onion, quartered

1 lemon, quartered

12 slices of bacon

So first off you need to make the bacon butter. Add the ingredients to a food processor and pulse until smooth but with little chunks of bacon still visible. This will be the "glue" that holds the bacon weave in place.

Now to the weave...

Lay 6 slices of bacon down close together on a piece of parchment paper. I did this over a cutting board in case I wanted to move it.  Lift every second piece and lay the first cross piece on top keeping the pieces close. Does this make sense? It's the same as making a lattice pie top.

Once it was finished it reminded me of the construction paper placemats we all made in elementary school, but in a Lady Gaga meat dress sort of way! And my turkey wasn't quite as thawed as I thought so I covered the bacon weave with waxed paper and lifted the cutting board and all and put it in the fridge until the turkey was ready.

Next step, smear the turkey cavity with some of the bacon butter and add the quartered onion and lemon. then spread the rest of the butter over the turkey breast side. To place the weave just lift under the parchment and flip it over onto the turkey, not square but like a diamond with a corner at the neck and a corner at the butt end. Peel off the parchment and adjust the placement if you need to.

Because this was a small turkey the blanket covered the whole bird, but for a larger turkey you may want to wrap the legs with separate pieces of bacon. The original recipe says you can cover the turkey well and refrigerate for up to two days with it's blanket on. If you do refrigerate it just remember to bring it to room temperature before roasting.

Also, I wasn't 100% sure the bacon would stay in place so I put a few toothpicks in to hold it. I took them out halfway through cooking and don't think that I needed them after all.

Place a large pan on the rack below where the turkey will go and pour 2 cups of water in. This will create steam preventing the bacon from cooking too fast.

Put the turkey in a 425°F oven for 30 minutes, then turn down the heat to 325°F for 2 - 2 1/2 hours or until the internal temperatue reads 165°F.

Let rest 30 minutes before carving and use a sawing motion to score through the bacon first.

Original turkey recipe from: thekitchn.com

And for an awesome stuffing give this a try:

https://hotandcoldrunningmom.blogspot.com/2020/12/succulent-steamed-stuffing.html