Turkey, as it turns out is meat too. I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who buy ground turkey for low-fat dishes, but I just ain’t hip to the flavor (or lack of). So when I see my butcher has carved one up so I can buy an actual piece and not have to take home a 25lb bird, I don’t hesitate. I really like the flavor of turkey and I find it a shame that we usually only have it a few times a year. Welp, the end of March sounded like a good time.
This one had several layers of flavor …
It can be so tough to get a juicy and flavorful breast portion of a turkey. It needs help and I find bacon can really come to the rescue in these areas.
I pulled the skin back and laid strips of american streaky bacon length ways over the breast portion. Then realized I didn’t have any fresh herbies handy, so I grabbed my short sword and ran to the back yard to pluck me some fresh rosemary & thyme. Washed, dried and minced, these herbies found their way over the bacon. Fresh gound pepper and close the skin down. Rub the entire meat portion with good olive oil and sprinkle liberally with kosher salt and more fresh ground black pepper.
Okay, so we’ve got some rich bacon with fresh savory herbs under the skin. I decided to cover the outter skin area with spicy bright spices such as Old Bay seasoning, paprika, onion powder, crushed celery seed with a touch of white pepper. I had some remaining rosemary & thyme so I soaked them in olive oil and rested the turkey portion on them in the cast iron skillet. I still used the trivet, always use a trivet.
Birdy went in to a pre-heated 375 degree oven, last 15 minutes I pushed it to 400 (how daring). I believe it took about 90 minutes to bring up the internal temperature, about 180 or so, I pulled it and set it aside with a loose foil tent.
Once on the stove top, yank out the trivet from the pan, pull out the larger pieces of herbs and set the fire on medium. Oooooo turkey and bacon juices !!!!
Toss a minced shallot into the hot juice for a bit, add some corn starch to thicken (teaspoon or two pre-diluted in cold water). Then add some broff to make finish up your gravy. Once you’ve attained your desired consistency, strain into another sauce pan.
Slice out a “turkey steak” and plate up your meal. Juicy, happy, rich & bright it was.
For you health-conscious fools, go on a six-mile hike before sitting down to stuff your face. Then, serve up a nice green salad with the turkey and skip the taters.
Finally, laught out loud at yourself and say, “All that work and I’m still fat!!!”
🙂