How To Make a Bacon-Wrapped Turkey

As a person who doesn’t really love turkey and wishes we’d just trade the ol’ bird for a beef tenderloin or a honey ham, bacon-wrapped turkey was a bit of a surprise to me. Bacon-wrapped turkey is the turkey for turkey haters. Wrapping a turkey in bacon is fun, taking some of the stress off of roasting a Norman Rockwell-worthy turkey and wowing your guests at the same time.

What’s even better? Wrapping a turkey in bacon eliminates any brining, salting, or basting to make a flavorful turkey and creates a stunning, crispy “skin” — a welcome contrast to the tender turkey meat. And it’s much easier than it looks.

I was skeptical of the idea of roasting a turkey covered in bacon. Would the bacon slide off? Would the bacon burn in the time it took the turkey to cook? And beyond that, would a bacon-wrapped turkey even be worth the effort? The answers are: “nope,” “no,” and an enthusiastic “yes!” Here’s why:

• No salting, no brining, and no basting required.
• Crispy bacon “skin” looks and tastes amazing.
• Bacon keeps the turkey meat moist.
• You can impress your guests with little effort.

A bacon-wrapped turkey is not just a fun party trick; the bacon creates a barrier of salt, fat, and moisture that keeps the turkey moist and seasons it as it cooks.

By buzzing some chopped bacon and butter together in a food processor, we make a flavorful bacon butter that helps season the turkey and hold the bacon in place. Rubbing the bacon butter on the inside and outside of the turkey also assures that every bite is going to have the salty, smokey taste of bacon. Don’t worry about bringing the butter to room temperature before mixing; the food processor will do the work of softening the butter and bacon together.

Make it ahead: You can also freeze this bacon butter weeks in advance. Just thaw in the fridge and then bring to room temperature before slathering on the turkey.

Weaving together rashers of thick-cut bacon will be the hardest part of making this turkey, but if you made a woven placemat in elementary school, it really isn’t that hard. Weaving the bacon in place on the turkey is not impossible, but can be messy and frustrating with poor results. Follow these tips for success:

• Make the woven bacon “blanket” on a piece of parchment paper and transfer the finished blanket to cover the turkey’s breasts.
• Use butter as “glue” to hold the bacon in place.
• Buy the longest strips of bacon you can find, for best coverage. Avoid center-cut bacon for this method; it tends to be the shortest cut of bacon.
• Wrap the turkey’s legs and wings in individual strips of bacon.
• Weave the bacon strips tightly together to prevent shrinking in the oven.

Make ahead tip: You can wrap the turkey in bacon up to 2 days in advance and store tightly wrapped in the refrigerator. Bring the turkey closer to room temperature by removing it from the refrigerator 2 hours before roasting.

Roasting a bacon-wrapped turkey isn’t vastly different from roasting a regular turkey. You need to roast the turkey on a roasting rack to ensure even cooking.

1. Start with a hot oven for the first 30 minutes to brown the bacon.
2. Reduce the oven temperature to slowly cook the bird until it reaches 165°F internally.

The one notable difference is that for the bacon-wrapped turkey, you’ll want to add two cups of water to the roasting pan before you begin. The water creates steam in the oven and helps the bacon cook slowly, which prevents the bacon from sliding off or burning during its long cook time.

Rest the turkey for at least 30 minutes after roasting and before carving. You can remove the roasting rack to a cutting board or baking sheet and use the roasting pan and drippings to make gravy while you wait for the bird to cool.

1. Just as you would carve a chicken or plain turkey, start by removing the turkey’s legs before carving the breasts.
2. To keep the bacon lattice intact, cut through the bacon first and then carve the breast beneath.
3. Serve the turkey with any of the bacon crumbles that may fall off the bird as you carve. No one has ever been sad about bacon crumbles in their gravy either!