Bachelor on the Cheap

By Mike Thayer

Everything is better with bacon, ESPECIALLY turkey breast!

Here's a great, simple, DELICIOUS recipe serving 1 - 3 people for Thanksgiving, or any other time you want to enjoy a turkey dinner.  Both the brine and the bacon make for a VERY juicy and flavorful bird.

Ingredients

• 1 - 1.5 pound Turkey Breast, brined
• 1 pound bacon
• Ground black pepper (optional)

Directions

The day before cooking the turkey breast, brine it. 

Mike’s Poultry Brine

• One gallon of warm water
• ¾ cup of Kosher salt
• One heaping tablespoon of Cookies Flavor Enhancer or your favorite poultry rub
  
• 2/3 cup sugar
• ¼ cup olive oil

Put the salt, sugar, rub and olive oil into a big pan, add the warm water. Stir until the salt and sugar have dissolved, which the warm water helps to do. After the water comes back down to room temperature (VERY important, we’re brining the poultry, not cooking it), give the brine another quick stir and add your chicken or turkey, letting them brine for at least four hours in the fridge. Overnight is even better. This amount of brine is good for a whole chicken, or up to about 8 pounds of breasts, thighs or drumsticks.

The day of the cook, pull the turkey out of the brine, pat dry.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  On a foil lined cookie sheet, lay out the bacon and form a weave.  Place the turkey onto the bacon weave and carefully wrap the bird, ensuring the top and sides are covered in bacon deliciousness.  Hit the bacon with the fresh ground black pepper (optional). Bake until the internal temperature of the turkey hits 165 degrees and the bacon is crisp.  Pull from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

It's another dose of YUM!  You won't want to do a traditional oven roasted turkey again...

BONUS:  The pan drippings from the turkey breast combined with that bacon fat makes for some AWESOME gravy!  Best turkey gravy you'll ever have!