Bacon Turtle

Lots of people do the bacon explosion - I was inspired to do a twist on the favorite and try out the Bacon Explosion Turtle - aka - Bacon Turtle.

The other difference was the stuffing - instead of sausage meat, I added some vegetables and cheese. The girls seem to prefer this so I went with it (or did I?). The initial motive appears to be an attempt to satiate the ladies but I wanted to use some other ingredients so that when you cut the turtle open, it appeard to have "guts". Use whatever excuse you want. Either way - Mission Accomplished!

Ingredients:

• Bacon (2lbs)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Guts (Lunch Meat, ham, cheese, bell peppers, whatever you want). I used ham in one and lunch meat in the other.
• Dry Rub (your recipe) - I use a simple even amount - Black Pepper, Chili Powder, Garlic Powder.
• BBQ Sauce (your choice) - I used KC Masterpiece
• Polish Sausage (or hot dogs)

Guts ingredients:

I grated 2 potatoes and cooked them in some olive oil - or you can use some frozen hashbrowns.

Make the shell:

Weave the bacon into a latice - people usually do 5 strips x 5 strips. Mine usually worked out to 5 x 6 to make an even square.

Weave the bacon as tight as possible. I think this is key. Sprinkle the dry rub onto the weave when finished.

Add the guts:

I used left over spiral ham in this example hoping it would reinforce the shape of the turtle "shell". Turns out it doesn't matter as you will see in the lunch meat version but the thought is there:




Here's where I stuffed the second turtle with lunch meat rolls - lunch meat rolled with diced bell peppers and shredded cheese - remember:

Girls - it's vegetables.

Boys - guts.

Both ways - after you have stuffed the shell - sprinkle some more dry rub and then rub on some BBQ sauce.

For the head, tail and legs, I used frozen polish sausages so during the long smoking process (about 2 hours) the sausages wouldn't blow up. If you use regular hot dogs, they may deform too much. It also seemed easier to shave or form the tail when the dog was frozen.

Pick out some areas where it will be easy to poke in the sausage for the legs, head, and tail. Open up the weave and poke the sausage in - I tried to go above a strong weave point so it would support the weight of the appendage.

I smoked these turtles for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours at 250F. Since all the guts were cooked and I really only had to worry about the bacon "shell" - I didn't have to worry about achieving any specific internal temp. I did make a Bacon Explosion" at the same time so I knew as soon as the Bacon Explosion was done - the turtles had to be done - even though I put them on the smoker a 1/2 hour after I put the Bacon Explosion on.

The end result - pure turtle joy! Those turtles were good eatin'!