Turtle Backs is an easy recipe with baked or barbecued portobello mushrooms, stuffed with ground beef, burger or hamburger, wrapped in bacon!
Stuffed Mushroom Burger
If you love portobello mushrooms, bacon and ground meat of any kind such as beef, pork or turkey, than these Turtle Backs need to be on your bucket list!
You must try them at least once. Really, you must.
This idea was given to me by my foodie friend, and team member, Rita, and these have quickly become a family favorite. They went immediately into our monthly rotation!
They are delicious, super easy and can be served with anything and everything you can imagine.
These are the coolest burgers I have ever seen or tasted and that is saying a lot.
I couldn’t believe it myself how few ingredients are required and how simple they really are to make!
Also, kids love making these, well every one that I have met thought they were wonderful to create and eat!
I even LOVE the name and wish I thought of it myself! Once cooked these Turtle Backs do look exactly like turtle shells.
Do you think turtle shells would have been a better name?
I am curious if anyone out there has an opinion. No matter what you decide to call them I believe you will enjoy eating them as much as we do.
Burger with Portobello Mushroom
After being asked how to make these terrific mushroom burgers without bacon I am including those directions as well.
The mushroom burgers are super easy to make, especially without the bacon weave. Here is how I do it.
Prepare a rimmed baking sheet with tinfoil and a rack lightly coated in cooking spray.
- 4 portobello mushrooms, (4 – 5 inches in diameter), cleaned with stem and gills scaped and removed with a spoon
- 1 pound ground beef, pork, sausage, turkey or chicken
- 2 tablespoon Montreal Steak Seasoning
- 1 egg (optional)
- 1/2 cup olive or another vegetable oil
- 4 buns, if needed
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
Prepare a rimmed baking sheet with tinfoil and a rack coated in cooking spray. Set aside.
Clean your mushrooms and scrape out the gills inside to create a bowl for your ground meat to sit.
Grab a large resealable bag.
Add oil and mushrooms. Adjust until coated and allow to sit at room temperature for up to one hour.
No longer.
Next, in a medium sized bowl, combine ground meat and Montreal steak seasoning.
Add an egg if desired.
Some believe the egg helps to bind the ground meat together better. The decision to add it is up to you.
Divide mixture into 4 equal parts, as evenly as you can.
Remove portobello mushrooms from bag and allow excess oil to drip off.
Honestly, I dump the bag into a strainer in the sink. I turn the portobello mushrooms upside down so the oil around where the gills used to be doesn’t have a pool of oil sitting in it.
Grab each mushroom, one by one, and press ground mixture into each oil coated mushroom cap.
Place ground meat stuffed mushroom cap UPSIDE DOWN OR MEAT SIDE DOWN on your prepared rack.
Sprinkle mushroom tops with salt and pepper.
If there is a lot of oil on the bottom of your rimmed baking sheet from your mushrooms as it goes inside the oven you might want to lift your rack and wipe up some of the oil with paper towel.
Excess oil can cause smoke to come from your oven while baking.
Set your timer for 30 minutes and return to your oven to gently flip them over.
Bake for 10 more minutes.
Instead of removing from oven, at this point you can place a slice of cheese on top of your portobello mushroom burger and it will melt in a minute or two.
Otherwise remove from oven.
Toast buns with or without cheese if using.
Serve and enjoy!
Portobello Mushroom Burger
Mushroom Burger
Baked Burger Stuffed Mushroom Recipes
I love these stuffed portobello mushrooms with any kind of ground meat. If I had to say a favorite I suspect it would be ground turkey with some ground pork.
I know to some of you that sounds odd but I find the ground pork stops the ground turkey from drying out. Before I got on my turkey kick we always made these with ground beef or a ground beef and pork blend.
I’m salivating just thinking about it. If you love portobello mushrooms, ground meat and bacon then you will LOVE these burgers. Make sure they go on your bucket list.
Stuffed Mushroom Appetizer Recipe
If you need a stuffed mushroom appetizer recipe that is AMAZING, that is packed with the best creamy shrimp and crab filling, look no further.
Check out The Best Stuffed Mushrooms.
The creamy, cheesy, crab and shrimp filling blends perfectly with all mushrooms, including these large portobello mushrooms! Boy oh boy is it tasty as a snack or a small meal!
My goodness I have even stuck that filling inside chicken and we just loved it!
What is a Bacon Weave?
Just as the name suggests, a bacon weave is strips of bacon that are woven into a mat or lattice pattern that is either forced to cook flat or wrapped around other foods such as burgers or ground meat (meatloaves), chicken or beef roasts and so much more.
Turtle Backs are a perfect excuse to learn how to make or make a bacon weave.
The weave is created or completed before the baking or cooking process begins, on your kitchen counter. in your oven or on your grill. Bacon weaves look terrific and bacon usually adds an incredible amount of flavor to everything it touches or so my husband believes.
How to make the Best Bacon Weave
- The key to making the best bacon weave is buying bacon that is of better quality or comes in thicker slices. If using the cheapest bacon it tends to tear and is sliced too thin to make a sturdy bacon weave.
- That being said, if you use store bought thick bacon your weave will be too thick and take so long, actually too long to cook. Your goal is to find a mid price range bacon where you can see each slice in its entirety.
- You must always remember to use a rimmed baking sheet with a rack lightly coated in cooking spray to cook the bacon in the oven. You do not want the bacon, or whatever it surrounds, sitting in the accumulated fat from the bacon.
- Allowing air to circulate all around the bacon will cause the bacon to cook evenly and you won’t end up with raw bacon or bacon that is only half cooked in some spots.
- If cooking the bacon weave on your grill the fat just burns away even if you are cooking on a flat pan or grate. More often than not the grate has holes in it for the fat to drip through.
- Fatty sides of the bacon should all face one direction and meaty sides should all face the other direction. The width should match the length of the strips. There should be the same number of bacon strips going down as there are going across.
- Don’t hesitate to use toothpicks to secure bacon ends to whatever you are wrapping in the bacon weave. As long as the bacon slices are overlapped the toothpicks will secure the slices so the entire protein or vegetable is covered with bacon.
- Bacon shrinks as it cooks and if there are spaces anywhere between the bacon slices they will worsen as the bacon shrinks.
Can you use a Bacon Weave in a Sandwich?
Usually a bacon weave is wrapped around a potato or meat of some kind but you can easily make a bacon weave perfect for a sandwich or to serve on top of a hamburger!
Cut your bacon strips in half and weave half slices together, as big or small as you desire, I usually use 4 or 5 half slices. Prepare a rimmed baking sheet with tinfoil and a rack lightly coated in cooking spray. The spray will prevent the bacon from sticking to the rack.
Just preheat your oven to 400 degrees and cook for 15-20 minutes
or 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes
or 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes
Remove bacon from oven when it is as crispy as you want it!
Allow bacon weave to drain on paper towel and place inside sandwich or on top of each burger.
Grilled Portobello Mushroom
This is the best recipe we have ever used to make the best grilled portobello mushrooms. Have a look. It might definitely be worth a try.
I included the quick recipe to grill onion slices that is terrific by itself, on steaks or in a burger! To me they go perfectly together.
Have a look and let me know what you think!
Portobello mushrooms have a meaty, dense texture and should be marinated, whenever possible.
To assist in creating a wonderfully flavored portobello mushroom I urge you to try preparing the tops as directed below.
I saw this technique on America’s Test Kitchen and absolutely loved it. Anything that adds flavor to these giant mushrooms is definitely worth the little bit of extra effort.
If you are unable to slice the tops of your mushrooms, for any reason, you can still marinate them and the mushrooms will still benefit from the marinade.
Just not as much.
For what it’s worth we grilled the portobello mushrooms for years without cutting into the top of the mushroom and we always enjoyed every bite.
For those of you that are going to try this new method here we go.
Using the tip of a small paring knife, cut a 1/2 inch crosshatch pattern on the tops of all the mushroom caps.
Slices or slits should be 1/8 – 1/16 of an inch deep on the top side of each mushroom cap and go from one side straight across to the other.
Make the lines as straight as you can get them but ultimately straight or not, the flavor from the marinade will get inside the mushroom.
My friend’s son loved slicing into these portobello mushrooms and yes he was old enough.
He said it was like making a big tic tac toe board (I never quite totally understood that) or a graph paper pattern across the top of each mushroom cap.
The squares should be about a half an inch or a little more.
I sure hope that makes sense. If not please ask in the comment section below.
Also, at certain times of the year I am only able to get smaller portobello mushrooms. If you can only find 4 inch wide portobellos use six or so for the purposes of this recipe.
You will have to reduce cooking time by a few minutes per side but we will get to that later. Have a look at the recipe below.
Grilled Portobello Mushroom Burger Recipe
This is our basic recipe for grilling portobello mushrooms. Choose whichever vinegar or lemon juice you have on hand to make this easy and tasty marinade for portobello mushrooms on the grill.
If you are making a burger out of your mushrooms make sure to purchase buns as well for you to toast when serving and any other toppings you wish to serve your mushroom burger with.
I usually serve mine with cheese sliced melted on a toasted bun. Tomato slices, some shredded lettuce and whatever else I have around.
- 4 portobello mushrooms (4 – 5 inches in diameter), cleaned with stem and gills scaped and removed with a spoon
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 3 tablespoons white or red wine vinegar, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, sherry wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar or rice vinegar
- 4-6 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 1 large red onion, sliced 1/2 inch thick and intact, do not separate onion rings, ideally skewered or held together with toothpicks
Combine oil, vinegar of your choice or lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper in a large resealable bag. Adjust until mixture is somewhat blended.
Add mushrooms, seal, and adjust some more until all are coated.
Allow to sit for at least 30 minutes, if not an hour. Not much longer than an hour though.
Brush and clean cooking grates.
Using tongs, grab a wad of paper towel dipped in oil and rub it all over the grates on your barbecue.
Turn all burners to high, cover, and heat grill until hot, about 15 minutes.
In the meantime, let’s get your onions ready while the mushrooms are marinating.
If making onion slices, shove skewers through or toothpicks so onion rings don’t come apart while on your grill.
If using skewers, shove them right through the onion slice so it stays flat.
If using toothpicks sometimes I have to shove one toothpick through each side, towards the middle, to hold the onions together. Set aside
Turn all burners down to medium high.
Remove mushrooms from the marinade and place on your work surface. Do not discard any extra marinade. You will be brushing it on your onion slices.
If there isn’t enough marinade just brush oil all over the onion slices. Also, sprinkle each slice with salt and pepper on both sides.
Option 1
Cut four 12 inch square pieces of foil.
Place mushrooms on foil squares your work surface. Set one mushroom on top of each piece of foil with the gill side facing up.
Fold foil edges over to totally enclose mushroom and seal edges.
Grill mushrooms, with sealed sides of foil packets facing up, over medium-hot fire until juicy and tender, 10 to 12 minutes or 9 minutes for smaller, 4 inch portobellos.
Using tongs, unwrap mushrooms and discard foil. Set unwrapped mushrooms on rack gill-side up and cook until grill-marked, 30 to 60 seconds.
Option 2
Grill onion and mushrooms, gill side up, covered, for 4 – 6 minutes on the first side, 3 – 5 on the second side. Mushrooms will have released liquid, softened and be somewhat charred.
Once finished remove from grill and place on serving platter.
Remove toothpicks or skewer from onion before serving.
Ingredients in Portobello Mushroom Hamburger
- portobello mushrooms
- bacon
- ground beef, pork, sausage, turkey or chicken
- Montreal Steak Seasoning
How to make Turtle Backs
Making an Easy Bacon Weave
Making the Turtle Backs
Large Portobello Mushroom Recipes
Once we were pretty happy with the recipe for Prosciutto Portobello Baked Eggs we kept looking for different ways to use them.
I have to highly recommend our Pizza in a Portobello as well. We are getting older and are trying to avoid bread whenever possible.
These portobello mushrooms are so tasty covered in sauce, cheese and whatever pizza toppings you desire! A absolutely delicious, and much healthier option!
We also make The Best Stuffed Mushrooms and sometimes use the AMAZING creamy shrimp and crab filling to stuff these portobello mushrooms.
Boy oh boy are they tasty as a snack or a small meal! The creamy, cheesy, crab and shrimp filling blends perfectly with these big portobello mushrooms!
Our Easy Beef and Portobello Mushroom Stew is total comfort food. The broth is excellent.
Last, I have to mention our Prosciutto Portobello Baked Eggs. These are portobello mushrooms filled with your favorite sandwich meat, prosciutto, bacon and kale or spinach. A great way to start the day.
These are almost too good for words and I hope you have a look.
Otherwise, I have a few recipes on the go that we are still working on so stay tuned!
If you enjoy burgers as much as we do please take a moment to check out the list below and see if any of these delicious burgers interest you.
Other Burger Recipes to Try
Perfect Parmesan Double Pork Burger
The Ultimate Everything Burger
If you run into any trouble making the bacon weave, have a look at our video below to see how it is done. You can use a bacon weave on just about anything! I don’t use this bacon trick very often but it definitely comes in handy to know!
Turtle Backs Video
Turtle Backs
Turtle Backs is an easy recipe with baked or barbecued portobello mushrooms, stuffed with ground beef, burger or hamburger, wrapped in bacon!
Ingredients
- 4 portobello mushrooms, (4 - 5 inches in diameter), cleaned with stem and gills scaped and removed with a spoon
- 1 - 1 1/4 pound ground beef, pork, sausage, turkey or chicken
- 2 tablespoon Montreal Steak Seasoning
- 1 pound bacon approximately
- 1 large egg, for binding if desired
Instructions
-
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
-
Prepare a rimmed baking sheet with tinfoil and a rack lightly coated in cooking spray.
-
Clean your mushrooms and scrape out the insides to create a bowl.
-
Next, in a medium sized bowl, combine ground meat, egg (if desired), and montreal steak seasoning. Divide mixture into 4 equal parts. As even as possible.
-
Press ground mixture into mushroom caps.
Making the Bacon Weave
-
At your workstation, lay 6 slices of bacon, just touching, side by side, with fatty edges touching the meatier edges. Do your best to leave no spaces or as the bacon shrinks your weave will not bake properly or as a square.
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Fold up every other slice of bacon, a couple of inches up the slice. You should now have 3 slices up and 3 slices down.
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Place a strip of bacon across the three slices down to create a row, leaning right up to the top of the three flipped over bacon slices or the top edge.
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Next, unfold the three slices of bacon so they now lie on top of your horizontal slice and lift the other 3 slices of bacon upwards.
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Lay another slice of bacon across the three slices that are folded downwards or are straight and no longer folded over.
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Unfold upwards bacon slices again and lift the opposite or other three slices and add another horizontal slice and again, unfold the slices of bacon on top of the horizontal slice. You get the idea!
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Keep going until there are the same number of bacon strips down as there are across.
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Exact cooking time and temperature will depend on thickness of bacon and how many slices you used. Just baking the individual bacon weave, as it is, all by itself, will take 15-20 minutes in a 400 degree oven, depending on how crispy you desire your bacon.
Making the Turtle Backs
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Place weaved bacon on cutting board or at your workstation.
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Place meat filled mushroom cap in the middle of the weaved bacon square.
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Grab bacon ends and pull across mushroom cap until cap is totally covered in bacon. Use toothpicks if needed to secure the bacon strips.
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This dish is usually finished cooking when the bacon sits tightly or snugly around the meat or vegetable it is surrounding or wrapped around.
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Place bacon covered mushrooms, meat side up for between 45 and 60 minutes or bacon is cooked all around.
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Toast buns with cheese. Serve and enjoy!
Making Portobello Mushroom Stuffed Burgers WITHOUT BACON
-
Prepare a rimmed baking sheet with tinfoil and a rack lightly coated in cooking spray.
-
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
-
Prepare a rimmed baking sheet with tinfoil and a rack lightly coated in cooking spray. Set aside.
-
Clean your mushrooms and scrape out the gills insides to create a bowl for your ground meat to sit.
-
Next, in a medium sized bowl, combine ground meat and montreal steak seasoning. Add an egg if desired. Some believe the egg helps to bind the ground meat together better. The decision to add it is up to you.
-
Divide mixture into 4 equal parts, well as evenly as you can.
-
Press ground mixture into each mushroom cap.
-
Place ground meat stuffed mushroom cap UPSIDE DOWN OR MEAT SIDE DOWN on your prepared rack.
-
Set your timer for 30 minutes and return to your oven to gently flip them over.
-
Bake for 10 more minutes.
-
Toast buns with cheese if using.
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Serve and enjoy!
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