Maple Bacon Roast Turkey (aka best turkey ever!)

This was my first year in over 10 years of marriage that I not only hosted Thanksgiving at my home but I also cooked my first turkey! I'm big about sticking to traditional food for Thanksgiving but I'm always up for traditional with a twist! While wasting some time on the internet the other day, I ran across a picture of a bacon-covered turkey. Now, my family loves anything and everything to do with bacon so I knew this was a must! I checked out a few recipes online and picked a few things about each and went for it while adding my own take along the way.

                                                   

 Ingredients

12-14 pound turkey

1 pound bacon

1 cup maple syrup (can add more for preference)

1 apple, quartered

1 onion, quartered

salt and pepper to taste

stuffing (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Wash turkey well under cold running water. Pat dry. Remove innards from cavity. Tuck wings underneath body. 

Season skin and cavity of the turkey generously with salt and pepper, including the backside. Place the quartered apple and onion in the seasoned cavity. Add optional stuffing at this point. Using a brush, paint the turkey breast, thighs and legs with some of the maple syrup. 

Lay the bacon across the turkey, covering the entire breast, thighs and legs so that no skin shows through. Use toothpicks to hold the bacon in place if necessary.

Make an aluminum foil "tent" and place it on top of the turkey. Position turkey, on a rack, in a roasting pan with 1/2 cup pf water, and place in the preheated 400 degree F oven. Immediately lower oven temperature to 325 degrees F and roast for about 3 1/2 hours, basting the turkey with pan drippings and maple syrup every 30 minutes. Add water 1/2 cup at a time to the drippings if you're not getting enough for the basting.

In the last half hour, remove the crisp bacon (save for gravy or enjoy as a snack of the best bacon you have ever had). Baste the turkey one more time with maple syrup. Continue to roast until the internal temperature reaches 180 degrees in the thigh or 170 degrees in the breast. 

Remove pan from oven and allow the turkey to rest for 15 minutes before slicing.

This is the only picture I took of the turkey when it was done and the bacon is already off of it, sorry! My sexy man carving up the turkey!