I am always excited for summer, but not for the reasons you are likely thinking of. The main reason is that it is barbecue season! We can and do barbecue all year round, but it is so much easier and much more fun in the hotter weather.
Well…I have to say that when I say “we”, I really mean my husband Ken. He loves to barbecue and he is great at it. I also have to tell you that in the last few years we have been experimenting a lot more with turkey.
For years I thought of turkey only at the holidays or for special occasions. The truth is there are so many parts of the turkey to choose from. There are legs, drumsticks, thighs, breast steaks, breast rolls, breast roasts, tenderloin, drummettes, wings, ground meat, sausages and burgers. Who would have believed it?
Switching to turkey provides a leaner and lighter alternative and the recipes taste just as delicious. Now that we are getting older we are trying to eat a leaner and more low-fat, high-protein diet. We have to eat healthier overall, and so it makes sense to include turkey as much as possible, and we have learned that we can include turkey regularly in our diet, all year round. The possibilities are endless!
Many flavors can be infused into the turkey meat by marinating with healthy fats like olive oil, adding citrus, beer, wine or vinegar and fresh herbs, spices and rubs. If your turkey is going to marinate for longer then 30 minutes make sure you put it in the refrigerator.
When grilling, use low and medium heat. Slower with turkey is better. You must always cook the turkey until a meat thermometer registers 165°F (74°C) in the thickest part of the meat.
Once I had learned all of the safe preparation techniques we came up with a bunch of fabulous recipes that are really tasty and good for you! This is why I am so excited to be working with Canadian Turkey on this post and hopefully many others to follow.
Our recipe for Kickin’ Cranberry BBQ Turkey Foil Pack is really delicious and we believe should be shared in this sponsored post. I actually keep some of our cranberry barbecue sauce in the fridge to use with other meals. We think the sauce is that yummy!
For this recipe we use either the turkey breast or tenderloin, which is the thick strip of meat in between the breasts. The tenderloin is so, well… tender! You really must try it.
For other grilling ideas Canadian Turkey makes it simple to get grilling this summer. They have lots of recipe ideas and all of the information you need to cook and grill with turkey! Just visit www.canadianturkey.ca to download their Summer Grilling Guide for free!
Kickin' Cranberry BBQ Turkey Foil Pack
Ingredients
Foil Pack
- 1 turkey breast, cut into cubes or chunks
- 5 mushrooms, white, sliced
- ½ large pepper, green, chopped
- ½ large pepper, red, chopped
- ½ cup butternut squash, shredded
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 6 small potatoes, red skin, cubed
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
- ¼ teaspoon sage, dried
- ¼ teaspoon thyme, dried
- ¼ teaspoon parsley, dried
- 1 small orange, squeezed or juice, we used a clementine orange roughly 2 tablespoons
- 1 teaspoon oil
Kicking cranberry BBQ sauce
- 1 can cranberry sauce
- 1 ½ cups barbecue sauce, we use Diana's original
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
- 1 teaspoon white pepper
- 1 teaspoon seasoning salt
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 lime, juice of
Instructions
- Combine ingredients for our Kickin' BBQ sauce in small sauce pan. Stir, bring to a boil, and let simmer, over medium low heat, for 10 minutes.
- In the meantime, get ready to clean and cut your potatoes into cubes. Boil them for 5 minutes while you are preparing the other vegetables and waiting for the barbecue sauce to finish. After 5 minutes I dump the potatoes into a strainer in the sink until I need them!
- In a small bowl melt your butter. Add sage, thyme , parsley and orange juice. Stir until blended. Set aside.
- Preheat your barbecue to medium high.
- Grab your tinfoil and tear off a piece about 18 inches long or more. Better to have too much then not enough! Place the tinfoil on your workstation. Spread the turkey pieces on top of the tinfoil, in the center. Next, pile on the vegetables! Place the butternut squash, red and green peppers, potatoes and mushrooms on top of the turkey. Sprinkle the minced garlic, pour butter mixture all over top of the vegetables as well as 1 teaspoon of oil. Using a brush, baste barbecue sauce all over the top of the vegetable pile. Next you have to seal up the tinfoil. Grab each long end of the foil and hold above the turkey mixture. Squeeze and roll it downwards until it is almost on top of the turkey mixture. Fold the side edges in and place it on top of your barbecue.Barbecue for about 20 minutes. At about the 10 minute mark baste with your BBQ sauce again and rotate foil pack 180 degrees. Serve with our Kickin' BBQ sauce on the side. Enjoy.Seal in tin foil and cook on BBQ for about 20 mins.
- Grab your tinfoil and tear off a piece about 18 inches long or more. Better to have too much then not enough! Place the tinfoil on your workstation. Spread the turkey pieces on top of the tinfoil, in the center. Next, pile on the vegetables! Place the butternut squash, red and green peppers, potatoes and mushrooms on top of the turkey. Sprinkle the minced garlic, pour butter mixture all over top of the vegetables and 1 teaspoon of oil. Using a brush, baste barbecue sauce all over the top of the vegetable pile. Next you have to seal up the tinfoil. Grab each long end of the foil and hold above the turkey mixture. Squeeze and roll it downwards until it is almost on top of the turkey mixture. Fold and roll the side edges in and place it in your barbecue.
- Cook for about 20 minutes. At about the 10 minute mark baste with your BBQ sauce and rotate foil pack 180 degrees. Serve with our Kickin' BBQ sauce on the side. Enjoy.Seal in tin foil and cook on BBQ for about 20 mins.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
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