I was so delighted when my better-half gave me an unexpected gift, The Lodge Cast Iron Cookbook, right before last month’s Dutch Oven Gathering (DOG). It is a great addition to our collection of cookbooks for outdoor cooking and is a source of inspiration for any meal prepared for friends, indoors or out. So, when our friends Ray and Alta from Arkansas gave us a pound of peppered bacon from Petit Jean meats to try out, I went to the Lodge Cast Iron Cookbook and was delighted to find this recipe Bacon-Wrapped Stuffed Turkey Breast on page 175. Perfect!
I had to make a minor modifications to the recipe. I didn’t have a 3-pound turkey breast, so I used three smaller turkey tenderloins that had been marinated in a savory sauce. This worked very well since the bacon was wrapped completely around the turkey and took less time to cook. Also, the recipe calls for “thin bacon slices.” Well, Petit Jean’s peppered bacon is thick and has amazing flavor. The thick bacon worked just fine, which makes me wonder why the recipe calls for thin.
My next modification to the recipe was to pound the turkey breast to make it thin and to give more room for the spinach stuffing. Since I didn’t have a mallet, I wrapped my baby Lodge skillet in aluminum foil – it worked perfectly!
I mixed together the softened butter, roasted garlic, basil and spinach. The best part of this step in the recipe was roasting the garlic in our dutch oven. I love the aroma of roasted garlic!
Next, I spooned a generous amount of the spinach stuffing out on each of the turkey cutlets, and sprinkled Asiago cheese on top. There isn’t such a thing as too much cheese!
Rolling the thin turkey around the spinach was a bit messy. I quickly placed the turkey with the seam side down on the bacon so it stayed together nicely.
I was glad that I laid the bacon out on aluminum foil. It made the process of wrapping the turkey breast with bacon so much easier.
I decided to place each of the stuffed turkey in a foil cocoon to keep the juices close to the meat. It also made cleaning up the dutch oven a lot easier!
I didn’t keep track of time, but was grateful that the turkey’s internal temperature was 170 degrees about 15 minutes before serving time. We had time to let it sit and prepare the serving platter (the Dutch Oven lid wrapped in aluminum foil) on top of a lid stand.
The highest compliment paid to any cook is an empty plate!
Without a doubt, Petit Jean’s peppered bacon really made this dish spectacular!
