Because wild turkey is really lean, we recommend cooking wild turkey bacon with pork bacon fat.
Ingredients:
- 1 wild turkey breast, trimmed and cleaned
- Hi Mountain Buckboard Bacon Cure
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 tbsp pork bacon fat
Directions:
Curing
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Remove the thin outer membrane of the wild turkey breast with a very sharp knife. After trimming, weigh the turkey breast to determine the correct amount of cure needed. The instructions included with the Hi Mountain Buck Board Bacon Cure has this information.
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Apply the cure to the turkey breast, making sure it’s completely covered.
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Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a tight fitting lid and refrigerate for 10 days. Turn the turkey breast over after 5 days.
Smoking
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After the brining process is complete, rinse all the cure off the turkey breast.
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Immerse the turkey breast in a water bath for 2 hours.
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Rinse the turkey breast one more time to make sure the last bit of cure has been removed.
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Pat the venison dry and let stand at room temperature while you heat your pellet grill or smoker to 180F degrees.
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Once the temperature of 180F has been reached, place the turkey breast on the grill.
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Baste the turkey breast with maple syrup every 30 minutes. Make sure to turn the turkey breast a couple times during the smoking process so you can cover the entire turkey breast with maple syrup.
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Continue cooking until the internal temperature of the turkey breast reaches 165F degrees, then remove it from smoker.
- Rest the wild turkey bacon on a cooking rack at least 30 min before slicing.
Frying
- Slice the the wild turkey bacon to your desired thickness and cook in a large fry pan with 1 tbsp pork bacon fat until crisp.
Note: Use a meat thermometer to make sure the internal cooking temperature has reached 165F.
