Cracker-Crusted Turkey Bites, Camp Version
Pickle-brined turkey chunks in a cheese cracker crust, fried in a skillet at the truck.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 69
- protein
- 42 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 40 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Snack
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Turkey breast | 1 side, about 2 lb | wild or store bought, cut into 1-inch cubes |
|---|---|---|
| Dill pickle juice | 1 cup | straight from the jar |
| Cheese crackers | 1 box, 12.4 oz | crushed fine at home |
| Salt | 1 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1/2 tsp | |
| Cayenne pepper | 1/2 tsp | optional |
| Oil for frying | 2 cups | peanut or canola |
| Shelf-stable mayonnaise | 1 1/2 cups | squeeze bottle packets keep better than a jar |
| Sour cream powder | 3 tbsp plus 3 tbsp water | replaces 1/2 cup fresh sour cream |
| Apple cider vinegar | 1/2 cup | |
| Lemon juice | 2 tbsp | bottled |
| Worcestershire sauce | 2 tbsp | |
| Ground black pepper | 2 tsp | for the sauce |
| Salt | 1 tsp | for the sauce |
| Cayenne pepper | 1 tsp | for the sauce |
| Prepared horseradish | 1 to 2 tsp |
Method
- At home, cube the turkey and drop it in a zip bag with the pickle juice. Push the air out and lay it flat in the cooler. Three hours minimum, overnight is better.
- Also at home, crush the crackers to coarse sand in the bag they came in and stir in the salt, black pepper, and cayenne.
- In camp, whisk the sour cream powder into 3 tbsp water until smooth, then mix in the mayo, vinegar, lemon juice, Worcestershire, pepper, salt, cayenne, and horseradish. Set it in the cooler while you fry.
- Drain the turkey and shake off the brine. Wet meat makes the crust slide.
- Toss the cubes in the cracker crumbs a handful at a time and press the coating on.
- Heat an inch of oil in a deep skillet over the fire or a high-output burner until a crumb sizzles hard on contact, around 350F.
- Fry in batches, four or five minutes, turning once, until the crust is deep gold and the turkey is firm and no longer pink at the center.
- Drain on a paper towel and eat with the white sauce.
Pickle juice is a brine that already has salt, acid, and dill in it, so the turkey comes out seasoned through rather than seasoned on the surface. Wild turkey breast is lean and dries out fast; the brine buys you a margin of a minute or two before that happens. Cheese crackers crush into a crumb that browns quicker than breadcrumbs, which matters when you are cooking small cubes and want the inside done at the same moment the outside is.
This is a car camp recipe and it stays one. The oil volume and the cooler space rule out anything you carry on your back. The only real change from a kitchen version is the sour cream, which becomes powder plus water so nothing has to survive on ice for three days. Frying over a fire means unstable heat, so run smaller batches and let the oil come back up between them.
Packing
Turkey brines in a doubled zip bag in the cooler. Crushed crackers and seasoning ride in one bag. Sauce ingredients go in a small hard-sided box so the horseradish and mayo do not wander.
Variations
- No fire discipline for deep frying: pan-fry in a quarter inch of oil, turning more often.
- Chicken breast takes the same brine and the same crust.
- Swap the white sauce for hot honey if you would rather not carry mayo.
https://realtree.com/timber-2-table-wild-game-recipes/cheez-it-crusted-pickle-brined-turkey-bites