I hadn’t planned on posting this meal from last night. It’s a rehash of a few other posts I’ve done in the past, just search Meathenge for turkey breast. But goldangit! I just checked the snapshots to send to Kudzu, for show & tell and decided it needed to be SEEN !!! Awww, pretty meat.
Yes, yes, I know and have heard all the comments about how nasty and tasteless chicken & turkey are. I can still see Scott’s face spewing and contorting when confronted with the mere thought of a chicken breast. More for me is all I have to say about that. Wanna see how you can make it worth eating? I maarrrinated it in Italian coarse saallllt.

Remove your meat from it’s packaging and find yourself a container of some kind for it to rest in. Use about 1/3 cuppa fancy really coarse salt and let it sit out on the counter for an hour. Or in the fridge covered for a few hours. It’d be nice to let the meat lose its chill before going in to your preheated 350 or 375 degree oven. Try 375, it’ll render you a nicer outter crust.
Once its time is up, wash off all salt and more than completely dry. Rub liberally with extra virgin and carefully peel back the skin.

At this point what you have is your Meat Canvas and you’re the artist. I started with a base of Kentucky style (cut from the butt or picnic portion) bacon from Bobby Lee’s smokehouse. Rick the butcher gifted me a few slices when he visited his former boss last week, niiice butcher. But you can use any cured or uncured pork product here.
After your base coat is done, you’ll need some bright colors, such as herbies of some kind and maybe some citrus. I used some fresh fennel fern and lemon zest. Actually I don’t know what the fuzzy part of the fennel plant is called, it’s just a silly plant for crissakes. But it’s a good one and I think my meat canvas has been transformed in to a work of art! Do up some fresh ground pepper and that should be about it. Of course you could mince shallots, use some dry white wine, it’s up to you.
Rub the skin on the outside with butter and sprinkle with kosher salt or any other spice you may be enjoying this week.
Take your art and lower it in to a low-walled roaster or cast iron fry pan with a trivet on the bottom. Primp the skin and make sure it’s pretty and everything is tucked nicely away.
Install in to your preheated oven on the lower rack and check in 50 minutes, youi’re looking for an internal temp of 180. Here’s what it looks like nearly done.

Not bad for a dumb turkey breast, huh?
Once it comes to temp, remove and set aside on a cutting board. Let it rest for 10 or so minutes.

Behold the magical powers of bacon! It turned this pale, fatless and flavorless hunk of meat worthy of being eaten by Biggles. Not sure about Scott though, it’d take some prodding. But I believe the bacon part would draw him in and if not that? The gravy would have cinched the deal.
Xo Xo