Turkey Pinwheels
The Thanksgiving season always calls for at least one new turkey recipe on this site, but that has become increasingly difficult as the years roll on and I've covered so much territory on this subject. I started to wonder if I should even be forcing the matter—at this point, someone can use my site to deliver a different turkey incarnation on their holiday table each year for well over a decade. So I almost let turkey fall off this year, but then I thought of an idea I had not tried and felt intrigued to give it a whirl. My thought was to make turkey pinwheels, which is something I've done time and again with beef and pork, but not in the same manner with turkey. I wasn't even sure turkey would hold up to the job, but in the end, these pinwheels were even better than I could have imagined.
Pinwheels were something I was super into at the start of my cooking journey because they felt impressive with endless permeations, but I kind of burned out on them quickly and they haven't resurfaced for quite some time until now. I had previously always used more firm meats to build these rolled creations and worried turkey would be too flimsy to hold up in the same way, but there was only one way to find out for sure. So I ventured forth by first butterflying open a skinless, boneless turkey breast, then pounded that out to a roughly a quarter-inch thickness.
For the stuffing, I had the primary goals of adding fat and a ton of flavor to make up for two major shortcomings of turkey breasts. The fat I got in by way of bacon, which had the added bonus of imparting those addictive salty and smoky flavors as well. Then for the seasoning, I began with sage, which had I had an excess of after it exploded in my herb garden during early fall, and then layered on crushed red pepper, black pepper, and cheddar cheese. I was also concerned that the cheese would all melt out on the grill, but if it didn't, I was pretty sure it would add a great flavor and texture in the end roll.
Once all stuffed, I rolled the turkey breast closed, which worked out a bit easier than I was expecting, staying pretty firmly closed as I began to tie pieces of butcher twine at roughly two-inch intervals. Once this was done, I took an extra insurance policy of keeping the turkey firm by placing it in the freezer until it just started to feel a bit more solid, but not frozen. In the end though, this was not necessary because I made two rolls and the second one that I cooked did not get the freezer treatment and it held up exactly the same.
I've grilled turkey rolled up like this many times to great results, but what's different in the pinwheel equation is that the meat gets sliced into medallions and then cooked. There was a lot that could have gone wrong with this—the turkey could fall apart, the meat could easily overcook, the stuffing could render out, etc. So I paid extra close attention to what was happening while grilling to hopefully come out on the other side with a serviceable dish, at minimum.
There were a few pleasant surprises while cooking these, starting with the fact that they held together without any issue. Next, while I saw some cheese melt out of the rolls, it was not all of the cheese, and the little that did escape caramelized if it hit the grill grates, adhering to the meat and adding a more attractive appearance than I was expecting. Finally, I kept a close eye on the temperature and these didn't cook as fast as I thought they would, which allowed for a great sear to develop before they hit my target internal temperature of between 145-150°F. Once they reached that range, I removed the pinwheels from the grill, snapped some photos, then let them rest for about five minutes before removing the twine and serving.
For those naysayers that (pretty rightfully) denounce turkey as bland, I'd give them one of these rolls and then revel in watching their minds being changed. These rolls exploded with flavor, with that caramelized cheese really adding an incredible exterior crust that didn't overshadow the bacon, sage, and peppers inside. All of this did drown out some of the flavor of the turkey itself, but the meat remained juicy and a worthy carrier to perform the job. I think turkey may have been the right medium too, as the pork or beef I would normally would use could have lessened the impact of the stuffing, which felt right being front and center. So here's just one more turkey recipe that you could try out this Thanksgiving, and while this one is less traditional, I would wager that it would be way more of a hit than a standard whole-roasted bird.
