Goat Cheese and Dried Cherry Stuffed Wild Turkey

The next time you place a wild turkey breast on your cutting board, take a look. Notice how it narrows into a point? If you are slicing it across the grain into steaks to grill or fry, you will soon reach a point where the steaks get so small that they won’t cook at the same rate as the thicker area.

The pointed end of a turkey breast is perfect for stuffing. Images by author

Of course you can cut the remainder into bite-sized pieces to fry, but my preferred cooking method for this part of the breast is to stuff it. Simply take a sharp knife and run it parallel to the cutting board about a third of the way up the breast, stopping before you go all the way through. Fold it open and do that again with the thicker half. Once fully unfolded, use a meat mallet to pound the breast thin.

Fillet the breast open, then pound flat with a meat mallet.

Now you can fill it with your stuffing of choice, roll it tightly, and tie it with butcher’s twine to hold it all together.

Once stuffed, roll and tie to hold everything together.

What can you stuff it with? Just about anything you wish. For this one, I combined a savory, creamy goat cheese with dried cherries for a hint of sweetness and fresh chives for a nice herbal flavor. Simply mix the room temperature cheese, dried cherries and chives in a bowl, stirring to blend the ingredients fully.

Blend the stuffing ingredients.

Not a fan of goat cheese? The funkiness isn’t for everyone. If you prefer something a bit milder, substitute a mild blue, a creamy feta, or even cream cheese.

Once the meat is flattened and seasoned, spread the blended stuffing evenly over the meat.

Spread the filling over the meat before rolling.

Be sure to season the meat well both on the interior and exterior. I used a salt, pepper, and garlic blend.

Grill until the interior reaches 150 degrees.

Grill the meat until it reaches 150 degrees internal temperature. This one took about 20 minutes.

Rest then slice just before serving.

Pull the roll and allow it to rest before removing the butcher’s twine and slicing.

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